Creator Spotlight: Viper

“Hey Y’all, Viper here! My journey in SE started around 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic. I remember it pretty vividly living in a small apartment as a little kid. I was watching some youtube video about the best upcoming space games, and Space Engineers pretty quickly caught my eye. After that moment that’s basically all she wrote. My first builds were… Interesting to say the least, but I was addicted to the game. So over the course of a year or two during lockdown I poured myself into Space Engineers. I was also super fascinated by Sci-fi, having just read Foundation. I was pretty much addicted to the Expanse as well, which is where the CRN came from. I wanted to make something like my favorite faction the MCRN, so rather originally I came up with CRN (Centurion Republic Navy). I came up with all these lore tidbits about the CRN being in the Alpha Centauri System as a breakaway colony from Earth.

Things basically evolved from there. My first ever ship uploaded was the “Leviathan Battleship”. It was modded at first but eventually I grew to make mostly vanilla builds. My favorite build during that time was my “Valkyrie Superiority Fighter A-5 Gungnir” A bit of a mouthful, but I feel like it’s one of those timeless builds. Over the course of the next couple years I was building ships with a guy named Hubert the Rock, who made the original CRN Logo and helped me make my first big time upload. The “CRN Essex Class Supercarrier”. This was when I felt like I started getting really good at building in the game, at the time I was super into Star Citizen and so a big theme with my CRN builds is Star Citizen ships. Mainly from the manufacturer Aegis.

My next really big turning point in building for me was with my “Mac Arthur Class Frigate”, with that ship I started using way more armor panels, and established more of a standardized build style, which was something I sort of lacked going up to that point. My favorite builds from this time would have to be the ”CRN Hellheim Class Cruiser” and the “Hypathia Class Supercarrier”. I’ve always wanted to do new things with my builds, so for the Hypathia I wanted to run with the idea of a flight deck carrier in space. Revolutionary I know. But the ship has character I think in some part because of that.

This was also around the time that I started working with the Idea of another faction, the CRN was starting to burn me out, and I wanted something new. A little after that initial point I came up with the “USSF Fortitude Class Lunar Defense Destroyer” because I really wanted to play with the idea of a near future world wherein modern geopolitics intersected with interests in space, sort of like the Expanse way before the Expanse if you will. The USSF was a one-off, but I did want to work with another faction. Which brings me to the SDC, which is what I’ve currently been working on for the past several years. I imagine it as a sort of hard Sci-fi mix with more soft Sci-fi elements. My favorite builds from the SDC would have to be the “SDC Bunker Hill Class Assault Ship” and the “SDC Clemson Class Heavy Destroyer”. I was really inspired by the creator Omega for a lot of the SDC builds. I may have even taken more than a few elements from their builds.

My build philosophy has really evolved over time, I used to not be able to build without a pinterest board, and now I’ve been able to translate my ideas from my head to the 3D space. But for the most part the thing that’s stayed the same is my need to greeble stuff, I love greeble and so I’m always trying to find new ways to give my builds some character with greeble. For the most part though I’m just a dude who got addicted to a space game, and If I could do it all over again I most definitely would. I honestly don’t think I’d be here without all of the people who helped me, and everyone who goes along with my wacky ideas. I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to have a platform where I can share, so I can’t thank Keen Software House enough and everyone who works there for this opportunity! I can’t wait to see what the future brings for SE, and I’m looking forward to the released version of SE 2 and what people make and come up with!”