Friday, July 27, 2012

Gamebook news for July 2012

I'm releasing my post early because its about current stuff and also because I'm just to darned excited about it.

When I started this blog almost two years ago, I wouldn't have thought I would be making posts about gamebook news.  Now it seems like I can't keep up.  So, this is what's going on in the gamebook world...


Blood of the Zombies out in August

Fighting Fantasy co-founder Ian Livingstone will release his much
anticipated gamebook, Blood of the Zombies.  It will be published by Wizard Books on the 9th August 2012 and will be available for £7.99 but if you want it at a lower price and earlier than 9th August, you can pre-order it from Amazon for £4.71 or you can pre order copy autographed by Ian Livingstone himself from Forbidden Planet for £6.99.  If you want to see the man himself, Ian Livingstone will be in the Forbidden Planet London Megastore, Shaftsbury Avenue, London WC2H8JR on the 4th August between 3pm and 4pm to sign your copy.  Good times!

I'm going to be there.  It would be nice to finally meet Ian and if you are around, it will be nice to see you :).

Mr Livingstone will also be making an appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on the 11th August at 2pm.  Tickets are from £4.50.

A few weeks after the physical book release, Tin Man Games will be releasing Blood of the Zombies electronically.

5th annual Windhammer competition opens for entries on 1st August



You can't spend all of August blasting away zombies with a shotgun however, as you have a short gamebook to write.  For the fifth time, the Windhammer competition will be open for submissions on the 1st August and there is still time to get a gamebook of 100 paragraphs or fewer in for the closing date of the 7th September.  If you are thinking about entering (which you should do), have a read of my previous blog post on Windhammer and my interview with Wayne Densley.

The competition is a great way to show your talents and get lots of feedback.  I always love reading the gamebooks and also the feedback I get as it is very constructive and informative. 

So get on it!  I'm looking forward to reading your entry. 

Assassin in Orlandes out on the PC

As someone is too poor to own an iPhone or a decent Android, this is wonderful news.  You can now get Tin Man Games' Assassin in Orlandes for the PC!  There is now no reason not to get it.  I certainly did.  And I love it.  It was everyhing I was anticpating and more.


Adventurer now in its second draft

Adventurer - the Role Playing Game is now in its second draft and it is doing very well.  My latest job is the enviable one of writing the treasure tables.  I feel like a fantasy Santa Claus.  Look out for the public playtest!

The new gamebook blogs

There seems to be gamebook blogs springing up all over the place.  Here are three that have appeared since my last post on gamebook blogs:

YOU CHOSE WRONG - a brilliant blog showing us all the most entertaining deaths that you can experience in interactive fiction.

Adventure Gameblog - this is a gamebook playthrough blog by Ed Jolley, also known as Greenspine in the Unofficial Fighting Fantasy forum.  He has gone through all of the Fighting Fantasy books before and now he is doing it again through the medium of blog.

Jake Care's Gamebooks - In this blog, Jake, who is passionate about gamebooks will share his views on gamebooks and will write some gamebooks for us.


Gamebook themed kickstarters

There are a couple of gamebook themed kickstarters, if you're in to that kind of thing.  The first, is Trial of the Clone, a gamebook by Brett Easterbrook Zach Weiner.

The other is the AFF 2nd edition publication of Blacksand which will have new material in addition to the old edition's information.

Destiny Quest rumours

The Heart of Fire is coming out in November and Michael J. Ward is teasing us with new careers for the book.  There are six now and it looks like there are two factions - the true church and the Wiccans.  I am looking forward to this :).

Gamebook fans group

The brilliant LupLun has set a gamebook fans group up on Goodreads.  The gamebooks Yahoo group aside, there aren't many places where people can discuss ALL gamebooks.  There are plenty of vibrant places to discuss certain series but few places to discuss gamebooks in general.  Joining Goodreads itself is a brilliant idea so first do that and then join the gamebooks group.

Heroes Rise:  The Prodigy

I gave it a great review last week so if you haven't already bought this from Choice of Games, do so now.



Story Explorer

Here's a webiste that I found on Twitter (it can do far more than tell you what Stephen Fry is eating in Belgum).  It is full of interactive stories and allows you to write your own.  Why not check it out.


TrollsZine!  5 is out


You can get it for free from RPGNow.  It's a brilliant read, as always.



Fighting Fantazine 9 is out

You can get it for free from the Fighting Fantazine website.  As always, it's greeeat! 




ADVELH


The site hosting the gamebook creation program ADVELH is down but you can still get it from this site http://www.geste-maldoror.com/xhoromag/Xhoromag.htm.

Tin Man Games!

Tin Man games is releasing its Judge Dredd gamebook early next week. There's a trailer and everything!

Tin Man games is also releasing a string of interactive romance novels called strange loves. Check them out!





And finally...

As with all news reports, I'm ending it with a cute cat.  Enjoy!




 

15 comments:

  1. That's a heck of a collection of references and suggestions! I'm going to have to spend some time checking all this cool stuff out.

    What's this Adventurer rpg? This sounds intriguing... I'd like to write solo rpg adventures, but Tunnels and Trolls just wasn't doing it for me. Is this something you're working on?

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    1. Thanks Ashton!

      The Adventurer system aims to be comprehensive enough to be an RPG system but also simple enough to be usd for gamebooks. Tunnels and Trolls is a great system but its rules a quite open (no specific talents list, no guidance on how spells work in some solos). Adventurer aims to have plenty of options for character creation yet be used in a gamebook.

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  2. Great Post Stuart. Its remarkable how busy the gamebooks scene is getting these days and its great to have it all reported here. May it grow even busier.

    Regards
    Wayne Densley
    Chronicles of Arborell

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    1. It is certainly busier and I'm looking forward to the Windhammer entries!

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  3. Nice round up. But "Trial of the Clone" is by Zachary Weiner, not Brett Easterbrook.

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  4. Stuart: As you are alerting your readers to the Windhammer Prize, I wanted to provide a link to an excellent article on the Fabled Lands blog from 2010: http://fabledlands.blogspot.com/2010/05/gamebooks-where-youre-not-hero.html

    Dave Morris writes about important issues for authors of interactive fiction, including Point of View, Narrative Style, and Mechanics. The post should be of great interest for anyone planning to write a gamebook.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Morris was always one of those authors I loved as a kid, especially following his work on the Knightmare books. I swear, he wrote so many books in the genre that I was always stumbling across new ones I'd never even heard of before.

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  5. Ah, finally got time to read back over your news items :) Throw a quick word out for my latest playthrough next time you post though? :P

    Lesse...

    Tinman games is so busy these days, and it's very impressive to see people embracing these new technologies. I barely have a kindle, that's the closest I've come to being up-to-date with all these new-fangled i-tech things (wow, I sound like I'm about 50 rather than 30!) but they manage to single handedly make me want to purchase an ipad. I'll bug my partner for one for christmas.

    You Chose Wrong is an awesome site, and very funny. It pretty much sums up exactly why I'm not so concerned about winning half of these games, because failing at them is often such an enjoyable experience as well.

    I am stoked for Heart of Fire. I just HAVE to cover Destiny Quest at some point in my blog, it's one of the reasons I got back into gamebooks in the first place.

    The Strange Love one sounds... well, a bit of a laugh really. Back in the late 90s on yahoo search engines one night, I stumbled across a CYOA which seemed to be based on John Norman's 'Gor' books. Hoping it won't be anything like that! :)

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  6. Hello everyone, this is Farkran of Divinegames.

    We are fond of gamebooks and text adventures like you, and we decided to develop a gamebook creator which is complete, captivating and most importantly easy to use!

    How often did you look for a editor and found only incomplete, overcomplicated or extremely limited programs? Our tool will be exactly the opposite: you will be able to use all the common features of a gamebook such as branching paths, but in addition you will be able to add and remove text dynamically through conditions, you will be able to set and use variables (such as character name, attributes, items, currency, experience and much more) and last but not least you will be able to export your book in a cool looking HTML page. All of this without need to know any programming language, because the program does it all by itself.

    With your help, this project could come true :) support us on indiegogo: http://www.indiegogo.com/gamebook-creator?a=834321

    If you are interested or if you have any question, contact us at info@divinegames.it

    Thank you for your attention!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very interested to see what you come up with. I have contributed. Have you spoken to other gamebook creator people such as Xhoromag (I consider ADVELH one of the better gamebook creators)? Will you be doing playtests?

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  7. I really apreciate these posts; Thanks a lot Stuart! It's really exciting to see that the community is growing again. I'm especially psyched for Adventurer: It might be the best idea ever.

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  8. "You Chose Wrong!" was an amazing site. Too bad it's been dead for nearly seven years.

    I guess the author chose wrong. ;(

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