Saturday, April 23, 2022

News for April 2022 and upcoming releases for May 2022

 Hello all! The gamebook world is moving quickly and there is loads to report on, so grab a pencil, stick your fingers between the pages and let's get cracking...


Zines

Voidspace

Voidspace issue 2 is out!

voidspace zine: 2 – voidspace _

Warlock Returns

Warlock Returns issue 6 is out!

The Warlock Returns Issue #06 - Arion Games | Advanced Fighting Fantasy | DriveThruRPG.com


Computer Games

Fabled Lands

The computer game is getting bigger!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1299620/view/3177860631504431146


Gamebooks!

Savage Realms

Jam Hirons is writing a Savage Realms book!

https://jamsplace.co/2022/04/10/upcoming-project/


Fighting Fantasy

There will be TWO Fighting Fantasy gamebooks for the 40th anniversary - one from Steve and one from Ian. You know the ones I mean. Actually, there are two Steve Jacksons who wrote Fighting Fantasy, aren't there, so you don't necessarily know which one it is. It's the UK one.

https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/fighting-fantasy-co-founders-pen-two-new-books-for-series-40th-anniversary


Dragon Warriors

Paul Partington has written a Dragon Warriors gamebook from Red Ruin Publishing (which will be free!)

The Kingdom of Ereworn lies on the brink of either disaster or salvation. You have entered this benighted land, where you can either aid or oppose the forces of order. In this open world gamebook, many adventures await - explore haunted monasteries, delve into once deserted barrows or investigate cursed forests - the choice is yours!


Choose Your Own Adventure

CYOA has announced four books coming this summer - you can preorder them from COMING SOON! – Chooseco LLC (cyoa.com)

The Flight of the Unicorn

You are on a fantastic quest through medieval Scotland to find your missing pegacorn mentor, Dame Scotia. You believe she was kidnapped to steal her magic to create a pegacorn army. Can you and your newly-trained pegaorn, Liss, locate Dame Scotia in time to prevent war?

The Ghost on the Mountain

You’re on a family vacation in Haiti to learn about your heritage when you discover a ghost in your room. The ghost tells you her name is Yvette, and that the mountains are calling you. Before you can answer, you meet a little girl named TiYoyo, who wants to show you her home.

Fairy House

Bored and ignored by your busy parents, you decide to go outside and build a fairy house. Just when you’re sure nothing is going to happen, you meet Bert the Below Average: a real, live fairy. He’s not exactly what you had in mind. But he’ll do. Let the adventures begin!

The Dregg Disaster

Choose Your Own Adventure’s first math workbook is different from other workbooks: it's a gamebook! The Dregg Disaster is an original and cleverly designed interactive story for students learning Algebra 1.

Something fishy is going on at Dregg Corporation, the biggest employer in your town. You’re determined to find solutions, but in order to make your next choice, you’ll also have to find answers to algebraic equations along the way!

Each of the four chapters includes an “Adventurer’s Advice” section to help students navigate their way through the gamebook if they find themselves in need of algebraic assistance. The book also comes with a free online download, which includes many more algebra problems for students who want or need the extra practice.


Choice of Games

The juggernaut that is Choice of Games is keeping those adventures coming!

Relics 2

1938. A terminally-ill English aristocrat has one final wish: to locate the long-lost resting place of one of his legendary ancestors, a crusading knight said to have found a terrible secret in the East and then vanished. A cryptic, coded poem points the way, allowing a modern-day adventurer to retrace the knight’s steps. So a contest is set: five of the world’s leading treasure-hunters and archaeologists are challenged to follow the trail and track down the crusader’s tomb. And whoever gets there first stands to win an unimaginable fortune. Do you have what it takes to outwit and out-gun your villainous rivals and make it safe – and first – to the prize?

Relics 2: The Crusader’s Tomb, the sequel to Relics of the Lost Age and the second game in the Relics trilogy, is an exhilarating 400,000 word interactive adventure novel by James Shaw, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based – without graphics or sound effects – and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Big Brains in Little Jars

As a valued appendage at a company called Gray Matter, you’ll do the thinking, speaking, and fist-fighting for clients who hire you, all from the comfort of your jar. Along the way, you’ll start riots, solve riddles, torment party clowns, escape burning buildings, find allies among your fellow brains, and commit felonies. Not a bad gig, as long as eternal servitude is your jam.

Big Brains in Little Jars is a 300,000-word interactive novel by Ashlee Sierra. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Siege of Treboulain

Defend your magical city from an invading army! Use swords, spells, and strategy to save your people, lead them to glory, and build a legacy for the ages.

Siege of Treboulain  is a 280,000-word interactive epic fantasy novel by Jed Herne. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Gray Eyes of Death

Embark on a deadly journey for survival. Your ordinary school life quickly turns around when an unknown outbreak turns humanity into flesh eating monsters. The hungry creatures ravage every corner of your home island, forcing you to quickly adapt to the new, hostile environment, and learn the ropes of survival if you wish to remain alive.


Crowdfunding

Destiny Quest

Michael J. Ward is doing a Kickstarter for the world companion to the awesome gamebook series. The Kickstarter will start on May 17th.

Dormus is a world riven with strife and conflict, its very fabric of reality under threat from otherworldly forces and cataclysmic events. These are dark and perilous days, where fractious tensions threaten to bring down kingdoms and empires, and demonic invaders sow seeds of chaos and destruction to hasten the fall of humanity.

This is a time when great heroes will rise – legendary men and women of fame, who will spin the web of destiny anew, changing lives and history, influencing kings and nations, and becoming beacons of hope amidst a desperate world teetering on the brink of ruin.

Destiny's Role

What is it with Kickstarters and gamebooks with the word destiny in them this month?

Kaleidoscope Frenzy by Mark Lain has 6 days left to collect pledges. It has already funded, so if you would like a copy, head over there fast!

KALEIDOSCOPE FRENZY is the fifth book in the DESTINY'S ROLE adventure gamebook series and is the long-awaited sequel to FRAGILE BEAUTY which appeared in DESTINY'S ROLE 0: ZERO TO HERO. FRAGILE BEAUTY was a modern day-set hard boiled detective adventure concerning the mysterious disappearance of a young woman. 

Destiny's Role 4: Kaleidoscope Frenzy by Mark Lain — Kickstarter

Pitcrawler!

Pitcrawler! is inspired by old-school choose-your-own-adventure gamebooks, PITCRAWLER! combines nostalgic vibes with a modern heart.

It starts funding on the 25th April on Indiegogo

PITCRAWLER! | Indiegogo


Gamebook News

Gamebook news continues to provide in depth coverage of the gamebook news (I mean, it's in the name).

Gamebook News – Fantasy, Sci-fi and other interactive fiction!


Interactive Fiction & Gamebooks Discussion Group (Book Club)

May's book is The House on Sentinel Hill by Graham Plowman


Adventures in social media

Mrs Giggles writes several reviews about lots of different things, including gamebooks. On one of my occasional visits to her website, I realised that she has just opened up a Patreon. Minimum pledge is £1 a month and that allows you 1 request per month!

Hot Sauce Reviews is creating blunt, funny, critical reviews of books, movies, music, and more | Patreon

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Lindenbaum post competition analysis

 

Image by Pat O Neill


Hello all! The Lindenbaum competition is over and the results have been announced. I loved running it and I felt very privileged that we had so many entrants who made the competition great. 

I would also like to thank the team of people that helped me during the competition:

Pat O' Neill for making the logo

Peter Agapov for sponsoring the competition

Crumbly Head Games for providing subscriptions of the Gamebook Authoring Tool for prizes.

Tammy Badowski for designing the certificates and doing lots of other things.

(Sometimes, I wonder how Wayne Densley did it all himself!)

So, I was thinking that I would like to do the competition again. I would also like to improve on it if possible. For this reason, I would love it if anyone has any feedback about the following points or any other feedback. If you do, leave a comment or email lindenbaumprize@gmail.com.

Time of year

Windhammer was done later in the year - entry deadlines were early September and winners were announced in November. This would mean that people have the summer holidays (if that is relevant?) to write their books.

I did mine at the time I did because I thought of it last August and thought that people could spend the dark, boring January writing. The results were announced just before Easter, which was busy for me, so I might extend it a bit. Does anyone have any feedback on the time of year?

Length of writing/voting period

I used the same time periods as Wayne Densley. I saw one person say that they didn't have time to read through all the entries. Maybe I need to extend it, but how much time do people need?

The old competition extended the voting deadline by about 2 weeks if there were more than 14 entries (which is what I did), but there is a big range of possible entries. The minimum number is 5 and the maximum number is unlimited. The 2012 Windhammer prize had 22 entries! I'm thinking that the extension should be a sliding scale based on the number, not just an extension based on the number of entries being over one number. 

Maybe something like 4 weeks minimum with an extra week for every 2 entries over 8 or something (just riffing here). Any suggestions on how long it took you?

Formats

Windhammer didn't have hyperlinking. I remember someone saying that they would like that, so I decided to hyperlink all of the books. I didn't ask the authors to do it because I wanted the competition to be as close to Windhammer as possible, but if I did it again, I might do that (it took a while!). Would authors be OK with that? What about volunteers who could do the hyperlinking?

I also saw a post about doing the books in epub. I don't know how long that would take and would almost certainly need a volunteer for that. Any volunteers? Anyone prefer epub? 

Any other formats people prefer?

The time of the vote

I said the entries should be in by midnight, but then I thought that might be confusing because they might think it's the day mentioned or the day after, so I made the voting deadline 5pm GMT which I think is easier to convert. I will probably do that in future competitions.

Volunteers

Any volunteers for next year?

I would like to thank everyone for making the competition as brilliant as it was this year! I look forward to the next one! You can find the entries here:

Lloyd of Gamebooks: Voting is now open for the 2021/2022 Lindenbaum Prize!

Thursday, April 14, 2022

Winner announcement for the 2021/2022 Lindenbaum Prize

Image by Pat ONeill

 I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2021/2022 Lindenbaum Prize for short gamebook fiction is Andrew Greene with his cyberpunk investigative gamebook Mind Storm. 

Merit awards have been awarded to John Osborn for I, Battlemage and Niall Turner for Hunter's Walk.

Commendation awards have been awarded to David Donachie for the Garden of Earthly Regrets, Morten Gottschalck for Archer and Tiago Fillipe Costa for The Eldritch Key.

I would like to thank everybody who participated, the authors and those dedicated readers who took the time to evaluate all the entries, and also a further thanks to those readers who provided feedback and comment to the authors.

If you intend to write feedback in a public place, please email me the address and I will link to it.

It is no small thing to as entrants to write original gamebooks. To write a gamebook (even one that must be limited to 100 sections) requires considerable time and creative effort. It is the type of writing project that can take months to accomplish and I appreciate greatly the work done by all the authors who entered this year's competition.

Many thanks for helping make this year's competition such an excellent competition with a wide variety of gamebook genres and styles. This was the first year I ran the competition and you helped make it as brilliant as it was.

I would also like to extend thanks to Peter Agapov who sponsored the competition, Tammy Badowski who donated her time and talent to the competition and Crumbly Head Games who has donated free subscriptions to GBAT for the top 3 entrants.

You can find the entries here: Lloyd of Gamebooks: Voting is now open for the 2021/2022 Lindenbaum Prize!

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Voting has now closed for the 2021/2022 Lindenbaum Competition

Logo by Pat ONeill

 Voting has now closed for the 2021/2022 Windhammer competition. I would like to thank all the entrants, voters and contributors to the competition. It has been a great year with a large turn out and I have enjoyed reading all of the entries.

We will now be tallying all of the votes.

Results will be announced on the 14th April. 

If you would like to leave feedback (even if you didn't vote), you can still do so by emailing Lindenbaumprize@gmail.com

You can still see the entries below:

Entries

Here is a zip file containing all of the entries.

Here are the individual entries:

Escape the Asylum by Ulysses Ai                                                           Tomb of Souls by Ivailo Daskalov

The Lightning Eagle and the Monks of Mayhem by Gary Coupland     I, Battlemage by John Osborn 

Master of Blights by Grant Cobb                                 The Garden of Earthly Regrets by David Donachie

The Eldritch Key by Tiago Fillipe Costa                                                Archer by Morten Gottschalck

Mind Storm by Andrew Greene                                                    Pawn to Phoenix Four by Yoon Ha Lee

Wyvern Mountain by Cody Hanson                                    Happy Fun Activity Book by Jeremy Johnson

Shadow in the Forest by Kevin Joseph                                                        Crowlopiea by Peter Shelton

Orbworld 0: 'The Witches Prophecy Zero' by Paul Savoir                         Hunter's Walk by Niall Turner

Sunday, April 3, 2022

Just 48 hours to vote for the Lindenbaum competition!

 Hello all! 

Just a quick note to say that you have 48 hours from when this was written (10pm GMT on the 3rd April 2022) to vote for your 3 favourite entries to the 2022 Lindenbaum prize. 

The entries are below.


Votes need to be submitted to Lindenbaumprize@gmail.com

Entries

Here is a zip file containing all of the entries.

Here are the individual entries:

Escape the Asylum by Ulysses Ai                                                           Tomb of Souls by Ivailo Daskalov

The Lightning Eagle and the Monks of Mayhem by Gary Coupland     I, Battlemage by John Osborn 

Master of Blights by Grant Cobb                                 The Garden of Earthly Regrets by David Donachie

The Eldritch Key by Tiago Fillipe Costa                                                Archer by Morten Gottschalck

Mind Storm by Andrew Greene                                                    Pawn to Phoenix Four by Yoon Ha Lee

Wyvern Mountain by Cody Hanson                                    Happy Fun Activity Book by Jeremy Johnson

Shadow in the Forest by Kevin Joseph                                                        Crowlopiea by Peter Shelton

Orbworld 0: 'The Witches Prophecy Zero' by Paul Savoir                         Hunter's Walk by Niall Turner