Summer of gamebook kickstarters

It is an exciting time, gamebook friends, with no less than five gamebook kickstarters this summer. So have a look at them and get your pledges ready!

I've listed the kickstarters in reverse order of finishing date because I wanted some kind of order, but couldn't decide on what would be best, so I just went with this one. Enjoy!

The Good, the Bad and the Undead

Deadline: End of August

Status: Soft launch page up.

Ashton Saylor volunteered himself to write this western based gamebook which was an idea from Dave Morris. Dave lost hope on getting it done, but now that Ashton is on board, it looks like it will LIVE! (mwahahaha). The kickstarter will launch at he beginning of August, so keep an eye on the Facebook page for the time being. You can read a demo story for it here.

There is now a soft launch page up.



The Midnight Legion: Operation Deep Sleep

Deadline: 29th August

Status: Almost $3000 backed (out of $14500)

Aaron Emmel is a writer who is producing this sci-fi gamebook series. In this book, you wake up with no memories of your previous mission, but they gradually return to you as the story unfolds. Aaron has clearly done his groundwork, using the bits he wants from Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy to enhance the experience. $28 gets you one book and $50 gets you three. Have a look at his fabulous book!






Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland

Deadline: 3rd August

Status: Backed

This is a project by Jonathan Green of Fighting Fantasy fame (but he has done a lot more!). In this gamebook, you guide Alice as she returns to Wonderland and you help her explore the fantastic place. £15 gets you the ebook and £20 gets you a paperback.



Fabled Lands: The Serpent King's Domain

Deadline: 3rd August

Status: Backed (a lot!)

This is Paul Gresty's second gamebook that he is writing, has put on Kickstarter and is working with the Fabled Lands crew on. If you are new to gamebooks, the Fabled Lands series was a wide open sandbox gamebook series that was originally planned to be 12 gamebooks long. Unfortunately, it only reached 6 gamebooks before being cancelled in the mid 90s (the time when gamebooks went into hibernation for almost two decades).

This project was funded in around 45 minutes, so you will be guaranteed anything you back for. A lovely book is 35 Euros (around £25), but it will be a high quality hardback. I'm looking forward to this one!

The Frankenstein Wars

Status: Finished and backed.

I am looking forward to this one. Paul Gresty (Arcana Agency) and Dave Morris (everything) have teamed up with Cubus Games to create an interactive app that is fabulous in every way - the look, the story, the sound. The original idea is Dave's - Victor Frankenstein's technology has been stolen and it has been used to create an (almost) unstoppable army. Your job is to stop it.


The project raised its target on Kickstarter in a campaign with almost as many highs and lows as the book is going to have. I've never been as gripped as I was since I watched Distrcit 9 (good film). If you did not back it, keep an eye on the project for when it comes out.

The Wondrous Nightmare Begins!

I wonder if, one day, Summer 2015 will be remembered as The Summer of Gamebook Kickstarters. We've recently seen the Kickstarter for the interactive fiction app The Frankenstein Wars - and, as one of the people intimately involved with that project, I'm overjoyed that we (just!) managed to reach our target. Thank you, thank you, thank you, good backers. In just a few days we'll see the start of the Kickstarter for the next Fabled Lands gamebook, The Serpent King's Domain. And in the nearish future (I'll have to check my dates) we'll see a Kickstarter for the Jamie Thomson / Ashton Saylor gamebook The Good, The Bad & The Undead.

But today is the day that Jonathon Green launches his own gamebook Kickstarter for Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland. Have you read a Fighting Fantasy gamebook in the last 20 years? Then you know who Jonathon Green is, and that the quality of his writing is up there with the best.

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland seems a wonderfully odd bird. Though it's based on a work of classic literature, it seems to place a firm focus on game mechanics and playability - it is both game and book, you might say. Uniquely, the Kickstarter's project page mentions it can be played with three different sets of rules - one using dice, one using playing cards (how flavourful!), and one without any random component at all. Curiouser and curiouser.

Enough shenanigans. Here's JG's press announcement on the book: -

On Saturday 4th July, at 1.00pm BST (which is 8.00am New York time and 10.00pm in Melbourne, Australia), I am launching my latest Kickstarter project, ALICE'S NIGHTMARE IN WONDERLAND.

ALICE'S NIGHTMARE IN WONDERLAND is a brand new nightmarish gamebook - a multi-path book, very much in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, in which you choose the course of the story - inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll and the Steampunk genre.

ALICE'S NIGHTMARE IN WONDERLAND is set several years after the events of 'Through the Looking Glass'. Alice finds herself back in Wonderland and called upon to save the realm from the increasingly deranged Queen of Hearts. But all is not as it first appears, and soon Alice is battling to save herself from the nightmare that is rapidly overtaking Wonderland.

If you've ever wondered what would have happened if Alice hadn’t drunk from the bottle labelled ‘Drink Me’, or if she hadn’t joined the Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse for tea, now you can find out. In ALICE'S NIGHTMARE IN WONDERLAND, rather than becoming Alice yourself, YOU guide Alice through the fluctuating dream world, deciding which route she should take, which perils to risk, and which of Wonderland’s strange denizens to fight.

But be warned – whether Alice succeeds in her quest, or meets a dire end as the nightmare escalates, will be down to the choices YOU make.

If you think this project might be for you, please check out the project's preview page here -https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1412864360/111052384?token=119fa0a4 - and set your alarm for 1.00pm on Saturday to make sure you don't miss out on your ideal reward. After all, there are some limited rewards that gamebook fans and Alice aficionados alike are going to want to get their hands on before anyone else.

(Post by Paul Gresty)

April A to Z - W is for The Winter King

He thinks he's so cool.

Appears in:  Night of the Necromancer (Fighting Fantasy 63) By Jonathan Green.

Summary:  The Winter King lives in the tower of Frostfinger which also holds the Spirit Stone, gem which holds the souls of many people.  The Spirit Stone can be used by you as a powerful weapon against Unthank, but the Winter King will not just let you take it.

Prominence:  He owns his own tower, but he plays no other part in the book.  2/10

Hardness:  His tower is tough to infiltrate.  If you can't fly, you have to fight several ice ghosts to get across a frozen lake to the tower.  When you enter the tower, you climb stairs which seem to take an eternity to cross and then you may have to fight a hellhorn, a coldclaw and a hellhorn champion.  When you do get the spirit stone, you then have to face the Winter King himself who first sends 1-6 ice ghosts against you before fighting you himself.  He has a skill of 11 and a stamina of 14, which makes him a tough opponent.  In addition, being killed by the Winter King means that your adventure is over for good, unlike most combats in Night of the Necromancer where you get another chance.  8/10 

Ambition:  He really wants to keep the Spirit Stone, live in his tower and stay king of winter but that's about it.  5/10

Style:  He ccertainly fits the 'winter' bill.  Less so with the king thing although you may have just caught him in his armour rather than his royal gear that day.  Ice based villains occur quite often.  The Winter King has the added extra of an army of ghosts, so bonus points there.  6/10

Diabolical genius:  He basically sends lots of creatures to fight you and then fights you himself.  1/10

Total score:  The Winter King is a strong opponent but we don't really get a wider picture of his power beyond trying to steal the Spirit Stone.  22/50

April A to Z - U is for Unthank, the necromancer

The kitchenware salesman
really had a unique sense
of style.

Appears in:  Night of the Necromancer (Fighting Fantasy 63) By Jonathan Green.

Summary:  Unthank is the chamberlain of your castle, but he has secretly being making pacts with evil spirits and sacrificing innocent people in an attempt to cheat death and take over the Old World.

Prominence:  Unthanks and his servants appear in a few scenes in thebook before the final confrontation.  He is also responsible for the nasty spirits that hang around your castle.  7/10

Hardness:  Since you are a ghost, he is able to banish you.  He is also well passed his sell by date and he should have died years ago.  If you face him in combat, you will have to fight a skill 11 stamina 10 opponent which is not too shabby for a wizard.  In fact, the combat skill of wizards on Titan seems to range from reasonable to completely awsome.  If he summons the Sahdow King and the Shadow King kills him, he comes back from the dead as a skill 9 stamina 8 opponent, which is quite good for a dead man.  8/10.

Ambition:  First, he wants to live forever and has managed that quite well so far.  He also wants to summon a powerful spirit and rule the Old World with an army of the dead.  9/10

Of course he's evil.

Style:  He looks a lot like a villain which makes me wonder why you didn't kill him ages ago.  The beard alone should have been reason to.  6/10

Diabolical genius:  He's managed to become the chamberlain of your castle while simultaneously taking part in all of his nefarious sorcery.  He's managed to get you killed and, if his schemes are not thwarted, he will sacrifice your sister to some evil spirit.  Lots of diabolical with a side of genius.  7/10

Total score:  He's a cunning necromancer and a worthy adversary.  37/50

April A to Z - Q is for Quezkari

He's got a talented
dentist.

Appears in:  Bloodbones (Fighting Fantasy 60) by Jonathan Green.

Summary:  Quezkari is the god that your pirate enemies follow.  After killing Cinnabar and piercing his heart, Quezkari comes to avenge his death.

Prominence:  He's appears at the end of the book but a lot of your enemies follow him.  6/10

Hardness:  He has a skill of 13 and a stamina of 18.  Unless you are protected with a charm, his blows deal 3 stamina points of damage.  He can only be harmed by magical weapons.  That's quite hard.  Also, unlike some villains, he cannot be killed of by a single item.  There are a few items that weaken him, but he will still be a challenge.  9/10

Ambition:  He is described as a manifestation of all the souls turned into zombies by Ramatu and all of the people killed by Cinnabar so I guess his ambition is lots of death.  8/10

Style:  He's a voodoo death god.  I suppose he appears quite typical for a voodoo death god.  5/10.

Diabolical genius:  When you face him, he just attacks you.  His servants also do not come up with anything particularly outside the box.  4/10.

Total score:  Sure, he's a god, but he's not the brains behind the operation.  32/50

April A to Z - C is for Cinnabar

Arrrr!

Appears in:  Bloodbones (Fighting Fantasy 60) by Jonathan Green

Background:  Cinnabar is a dangerous and infamous pirate who murdered your family.  You set off to avenge them only to be told that he was killed.  Someone else tells you that he is still alive and so you go out in search of him.

Prominence:  Cinnabar sends several of his pirates against you.  He is also a follower of Quezkari and his fellow followers will be after you.  6/10.

Hardness:  Cinnabar has a skill of 12 and a stamina of 16.  He also has a parrot that reduces your attack strength by 1 and may injure each attack round.  He's a tough opponent and he also can't be killed unless you find the fetish containing his heart.  9/10.

Ambition:  Apart from the living forever part, Cinnabar just wants to terrorize and plunder like most pirates.  5/10.

Style:  He's into voodoo sorcery (gains marks).  He's a pirate (gains marks).  Apart from ninjas, who doesn't like pirates? 7/10

Diabolical genius:  Apart from being able to live forever, he's pretty standard for an evil pirate captain.  4/10

Total score:  He's a typical evil pirate who can't be killed.  Pirates are always a winner, however.  31/50

What's going down?

Ok, I admit, I said I would update weekly, but there has been a lot of fab new stuff this week, so I will blog the news today and then write about Fabled Lands on Sunday.

Competitions

Wayne Densley at the Chronicles of Arborell has released the guidelines for the 2011 Windhammer Prize.  

I love the Windhammer Prize for several reasons.  First of all, it helped reignite my love of gamebooks.  I entered the first one in 2008 because I had some spare time. However, after receiving feedback from readers, I realised that people are interested in gamebooks.  

I now believe that my first attempts at writing gamebooks were not good.  Determined to make my system fair, I forgot about description, cool items, characterisation and storyline.  Thanks to Windhammer, I got feedback on what I need to improve on as well as a good idea about what people like by reading the winning entries.  

I took their feedback on board and became determined to make sure my gamebooks were better, which led to Sharkbait's Revenge.  

All the previous entries are here   including my first two attempts at the competition.  

You have until September 7th to submit a 100 paragraph gamebook which is no longer than 40 pages.  I would love for as many people to enter as I always like reading these new gamebooks as they are always of high quality and innovative.  

The One page dungeon competition

I heard about this competition thanks to the Grognardia blog.  It looks really interesting and I'd like to give it a shot.  The guidelines for the competition, along with the previous entries, are here.

Gamebook releases

Catacombs of the Undercity is now available from iTunes (since when was it OK for names to not start with a capital letter?).  The book is written by Andrew Wright (whose names do start with capital letters), writer of the Fantasy Gamebook Blog.  Give the blog a good read and buy the app.

I have received my copy of Destiny Quest and look forward to getting stuck into it this weekend.  

Blogosphere stuff

Jonathan Green answers all the questions from his fans in a new vlog.

After having a twitter account for ages, I've decided to do some tweeting.  My Twitter page is

 http://twitter.com/#!/sl1605.

I'll see you on Sunday!  :).

Your adventure ends here - who you gonna call now?

Here is an ending from Night of the Necromancer by Jonathan Green.

'Quick, Streng,' Van Richten calls to his companion, 'deploy the spirit snare!' His henchman responds at once, hurling the modified trap towards you.

Your first reaction is the trap will pass straight through you but then it snaps shut, its silvered teech snagging your ethereal form.  You let out a blood curdling scream of agony as pain like you have known only once before - when you died - shoots through you.

'I have a suitable receptacle ready,' the Ghost Hunter says.

As you struggle to free yourself from the spirir snare , Van Richten unstoppers a silver flask and mutters something incomprehensible under his breath.  You suddenly feel the world around you is swelling in size beyond all reason and there is a pop and you hear the squeak of the bung being pushed back into the neck of the bottle.

Van Richten holds the flask up to his face and peers at you with undisguised disgust.  'That's another one dealt with,' you hear him say before he stows the flask in the strongbox.  There is no way out of the ghost trap and so yor adventure must end here.

Why I like this paragraph

You know what I thought when I read this?  Titan has its own version of the Ghostbusters. 

Trying to look hard.  Here's how hard ghosthunters should look.

Sure there's only two of them and they're darker, a lot less comical and they're not prepared to have a friendly ghost for a pet as you have just found out.  Instead they set upon you before you have a chance to tell them of your plight. 

These two versions of the ghostbusters do have similarities.  Both of them have their own versions of ghost traps.

Functional but not very elegent.

Far more classy.  And glassy.

I love the description you get of being left in a bottle trap - hearing the squeak of the bung and seeing your opponent's face from inside the bottle.

You might end up in one of these traps if Van Richten and his companion, Streng both get hits on you in two consecutive combat rounds.  

How did I get into this mess?

In Night of the Necromancer, you spend most of your time as a ghost.  When you see Van Richten, you get the idea that he may be able to help you.  However, if you do reveal yourself to him, you realise that he really can't see past the fact that you're a ghost.  You don't have much time to think about how judgemental and exclusive he is as he and his companion are attacking you with silver weapons.

What have I learnt from this?

In gamebooks, even death paragraphs can be entertaining and have pop culture references.

In Night of the Necromancer, being beaten in combat or being banished is usually not the end, as you are then whisked off the Earthly plane and may be able to to return to another place to continue your adventure. 

 However, it sometimes I should have an actual deadly combat or situation to make sure that the hero does not become complacent and it still gives the reader a sense of danger.

A few links

Jonathan Green, author of several gamebooks has now opened up a forum.  Join it to discuss his writing and gamebooks in general.

In his forum, I found this article from the Guardian  about electronic gamebooks and Tin Man Games, a company that has released electronic gamebooks. 

My phone at the moment is quite old.  I still like it because it has a fun ringtone (click the mp3 link half way down the page).  However, it does not have apps, so I need to get a new phone that can so I can take advantage of them.  I'll just have to let go of the cat dance.

There is one to be found here that Suresh V.S. posted on this blog on my other URL (now discontinued).

I'm glad that gamebooks are getting more attention and ebooks are giving them a new platform.