April A to Z - G is for Giggles - Mrs Giggles

G'day to you all, gamebookers! Today we have the enigmatic Mrs Giggles, reviewer of many things, including gamebooks (the other things are mainly romance novels, films and music, but there are plenty of things there). Make sure you check out her website.

Her reviews are honest, sometimes cutting and always entertaining. I wanted to know what she looks for in a good gamebook. Here is the interview...

- Tell us about yourself.

Well, in real life I'm a grandmother (not that old, though - or so I'd like to think), retired, and spent too much time and money on books.

- How did you get into gamebooks?

My eldest son used to buy them. He was also a tabletop game enthusiast. Eventually he outgrew these hobbies, but I didn't. I tried out a gamebook or two - Fighting Fantasy ones by Keith Martin, if I remember correctly - when I was about to pack all of them off to some second-hand store. I was hooked, and ended up keeping those books myself. I also started buying my own during the gamebook bloom back in the 1980s, and I still have most of them today.

- Your highest gamebook reviews are for most Avenger! books, some Bllod Sword books, Shadow on the Sand, The Kingdom of Terror, The Masters of Darkness, Trial of the Champions, Sword of the Samurai, Beneath Nightmare Castle, Vault of the Vampire. Is there anything that all of your 5 oogie gamebooks have in common?

Entertaining, inventive storyline, epic battles, and a good sense of atmosphere.

- What do you look for in a good gamebook?

Good story elements and a somewhat fair gameplay system. I'm a bit odd in that I can forgive unfair systems as long as (a) the story elements are very strong, and (b) I am allowed to cheat. However, there is a limit. Send me two or three consecutive enemies with near-maximum stats and plenty of deaths caused by random dice rolls and I'm not in a good mood anymore.

- What really annoys you about gamebooks?

Well, infuriatingly unfair gameplay is one. Another is a gamebook that relies too much on random turns, especially in a dungeon setting where I'm just told to pick left or right without giving me any clue as to what lies in each direction. But I think my biggest annoyance are gamebooks that not only include plenty of random dungeon-crawling, but also keep sending you back to the same entries until you somehow stumble upon the correct way out.

- Your reviews are quite brutally honest. Is this what you look for in a review?

I don't actually read reviews often. I know! But if I do, I usually look for those that give me a good idea of what works and what doesn't for the reviewer. That way, I can make an educated decision for myself as to whether I'd like whatever that was reviewed. I'd like to imagine that my reviews work like that too.

- What do you include when writing a review?

If it's the first gamebook in the series, an overview of the gameplay system. All reviews include a general synopsis and my views on them, often written in a second person's point of view in keeping to the nature of gamebooks..

- What gamebooks are you going to review next?

Gamebooks take a while to work through, so I don't review them as regularly as I'd like. But I have a stack of interactive adventures on my Samsung - Choice of Game ones, usually - and a stack of independently produced paperback gamebooks I've ordered. All are waiting for me, and I'm trying as fast as I can. 

I am often asked this, and I wish I can answer yes, but I am not reviewing book seven of the Way of the Tiger anytime soon. "Redeemer!" costs 30 euros, and that's not even including the shipping cost! I'm sure it is a lovingly rendered and beautiful hardcover, but I can buy three or four other independently produced gamebooks with that money. It just doesn't make sense for my budget to buy that book. Maybe one day if it is released digitally or in paperback.

Go to Mrs Giggle's website and see what reviews she has.

For another great gamebook kickstarter, check out Westward Dystopia which is well on it way to being funded.

April A to Z - F is for Fighting For Your Fantasy. An interview with Justin MacCormack

Hello all! Today, we have Justin MacCormack, Fighting Fantasy trekker and author  of brilliant horror stories.

Today we find out what he's been up to...

“You have completed every Fighting Fantasy playthrough. What was your favourite book to play through?”#

I’m tempted to say ‘the ones which I’ve won’, but that doesn’t include a lot. In fact, the ones that I enjoyed the most are, as I expected, the ones that I had the strongest nostalgic memories with. Namely Vault of the Vampire, City of Thieves, and Legend of the Shadow Warriors.

“You are currently running a vote on the 5 Fighting Fantasy books that you should play through until you win. Are you looking forward to the current top 5?”

Oh god no. At this point, three of the books that are in the lead are from the main series, while the other two are the final parts of the ‘Sorcery!’ series. Those two are going to be an utter nightmare to play through, as they’re extremely difficult, and I need to figure out how to incorporate items from the first two books as well.

“Were there any books that you were dreading playing through?”

My dislike of the sci-fi FF books is the stuff of legend. It’s no surprise that I left so many of them for later on in my playthroughs. In general, I didn’t care for most of them. I would still happily give blood rather than play Rings of Kethar or Rebel Planet.

“You like playing various games and RPGs - which one is your favourite and why?”

I’m not very retro when it comes to gaming, I don’t care much for old-school number-crunching D&D style, and I’m not too into indie hipster GM-less games where you determine success by spending magic beans or pulling Jenga blocks or whatever. Give me a good, solid Call of Cthulhu tabletop adventure or an atmospheric World of Darkness one, and I’ll be happy. I’m currently playing in UK Masquerade Portsmouth, the oldest-running Vampire the Masquerade LARP in the world, I also run regular Call of Cthulhu games and I’m (seemingly constantly) planning a Changeling the Lost campaign.

“you have also released two anthologies of short horror stories. What inspirations did you draw from for them?”

Ah, you must mean my beloved “Return to ‘Return to Oz’”, available now at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LRZD1C6 (plug, plug), right? Yes, my newest anthology “Cthulhu Doesn’t Dance” is also out now, they are influenced by my general boredom with genre fiction. I love horror, but so much of it can be samey, with the same kind of tropes and genre conventions. I want to write different stories, from all kinds of genres, mixing them together to create different tastes to each one. So each book has ten short stories, each of which are very, very different. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what matters the most.

“What are you planning on for the future?”

Keep an eye on my blog for all the big updates. But in short, I’m going to have two more books out this year. The first, “Diary of a gay teenage zombie”, is exactly what it says on the tin – a coming of age LGBT drama about a zombie, written in diary format, exploring the theme of feeling as though you’re an outsider. The second book is the first in a fantasy adventure series set in the worlds of the faerie, struggling to protect their homeland from an ancient evil. This one’s tentatively titled “Twilight of the Faerie”, and it’ll be either four or five books long, depending on how it turns out.

And as for my www.Fightyourfantasy.blogspot.co.uk adventures, I do have a few cards up my sleeves in the next few months. Not to give too much information away, but you can expect to see several new playthroughs this year – ones from a series of books that you’ve not seen me do before. Stick around.

For another great gamebook kickstarter, check out Westward Dystopia which is well on it way to being funded.

April A to Z - E is for Extra help with gamebook writing. An interview with Daniel Childs from the Gamebook Authoring Tool

Hello all! Today we have Daniel Childs who is involved with the Gamebook Authoring Tool, an invaluable tool for anyone who wants to write a gamebook. Here, Daniel talks about how he created and developed the tool.

How did the idea for the Gamebook Authoring Tool come about?
I wanted to write an Android App and I wanted to use my favourite game format: Choose your own adventure.  I sat down to plan it.  I opened up my word processor, I opened up a spreadsheet, I pulled out pieces of paper and started drawing flowcharts on them.  I wondered why gamebook authoring was so hard.  I searched online and still couldn't find the solution I was looking for.  I wondered how other people solved this problem and it turns out most people just struggle.  So I realised there was a gap for a piece of software like the Gamebook Authoring Tool.  So I started writing it....Meanwhile the gamebook industry on mobile devices really took off so, having missed that boat, I concentrated on making GBAT the best gamebook authoring software out there.

What kind of features did you want in the first version of GBAT?
I wanted it to be a visual tool - I have always quite liked flowcharts and a gamebook is basically a massive flowchart.  I enjoy seeing the flowchart grow and evolve as you work in GBAT.  The other feature I wanted to achieve was the removal of tedium and error creation in gamebook.  Things like renumbering sections while retaining the links to the correct paragraphs is actually quite an error-prone manual process.
But most of all for the first version I wanted to get the software out there and in front of people - I want this software to be driven by gamebook authors, not just me.

When you started, did you look at other gamebook creators?

Yes - my favourite was Inkle.  I just loved the way you could dive into it.  They are also producing some really good gamebook apps at the moment.
I wanted GBAT to be more of a design and planning tool - but like Inkle I would love the text writing to be a bit more immersive.

How has GBAT evolved over time?
Features are carefully added - I want it to be a useful but not an overwealming product.  GBAT is user driven - I love hearing from users of GBAT and those requests get prioritised.  More output formats have been added and the look of the flowchart has changed quite a bit over time.  As gamebooks grow we need to condense the flowchart while making it still look nice.  For the last version of GBAT we added zooming for the flowchart and also a new way to visualise your gamebook - the outline view is a way to view the sections of your book in a linear, sequential manner.

Apart from subscribing to GBAT, can your customers help you?

A couple of ways!  You can drive the development of the software - it's really nice to get emails - Tell me what you like about GBAT, what you don't like, what you'd like to see in future releases.  Try out the sofware if you haven't already, there's a lot you can do in 100 sections.  After this you can blog about or review your experiences, or mention GBAT on social media - anything helps really.
Hello all! Today, we interview someone who is involved with creating an invaluable help to gamebook authors all over. If you want to write gamebooks, you'll need the Gamebook Authoring Tool.

You made the free version of GBAT to create a 100 section book in rich text format (so it can be entered for Windhammer). Have most of your customers been Windhammer contestants?

I don't know if anyone has built a Windhammer entry using GBAT exclusively.  It can certainly be used for Windhammer entries though.

You've also published reviews of the Windhammer entries. Have you enjoyed the Windhammer competitions?

Yes, I love the Windhammer competition!  There's always a wide variety of genres and styles and gameplay, always lots of surprises.  The prizes are getting better too - now the winner of the competition becomes a published author via Tin Man games.  Wayne Densley is doing a fantastic job with the Windhammer community.

What's the longest book published with GBAT that you know of?

4m!  https://twitter.com/LenticaGunDog/status/465838614732374016/photo/1

Can you tell us of any future developments?

Yep, the next release is going to have tidier and more responsive flowcharts.  It will also be in a detachable window so now you can write and see the flowchart on a second monitor if you wanted.   I've had a fair few emails from application developers too, so we're going to have XML and JSON export options.  At some point we're going to support Choice Of script, because I get a few requests for that.  We also need to improve the text editor.  Eventually we can get into gamebook analysis and that will open up lots of interesting avenues to explore.

You can get the Gamebook Authoring Tool from here. 

For another great gamebook kickstarter, check out Westward Dystopia which is well on it way to being funded.

April A to Z - D is for delvers of a trollish kind - an interview with Scott Malthouse

Hello all! Today, we have Scott Malthouse, writer of geekery, fan of Tunnels and Trolls and creator of Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying system.

You can support Scott on his Patreon page.

He's been a busy boy and this is what he's been up to...

Tell us about USR and how it was conceived.

USR was my attempt to make a super easy set of roleplaying rules. I think for some people the rules involved in many games can be off-putting and in some cases slow down the game. I wanted to see if I could break a game down to its bare components while still making it work. It's meant to be flexible so that players can use it with any genre - from fantasy to Sci Fi. 

How has USR evolved since you created it?

Last year I released USR 2.0 which adds and cleans up a couple of rules, but the biggest evolution came in Halberd Fantasy Roleplaying, which is a fantasy game built on the system. This adds magic and a setting akin to Discworld. The other evolution has been in the fan-created rules and materials, which I've been blown away by. 

What advice would you offer someone who wants to create their own game system?

I feel like a bit of an imposter offering game design advice as there are people in a much better position that myself to do that, but I guess I'd say that if you have an idea then go ahead and do it. Get together a group of friends and test out your design and make sure you have an editor. But the main thing is just to experiment and get all your ideas down on paper. 

What are the future developments for USR?

The main thing at the moment is the space opera ruleset I'm developing called Somnium Void. It's all based on a shared vision called the Somnium, that everyone in the galaxy experiences all at once and how the different communities and races react to it. Cults spring up worshiping the vision, empire scientists try to investigate why the vision happened, and some nefarious gangs attempt to stimulate the vision using illegal drugs. 

How is Patreon working out for you?

Really good. Honestly I've been slow on the updates recently as unfortunately my day job has kept me quite busy, but it's great to have support from people who want to see my work come to fruition. I plan on being much more active in delivering material this year as I have a lot of plans.

Your blog contains a very eclectic mix of topics. What do you like writing about best?

I love writing about roleplaying games, especially setting ideas and helpful guides. I recently ran a poll on Google Plus about what people prefer to read about and ideas and guides came out on top by far, so I'll be focusing on these much more this year. 

Check out his blog here and support Scott here.

For another great gamebook kickstarter, check out Westward Dystopia which is well on it way to being funded.

April A to Z - C is for Choice of Games

 Today we have Jason Stevan Hill from Choice of Games, an interactive fiction website that has exploded with wonderful stories over the last few years. He is going to tell you just how easy it is to create your own adventure...

> What is your role with Choice of Games?

I'm COO--or at least, that's what my card says. Mostly I'm an editor
and project manager.

 




> Choice of Games is releasing games regularly. Do your contributors come from any particular area?

Mostly the US and Canada, but we have authors also in the Philippines,
Singapore, the UK, France, Norway, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan...

> Which games would you recommend people to start on?

I always suggest Dragon. From there, it matters mostly what type of
story you like. If you're really into the game aspect, try Robots; if
you want the most beautiful prose, try Deathless; if you want some
compelling relationships, try the Heroes Rise series.

> You have also created Choice script - what advice would you give to someone who wants to use it?

I'm actually working on a Theory of ChoiceScript at the moment...my
vision of how the language is best used. Briefly, it has to do with
the relationship between primary and secondary variables, and the use
of testing choices to affect those.

> What advice would you offer to someone who wants to write their own game?

Join the conversation on our forums. There are scores of people
working on their games there, and you can get immediate feedback and
support from the community.

> What games are coming up in the future?

Choice of the Petal Throne, based on the world of Tékumel, our first
licensed IP, will be out in April. Hollywood Visionary by Aaron Reed
(of Blue Lacuna fame) will also be about in April. Then we have
Versus, the new series by Zachary Sergi, author the Heroes Rise
series, sometime during the summer. Choice of the Deathless: City's
Thirst will be a second ChoiceScript outing by Max Gladstone, also
sometime in the summer. And more and more and more...we have so many
great games lined up for this year.

For a great gamebook kickstarter, check out Westward Dystopia which is well on it way to being funded.

April A to Z - B is for Kyle B. Stiff

  

Hello all. Today, we have Kyle B. Stiff who has written several wonderful books including two gamebooks in the Heavy Metal Thunder universe.

Book 2 continued with the world building with Cromulus being part of a team, raiding a base on Pluto and meeting a member of the special forces. Have you planned out most of the Heavy Metal Thunder universe already?

Yes, I have! I never understood the idea of planning out the beginning of the story, then working through the middle in a sequential order, and then hoping for a good ending as the ending drew near. For me, it all comes at the same time. I wouldn't start a story without an ending in mind any more than I'd start writing without a main character. Every book is already roughly planned out, so I already have an idea of the general arc concerning humanity's war against the Invaders. It never gets boring to write, though, because there are plenty of spaces in the middle where the story can shift and change and surprise me.

I thought that book 2 was a little darker than book 1. Is this something you intended to happen?

Yes! Well, sort of. Growing older has taught me to use humor a little more sparingly. I was a lot younger when I wrote the first one, and I think that shows in the writing.

Also I wanted to really dive into the subject of mind control in book two, and that's not the kind of subject that allows any kind of humor but the black variety. I always wanted mind control to be an important part of Heavy Metal Thunder. Writing about “the future” is kind of ridiculous, because that's not what you're really doing. Sci-fi writers take things happening today and make them more extreme so that they're easier to see. I think mind control is one of those things that our descendants will look back on and say, “Why didn't they do anything about it?” (Either that, or they won't say or think about it at all because they will be incapable of doing so.)

We don't really talk about mind control in our every day life, but I think it's the most important thing that's happening in our era. I really do. It hides behind the scenes because it's just too scary to look at directly. But throughout the Heavy Metal Thunder series I want to bring the reader closer and closer to the subject.

But I have to poke fun at the whole thing too, because when you wake up one day and realize you are and have always been an automaton sleep-walking through life, what else can you do but laugh? Of course, a really heroic person would follow up that laugh with a spin kick and a grenade and a one-liner that destroys all oppressors (no joke), and that's kind of what the whole series is about.

Cubus Games have turned your books into apps. Is there anything you had to change about your books to make them more app-friendly?

Oh, yes. I'm sure the general idea is that you can take the original document, put some spit'n'polish on the links, mash it into a paste and run it through an app grinder, and PA-POW, you've got yourself a bug-free money printer. Not true! It takes a group of people mopping sweat off their brow and losing sleep to make something like this a reality. It's tough work, but rewarding! Now that I think about it, maybe that's the difference between the armchair expert at the bar who knows what's wrong with everything, and the person who knows what it really takes to influence a very narrow aspect of reality. It's all sweat and lack of sleep.

As for concrete details, we had to change the inventory management system, combat and stat checks were given a dice-rolling mechanic, and of course plenty of music and artwork was added, thus turning a flat, dimensionless text game into something like a senses-shattering hypercube from a twisting and turning interdimensional nexus beyond all human comprehension. It's easy to admit that I enjoy the gamebook apps much, much more than my original gamebooks!

Is there any advice that you would offer to a budding gamebook writer?

You guys should go crazy with your ideas. Any limitations or restrictions that you think apply to the medium simply no longer matter. And maybe they never did. Attracting new readers to the medium means getting away from reliable conventions. If you're afraid your gamebook idea won't sell because it's too “out there”, then… get over it! What are you going to do, worry about dollars your whole life? Grow a spine! If you're the kind of writer with the stones to write a gamebook, then you're already an unconventional thinker. You have ideas like no one else. The world is ready for your crazy, unique story. The world might not pay for it, but it's certainly ready for it!

The most successful gamebooks during the golden age of gamebooks were unconventional. Lone Wolf may seem like a standard medieval Tolkien-lite sword and sorcery tale, but it's not. Instead of a standard knight or wizard, Lone Wolf was a forest monk with psychic powers who worshipped the sun. The “dark lords” he was fighting looked like something from an H.R. Giger painting. How psychedelic is that?! Lone Wolf makes Game of Thrones look like the most timid cookie-cutter story ever! And then there's the classic gamebook series Way of the Tiger. Standard ninja fare, right? Spoiler: Not really. The protagonist ended up running his own city, and instead of a happy ending, the final book ended with our hero stuck in a trap while monsters armed with baseball bats threatened to practice their home-run swings on his legs and head. Or something like that. But that's why those stories are the strongest soldiers in the gamebook army. They are simply balls-out crazy. And that's why the next generation of gamebook writers must take the creativity up a notch, or up many notches, or perhaps beyond all notches.

The series seems to be building up to something. Will Earth eventually be liberated?

Yes, it will! Sorry for the spoiler. Then again, it's not really a spoiler, and I'll tell you why. I'm not a big believer in the idea that anyone can achieve a one hundred percent “happy ending” in real life, and certainly never in a predictable manner, so I never write stories that end with total happiness and predictability. It feels dishonest. It is possible for people or groups to get what they want, but what they wanted is rarely what they expected it to be. That's life!

So I have a few endings planned for the series (not counting random player death), some sad, some nightmarish, some bittersweet, some brutal, some weird, all memorable (I hope), and none in they key of, “We beat the evil aliens, let's celebrate and carry Cromulus around on our shoulders!” In Heavy Metal Thunder, the enemy is so powerful and so clever that humanity is going to have to go to insane lengths if they want to have any chance of winning this war. And even if humanity does go the distance, what will they become? Would a person who had every ounce of psychological weakness stripped away and fought against all odds in the lifeless vacuum of outer space even be capable of clocking in and working for some company during peacetime?

The modern world requires constant submission; otherwise it doesn't work. Is freedom possible under those circumstances? What will happen to our tireless, unappreciated human fanatics? Those are the kinds of questions I want to explore in Heavy Metal Thunder!

When will Heavy Metal Thunder 3 be out?

At the risk of infuriating the fans, I'll have to be vague and say, “Sometime in 2015, definitely before 2016.”

Forgive me for not nailing it down to something more specific, but please remember that I'm not a writer already established in a kingdom of his own making. I'm still a wandering ronin hungry to heap fame upon my name and win a title for myself. That means I have to continually look for other projects, which of course takes a lot of time, and most projects fall apart once enough people realize that the path is difficult and the only reward that's guaranteed is another day of hard work.

But don't worry, readers – I will never give up! Together we can bring this war to its end and help Commander Cromulus achive his ultimate destiny! I hope you enjoy Heavy Metal Thunder and Sol Invictus. Please keep your eyes peeled for the third chapter in the Heavy Metal Thunder saga... Slaughter at Masada!

http://www.cubusgames.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Kyle-B.-Stiff/e/B005I56W3Q/

https://kylebstiff.wordpress.com/

For another great gamebook kickstarter, check out Westward Dystopia which is well on it way to being funded.

April A to Z - A is for Ambush! An interview with PJ Montgomery, illustrator for the Troltooth Wars graphic novel

Good day to you all! We start the April A to Z on a high note as the kickstarter for the Trolltooth Wars graphic novel is now fully funded! Which means that for £15, you can get a copy of the book (there are other fun things at other backer levels). Also, if they manage to get £1000 over their target, everyone who orders the book also gets a fun surprise! When this post goes live, there will be about 30 hours left to do this, so head over there now! The interview will still be waiting here, so don't worry about that.

Anyway. On with the interview!

Tell us about yourself.

I'm a writer, originally from Surrey, but currently based in Cardiff. I've got a number of credits to my name, including co-writer on the horror comedy comic Stiffs, a short story in the superhero anthology The Pride Adventures, plus a number of episodes of the online radio sitcom, Supermarket Matters.

What is your favourite Fighting Fantasy book?

Oh, that's a big question. There are plenty that I love a lot. Warlock of Firetop Mountain will always have a special place in my heart, since it was not only the first in the series, but the first one I had. Being a massive fan of superhero comics, I also love Appointment With FEAR (despite how difficult Steve made it!), and the atmosphere of City of Thieves makes that a firm favourite. However, if I absolutely had to pick, it would probably be a tie between Moonrunner (a medieval murder mystery with plenty of dark horror elements really appeals to me) and Howl of the Werewolf (just the idea behind that book is absolutely brilliant).

How did you get involved in the Trolltooth Wars?

The original idea to turn Trolltooth Wars into a graphic novel was mine. It was something I'd been mulling over for a while, but hadn't really made any strides towards making a reality. One morning, just on the off chance, I decided to e-mail Jamie Fry (the Warlock of the FF website, who handles rights enquiries for Steve and Ian). Later that day, I had an e-mail sitting in my inbox from Steve Jackson, and it all moved on from there. And can I just say, for someone who grew up reading Fighting Fantasy books, and being a lifelong fan, just having an e-mail from Steve was pretty exciting!

Apart from the novel itself, what other source material have you used to help you with your graphic novel?

I've gone back to the original FF books to feature the key characters and locations in the novel, so Citadel of Chaos, Creature of Havoc, Warlock of Firetop Mountain and Forest of Doom have all been thumbed through a fair bit. There are also a couple of small moments which refer to both City of Thieves and Caverns of the Snow Witch, plus my copies of Titan and the Tenth Anniversary Year Book have both been well thumbed for this project.

How was running a kickstarter?

It's been an interesting experience. It's a lot of work, more than I was expecting if I'm honest. I have friends who have run Kickstarters before, both successful and unsuccessful, and they all told me that it was a lot of work, but I don't think it quite hits you just what that means until you actually do it. And there are the days when you're not getting many pledges come through, when it can really get you down, even though, rationally, you know from the off that some days will be slower than others. But overall, I've found it to be a fun and rewarding experience. It's put me in contact with a lot of Fighting Fantasy fans all over the world, all of whom have been very supportive of the project and a pleasure to talk to.

Do you have any advice to people who want to run a kickstarter?

Make sure you're ready before you launch. We had to delay the launch of ours when we had the opportunity to add in some extra rewards, but I'm glad we did, because it gave us more time to work on it and make sure it was ready. Honestly, you can't do too much preparation for this. And make sure that you're ready to be working solidly while the Kickstarter runs. Finally, try not to let the slow days get to you. They'll happen, but you just have to move on and wait for the better days. I could do with listening to that last one myself a bit more!

Any plans for the other Fighting Fantasy novels to be turned into graphic novels?

Not at the moment, no. Don't get me wrong, I would love to carry on and adapt both Demonsteadler and Shadowmaster, then move on to adapt all four Zagor Chronicles, but we really have to see how Trolltooth Wars does first. If it does well, then maybe. The more people who buy Trolltooth Wars, the more the chance of further Fighting Fantasy comics increases. So if fans are interested, and they haven't done so yet, they should really back Steve Jackson's The Trolltooth Wars on Kickstarter!

Do you have any other projects that you would like to plug?

I can't really leave you without mentioning Stiffs in a little more detail. It's a horror comedy set in the South Wales Valleys, about a group of twenty-something call centre workers who hunt zombies in their spare time. One of them just happens to be a talking monkey. It's co-written by myself, Drew Davies and Joe Glass, with art by Trolltooth Wars artist, Gavin Mitchell. The first three issues (of five) are available now, either through ComiXology, or our own webstore.

I'm also the scriptwriter on an upcoming comic, Dynamite. This one is the story of Harry Harwich, a man who, disillusioned with his life and the world around him, becomes the anti-establishment vigilante, Dynamite. It's based on an album of the same name by musician Kevin Pearce, who I co-plotted the book with, an illustrated by Shaun Speight. It's due out later this year, but fans can be kept updated on the Facebook page!

For another great gamebook kickstarter, check out Westward Dystopia which is well on it way to being funded.