Anjin Unleashed: gamebooks

Showing posts with label gamebooks. Show all posts

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Turn To 100: The Goldilocks Dilemma

Has it really been over a month since I posted on this blog? My goodness. Let's fix that.

Although I submitted my entry for the 2013 Windhammer Prize, I still could not stop thinking about gamebooks. I am happy with this year's entry, The Independence Job. But I could not get out of my mind that maybe I could have done better. So I starting thinking about next year. This series will chronicle my development and writing of my next gamebook.

My first idea was a fantasy story about a woman who runs the family farm after her son goes off adventuring.

That lived in my head for about three weeks before I realized that I have no idea how to write that book. Initially, I wanted it to be a farm simulation crossed with an exchange of letters between the mother and son that shapes their development. I thought that I could make a fun little game that would influence the mother's options as she wrote to her son.

But the more I thought about it, I realized that the rule system did not support the theme I wanted to explore: the connection between a parent and a child. As a designer, I detest when the rules are at cross-purposes with the theme of the game. The Fortune mechanic in The Independence Job is all about pushing your luck and the consequences of failure (or failing to push at all). Farming might be fun, and it might provide interesting encounters for the game, but it has nothing to do with the main story line. In effect, it was an elaborate minigame that would dominate the entire book. It would have to come out, but that left me without a system to hang my narrative on. I like the idea too much to let it go, but I need to mull it over until I find a game and not just a story.

My second idea was to model an MMO in gamebook form, with zones and quests from level one to level fifty, dungeons and raids included.

This one stuck with me for a couple of weeks. I plotted out each zone, the quests, and calculated appropriate rewards. I like the idea of tracking separate gear and character levels, but I'm not sure how much that adds to the system. I'm sure it can be worked out in playtesting.

But as I mulled this new idea over, the results came in for the Windhammer Prize. My entry took a Commendation Award. I really liked my gamebook for what it did well (which some people really appreciated). But it ran afoul of one of the cardinal sin: lack of replayability. There are some curves in the road, but my entry was quite linear and I think it suffered in the voting for that. I was writing another book that, although it allows for open roaming, would also be quite linear. It is in service of the story and fits the theme, but I'm no longer sure it is right for the Windhammer judges. In a crisis of confidence, I abandoned this as well.

First, I had a story without a system. Second, I had a system, but I was no longer confident about the story. Neither idea was just right. So, I needed a third idea.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

News Filter: 2013 Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction

It's that time of year (again). Voting for the 2013 Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction has started.

This year there are fourteen entries. One of them, The Independence Job, is mine. It's a pulp crime novel set in the 1950's and I'm very proud of it. (With a hearty thanks to Blue Kae for helping out.) Once again, I would love your vote, but so would the thirteen others. You have to vote for three entries this year, so mine and two others wouldn't be that bad, right?

Above all, I want to invite you to check out some great writing and play some fun gamebooks. They're all short, but you are likely to find one/a few/several that you will enjoy.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Admin: Post Seven Hundred

Seven hundred posts. I'm not sure how I feel about this milestone. Since my writing time has decreased, I thought it would take forever to get here. Then with the recent rush of posts, I find myself here unexpectedly.

Post 600 was back on May 30, 2012, more than a year ago. That's the longest hundred posts I've written since the first hundred. Unfortunately, I can't foresee things picking up during the next hundred. Maybe my daughter will give me a little more free time to write.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I looked over the last hundred posts and saw a couple of trends. The feminism tag suddenly popped up about a year ago. Those are a bunch of posts I really wish I didn't have to write. But I will continue to do so until we don't have to put that crap anymore. There was a stack of Guild Wars 2 posts. That lasted about two weeks before I got bored. Oh well. Finally, outside of GW2, there has barely been any mention of MMOs on the blog. I may have to turn in my MMO Blogger card.

One big change has been that I've started cross-posting to my Tumblr and Giant Bomb blogs. It's not much, but at least there are more people reading my silly little words.

Although there was a flurry of posts during E3, I have to put on the brakes for a couple of weeks. That's not a bad thing, though. I am going on vacation for a week, which will slow things down. As well, I am writing my next gamebook for the 2013 Windhammer Prize. I'm hoping to get it done sometime soon so that it can be playtested. (Hey, Blue Kae! Hey, Yeebo!) If you want to read the book ahead of time and help me make it better, let me know in the comments.

Thank you to everyone for reading. It continues to be a lot of fun.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

News Filter: 2012 Windhammer Prize Results

Well, I did not win. But I did take one of the two Merit Prizes in this year's competition, which is beyond belief to me! Thank you so much to everyone who voted for my gamebook. I know in my heart that I would not be in this position without each of you.

Academy of Magic: The First Term is going to be included in a Tin Man Games app? This is just surreal.

Here is the announcement, just so you can see that I'm telling the truth:

2012 Windhammer Prize winners announced.
Arborell.com is proud to announce that the winner of the 2012 Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction is Zachary Carango for his futuristic sci-fi adventure, Final Payment. Merit awards have also been awarded to Marty Runyon for his magical fantasy adventure, Academy of Magic - The First Term, and to Ashton Saylor for his exciting sci-fi adventure, Legacy of the Zendari. Well done to all participants and congratulations to this year's winners.
This year's competition has been particularly hard-fought. With 22 quality entries, more than 4000 visitors to the competition webpage over the voting period, and greater than 8500 downloads considered, it proved the most competitive of competitions in the history of the prize.
It is no small thing to ask entrants to write original gamebooks for the Windhammer Prize. This year the quality of the entries submitted has been exceptional. I would like to thank all readers who voted this year for their commitment in evaluating such an extensive entry list. Special thanks must also go to those who provided feedback for authors. The amount of comment forwarded has also been the largest given in any competition year and all is greatly appreciated.
All entries have now been placed into the Windhammer Prize gamebook archive and can be accessed from that page along with all other gamebooks submitted since 2008.
All Information regarding the Windhammer Prize can be found at : http://www.arborell.com/windhammer_prize.html
All entries can be found in the gamebook archive at: http://www.arborell.com/gamebook_archive.html
Information regarding the sponsor of this competition can be found at http://www.arborell.com/
May Glory and Renown follow all who have found success in this year's Windhammer Prize.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Random Shots: The Most Self-Serving Post On This Blog

Hello, friend. How are you today? Well, I hope. The baby is fighting off a sniffle which means we'll be sick in about a week. I think I feel a tickle in the back of my throat now. Better not stand to close.

Sorry for rambling, but I did have a favor I wanted to ask. Do you remember back in September when I mentioned the 2012 Windhammer Prize? And do you remember the part where I said that it didn't matter if you voted or not, just that I wanted you to read and enjoy some gamebooks?

Yeah, it turns out that I lied about that. I would really like to win. Or if not win, I'd love to come in second or third. No need to be greedy. But I really do want to at least show in this race.

So if you haven't already, head on over to the Windhammer Prize page and take a look. My entry is Academy of Magic: The First Term. The rules require you vote for two entries, so you can't just vote for me. Which is good for you because there are some other great entries. Say, for instance, Andrew Wright's Guild of Thieves, which I am insanely jealous of.

That's all. Thanks so much for making it this far in the post. Back to gaming or complaining about not having time to game next time.

Friday, September 14, 2012

News Filter: The 2012 Windhammer Prize

If you've followed the blog for a while, you might know that I'm a fan of gamebooks like the classic Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf as well as the more recent Fabled Lands and DestinyQuest series. I mean, they are games and books. At the same time!

Since I fancy myself a bit of a writer as well, I've also tried to write a gamebook or two in my time. So when I discovered the Windhammer Prize for Short Gamebook Fiction, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to write something, finish it, and put it in front of a bunch of people. So I started to write a 100 section book called Academy of Magic: The First Term to submit for the competition. In 2010.

That did not work out so well, so I finally got my act together and submitted for 2012. The voting has opened today. I really should have submitted last year. There are 22 entries this year instead of the prior year's eight. But my main goal was to enter, so I'm glad to have done so.

The Windhammer Prize always has a great collection of short gamebooks every year and you should check it out. I'm not asking for you to vote for me. There is likely to be a few books that you enjoy. Do give it a try and have an adventure!

Before I go, I wanted to thank Blue Kae and Yeebo for their help with testing. I couldn't have do it without you guys.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Played Lately: DestinyQuest Book 1: The Legion Of Shadow by Michael J. Ward

I never got over gamebooks. From the time I found the Choose Your Own Adventure and Time Machine books, through the Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf series, I have long been a fan of the genre. When I discovered Fabled Lands a few years ago, I was amazed that people had advanced the form long after I lost track of it. But that seemed like the last gasp of a dying genre. Gamebooks went underground, becoming amateur downloads or iPhone apps. So when Dave Morris pointed out that a new honest-to-goodness, printed on paper, gamebook was being released, I knew that I had to see it for myself.

DestinyQuest Book 1: The Legion Of Shadow is the new gamebook by Michael J. Ward. Like me, Ward was long time fan of the gamebook genre. But instead of lamenting its decline, he decided to put forth a massive work that celebrates everything that is great about it while taking advantage of the advanced in gaming that have occured over the last few years.

For those of you familiar with normal gamebooks, DQ works on a paragraph system (in this case, about 750 in total). But instead of encounters leading one to another directly, each act of the story has a map with color-coded encounters labeled on it. If you want to go to town, you turn to the paragraph for the town marked on the map. There are green, orange, blue, and red difficulty quests, as well as legendary monsters to slay and end of act boss encounter. And if that's not enough, the author is releasing additional quests on his website.

The combat system is a little more complicated than your standard Fighting Fantasy. From the website:
Rolling for attack speed - Both opponents roll two dice and add their speed to the total. The winner is the combatant with the highest score.

Rolling for damage - The winner rolls one dice and adds their brawn or magic to the total (whichever is highest). This gives them a damage score.

Applying damage - The loser of the round deducts their armour value from the damage score. Any remaining damage is then deducted from their health.

Applying passive damage - Some abilities inflict damage at the end of a combat round. Both combatants should update their health before starting a new combat round.

Your statistic scores come from the gear that you find during your quests. As well, your gear also provides abilities like blood rage, dark pact, and might of stone. With about 140 abilities in the game (link is to the ability glossary PDF), there are a lot of strategic choices to make about building your character and winning battles.

If gamebooks could be plotted on an axis where one end is the highly linear Fighting Fantasy books and the other is the openly structured Fabled Lands books, DestinyQuest falls firmly in the middle. The quest structure give you a high degree of control as to how you experience the game. But the color coded quests as well as the act structure give him a lot of control over the narrative. The Legion Of Shadow, so far, is one of the best written, best plotted gamebooks I have read. Although I have just started the second act, I'm am already engrossed with the story. And the writing is far better than some fantasy fiction I've endured in the past.

If I was rewriting my Top Five: Gamebooks post, The Legion Of Shadow would earn a spot easily. I can't wait to finish the book and see what else Michael Ward plans in the future.

Monday, November 22, 2010

News Filter: Return to the Fabled Lands

One of the most fascinating gamebook series is returning this Christmas. Fabled Lands, by Dave Morris and Jamie Thompson, has been out of print for years. Through the wonders of eBay, I was able to pick up the full series that was originally released between 1995 and 1996. But picking up the series now involves a little luck and a lot of money. At least, it did.

Fabled Lands is not your typical gamebook series. Instead of telling a branching path narrative like the Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf, Fabled Lands presents the reader with a world to explore and sets you out to find fame and fortune on your own. In a way, it feels like playing a Bethesda CRPG or an MMO. You wander the world, find quests, and perform heroic deeds. Through the clever use of check boxes and keywords, the book reacts to the actions you have taken. So, for instance, if you assassinate the king, you are given a keyword that allows you to accept the reward for that quest as well as prevents you from finding the king if you return to his stronghold. This style had a effect on my own gamebook with its hub-and-spoke design. (You'll see pretty soon.)

Each of the six books in the series details a different land in the world. There are hooks between each book that allow you to travel between them, so your character carries over from story to story assuming you survive. If you are not inquisitive, it is easy to tour the world and not see much action. But if you are bold, there is something to do almost everywhere. You just have to look.

The authors usually suggest starting with book three, Over the Blood-Dark Sea, since you start with a third level character and have access to all of the other books quickly. On the other hand, I prefer to start with the first, The War-Torn Kingdom. That book has more of a classic setting and feels a little more forgiving than some of the others. Plus, I like the idea of starting small and building from there.

One of the most exciting things about the books returning to print is that, depending on sales, there is a chance they may be able to finish the series. There were a total of twelve books planned, with some keywords and hooks in place to travel between them, but only six were produced. I'm looking forward to seeing the new editions, as well as the new supplemental books. And I'm dreaming of traveling to distant lands that have only been hinted at so far.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Admin: Post Four Hundred

As I guessed in my prior milestone post, it took about seven months to reach post four hundred. Even though I've had great months and bad months posting-wise, my output is pretty regular over the long haul. Look forward to the next milestone this coming June.

Four of my prior top five posts held onto their rankings. Far and away, my most popular post is Five Things To Do Before The Cataclysm. It is so popular in fact that beginning September 1, it started receiving more hits than my front page. I suspect that once December 7 rolls around, my pages views are going to crash. Good thing I blog just for fun.

Also holding onto the top five are two of my classic (read: old) posts about Free Realms, a game I haven't seriously played or blogged about in over a year. My news post about LotRO updating the epic quest line with a solo option is coming in fourth. I guess people are still finding out about it, even though the news is a year old. Finally my Top Five: MMO Classes post made it to the top five, mostly because my Champions Online Q&A is not drawing nearly as much attention as before.

Lest I complain about all the the old posts stealing the spot light, there were two more recent post that climbed into the top ten. My write-up about the Serpent Lantern adventure pack for Champions Online got a lot of attention. There aren't many blogger who regularly write about CO, so I don't have a lot of competition. (Hey, Blue! /wave) The other post was my sort-of review of Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role Playing game. I can attribute many of those hits to James Raggi linking it from his LotFP blog. Since Bullet Points isn't an RPG blog, I doubt there was much to keep anyone coming back, but it was nice to see one of my posts generate attention outside my regular community.

My gaming over the last seven months can best be described as scatter shot. I continued my trend of playing single player games primarily on the Xbox 360, moving from disk-based games to Xbox Live Arcade games over time. I dabbled here and there with various games and MMOs. But the only game and really sucked me in was Dragon Quest IX. I haven't picked up my DS in a while and I still need to finish the game. Some day soon, I'm sure.

Blogging about books and writing microfiction has trickled to almost non-existence over the last hundred posts. Instead, all of my creative output has gone into my Unexplored Worlds series. They may not draw the hits (that link to the Unexplored Worlds category is the highest at #49 overall) but they are some of my most satisfying posts on the blog. And based on the comments those posts received, it sounds like you enjoy them too. I don't see me ending that series anytime soon.

Speaking of comments, I want to take the time to thank everyone who stops by and leaves a kind word for me. From old friends like Blue Kae, Jayedub, and Yeebo to relatively new faces like MMO Gamer Chick and Hunter as well as everyone else who I'm forgetting, you are the ones who make this blog thing all worthwhile.

And now I'm going to switch gears a little bit. I announced back in June that I was working on a gamebook. Well, after a little prodding I have finally finished it. It is called Academy Of Magic: The First Term and it is ready for playtesting. It is no work of art, but I'm happy with the results. If you are interested in testing this thing before I post it for general consumption, send me an e-mail at the address listed over in the sidebar. I look forward to seeing what everyone thinks about it.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Random Shots: A Weekend Without Internet

Just got back from vacation, which is why I have not posted in a few days. Not that I planned to be AFK for so long. My in-laws wireless router wouldn't accept the passkey, so I could only sneak a little time on their PC. Just enough to clear up my junk mail folder really. But going without internet did let me focus on other things.

Since my beautiful bride and I were out of town for a wedding, it was the perfect time to road test my new laptop. It works like a charm, has a great battery life with the economy options set, and did everything I asked of it. Including a game of Master of Magic. It is amazing how hard it is to stop hitting that Next Turn button. Thank goodness for Good Old Games for keeping these older games available and running. They're perfect for my little laptop.

Going without an internet connection also let me focus on my gamebook. The full skeleton is laid out at exactly one hundred sections. I actually came up a little short, but then used the extra sections to flesh out one rather short encounter. I'm working on writing up the rules now. I may post them early so that people can give them a read over while I'm doing the actually writing. Oh, and I need to flowchart my encounters as well. I'd hate to discover that I have some weird recursion or stranded sections that you can't actually get to.

On the blog, I'm hoping to get posts up about The Serpent Lantern and Red Dead Redemption. Of course, I need to finish the first and collect all my thoughts about the second. Even though it has been over a week, the ending of RDR still stays with me. Mass Effect 2 has a serious contender for game-of-the-year, now.

Now that I'm back in front of my home computer, I have a lot of catching up to do. So many blogs and podcasts and writing and gaming to accomplish. Have fun, everyone!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Random Shots: The Skeleton Of A Plot

I like to think of myself as a writer. It's my standard answer to my "What do you want to do when you grow up?" Of course, I should just admit that I am grown up and that if I want to be a writer, I really should try to write. That's part of the reason why I maintain this blog, especially my Unexplored Worlds and Microfiction posts.

That's also why I occasionally dive into a larger project like writing a gamebook. I was initially inspired to try actually finishing one after finding out about the Windhammer Prize. A one-hundred section book sounds reasonable to me. If anything, I'm more worried about running out of room instead of running out of ideas.

If you've never written a gamebook yourself, you might find this article by Steve Jackson to be a good starting place. (That's this Steve Jackson, not this Steve Jackson.) Of course, there are a bunch of gamebook creator tools to help you do the same thing. But I still hand-code the HTML in my blog posts, so I'm not going to shirk from hand-numbering and organizing a few sections.

So far, I've developed the rule system (another iteration on a ruleset I've been tinkering with for years). I have the main plot and individual encounters outlined. Now I'm at the stage where I'm building the skeleton of each section within the encounters. They are simple one line descriptions of what has to happen in the second, skill test required, what decisions the player can make, and what sections they lead to. I actually think this is the hardest part because this is where I make the book fun or not. All the writing that comes after is just adding context and making the game more presentable.

I don't have that much farther to go, though. The last encounter should just about write itself. I'm saving it for last, though, because I need to focus on the hard bits first. Anyway, progress is being made. I will keep you all up to date.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Top Five: Gamebooks

As with every Top Five on the blog, this is a list of my five personal favorites. This is not intended to be objective or exhaustive. If I happened to run across it and I liked it, that's how it gets on the list.

Fabled Lands: The War-Torn Kingdom - Probably the last great gamebooks, the Fabled Lands series eschews the mediums Choose Your Own Adventure guided storyline roots in favor of an open world to explore. The ingenious use of check boxes in the text and codewords act as the variable flag that guide you through the various encounters. Removing the strong narrative does leave you without much motivation. But if you have a healthy curiosity, there are a lot adventures to be had and stories to find. And if you run out of things to do, all you have to walk to the edge of the map and you can move on to the next book. The War-Torn Kingdom is the book I've spent the most time in because it was the first released. But it is well balanced with big quests to follow as well as an interesting land to journey through.

Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon - The fact that it was the very first gamebook I ever owned may cloud my judgment. However Deathtrap Dungeon is, appropriately, one of the most famous Fighting Fantasy books ever published. Devilishly difficult, with wrong turns aplenty that make it easy to miss something you will need several encounters later. But the atmosphere made this a story that captured my imagination. I never did get all the way through the book, but I enjoyed my many, many deaths just the same.

Fighting Fantasy: Space Assassin - On the opposite side of the Fighting Fantasy spectrum is this sci-fi. The additional rules make the book a lot easier to get through, which makes Space Assassin one of the few that I successfully completed. Funny enough, the one part that sticks out most in my mind is the impromptu tank simulation that occurs partway through the book. It's a neat little minigame that does something different with the medium.

Lone Wolf: Fire On The Water - The Lone Wolf series was a serious departure in gamebooks for me. A much great storytelling experience, the series felt more epic than the down-in-the-dirt fantasy of the FF books. While the first book was good introduction to the series, Fire On The Water sees your character (the Lone Wolf) traveling to a neighboring kingdom to procure a magic sword with which you can thwart the invasion of your homeland. It took me a couple of attempts to make it through this book, but the massive battle at the end was well worth the effort.

Steve Jackson's Sorcery: The Shamutanti Hills - Based on the Fighting Fantasy rules, the Sorcery series was goodbooks for grown-ups. At least that's the impression I got. In actuality, the book was a pretty traditional start to the series. It's also the only one I was able to finish with any sense of accomplishment. I stumbled through the second on accident, I think, and never found more than two of the serpents. Don't even ask about my time in Mampang Fortress. But the mad imagination at work in The Shamutanti Hills drove me to try that book time and again. Someday I'll try the whole series again, but I'll have to find them first.

All of this thinking about gamebooks has reminded me that I've been meaning to write a gamebook of my own. Maybe I'll even share if I get something done. What do you think?