Oh dear...then you'll probably have to go through it from the start until you stumble across the right reference. No other way! Painstaking - as Vampires often say!

C-Star
Sat Jul 7 15:30:21 2012

Haven't played that one yet. My fav's are The Diamond Key (even though i never win it), Outsider and Hunger of The Wolf.

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P.s. Still looking for those items.

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I wish i had that pink datastick in real life :-D

The Hammer
Wed Jul 18 23:34:18 2012

Hello

I really like all the gamebooks on this website and how blind people can easily play them as well. I was just woundering can anybody make an amiture gamebook on this website ?
Thanks.

Glen
Sun Jul 29 17:48:19 2012

@Admin

Is this guestbook searchable, or (functionally equivalently) downloadable? In principle it is, but I'd rather not have to write a script...

Glen
Wed Aug 1 07:44:30 2012

If I were to ever write a gamebook I would like to try making many branching choices at the beginning, which are all somewhat different and which are all (with varying degrees of difficulty) possible to bring to a "best" ending. Of course, after the first few sections, this would no longer apply, and wild goose chases would of course exist :).

I think perhaps the term "wild goose chase" is a little misleading. A lot of the time, when these are done well, they allow the player to explore more of the world of the book and more of the characters in the book, so despite not leading or being able to be brought to a "good" ending, they become nevertheless quite rewarding for the reader.

So I am quite happy to enjoy these when they are done well :).

C-Star
Wed Aug 1 16:33:09 2012

I always loved it when you do wild goose chases on the first few runs, then find the one true path again and get rewarded with some extra plot or an interesting twist. Anyone that's completed The Gloden Crate will know what I'm talking about!

Glen
Thu Aug 9 19:33:05 2012

@C-Star: Thanks for the answer! As to your question:

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Robert Douglas
Fri Aug 10 22:44:45 2012

Yes, it was Carnival of Rust by Poets of the Fall. The gamebook title 'The World is Burning' is taken from the lyrics. Sounds a bit long-winded at first glance, but good old Metric made it into something special.

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Metric's a bit of a cynic - which is probably what inspired him to start writing The World is Burning. They often say a deep state of mind (depression, for example, madness, or those weird mushrooms the Meso-Americans used to digest!) can actually enhance the IQ.

Robert Douglas
Mon Aug 13 19:07:48 2012

Metric's getting on well with TWIB. Hopefully, he might release a brief description of what it's about - like the blurb you get on reverse of FF titles. We were both discussing this at some length last night; we want to get it right, get the right message across.

He's also toying with the idea of doing a sequel to 'Blood of the Zombies'. Yet another item we discussed at length. We thought it best to ask Ian Livingstone's permission first, however - just in case certain people get crotchety about it. You know what it's like in this game! If he says it's okay, then the others can go off and sulk elsewhere, hee hee.

C-Star
Thu Aug 16 16:34:05 2012

And by the way, what happened to Gavin Mitchell anyway. I went on his page on Fanfiction and all the stories are from like 2004. I'm guessing he quit :-(

Robert Douglas
Fri Aug 17 14:56:49 2012

Lack of character, they have no endurance, nor real interest. If they did they would at least continue to pursue gamebook writing as a hobby. The fact that some amateur authors have a job is no excuse - plenty of people hold down jobs while being part of a pool team, do karate, and other interests. I managed it well enough while writing 'Prison of Pestilence' and 'Snakeland Scorpion', why can't they? I'm still writing gamebooks, I take it very seriously (not just dabbling), and see no reason to stop something - the only thing - at which I'm good. If it was taken away from me in some way ie. blindness, I don't what I'd do. There would be nothing left for me. I haven't even passed my driving test, for example, no confidence in that particular area. But if my life's blood depended on writing gamebooks there'd be no problem whatsoever.

C-Star
Fri Aug 17 16:54:31 2012

...Wow. You must really love writing. Of course, you're pretty good at what you do. I myself could never write a story. Heck, I find it hard to come up with stuff to write about for essays! I have chronic writer's block...

Writing a gamebook in particular must be difficult because of how you have to go back and forth throughout the pages with the way the paragraphs are arranged. I couldn't imagine trying to get one to exactly 400 or 1000 paragraphs!

I truly hate the sense of dissapointment when you find a good story, flash game series or movie series that is never finished. I'm not sure if I'm going a bit too off the topic of ff with this discussion, but one example was the flash movie series 'Super Mario bros. Z', a damn good series which perfectly combined action with humor (again, sorry for going off topic, I'm just trying to make my point). The creator ended chapter 8 with a cliff-hanger, but, after years, announced he won't finish the series. It was very disappointing for me and the many fans that followed the series.

Outsider and Bodies on The Docks are more examples found on this very site. I just pray that Wrong Way Go Back doesn't end up another dead project, like so many on the internet.

For some reason, I'm wondering how Gavin is now...

C-Star
Fri Aug 17 16:56:11 2012

It's even worse when they don't tell you that they've quit! And you're just left with the ghost of a project...

Robert Douglas
Fri Aug 17 23:59:57 2012

@ C-Star,

I understand your point entirely, and share your frustration when projects are left unfinished. Really, they shouldn't be posted on-site unless the gamebook is complete. Sadly, Fighting Fantasy Website (Official, or so they say) is guilty of exactly this; featuring a few incomplete titles in the amateur section.

Two things about this annoy me: first, it might be well-written, leaving me to wonder about the author wasting his/her talent, and secondly: they shouldn't be on the list at all if there's nothing really there. One of them had a great title, well-written, complete with FF rules - but had only a few entries! What the -?

I sympathize with your frustration about having a favourite programme being left teetering on the edge...only to find its creator is no longer interested in continuing the story. The best hope is that another director/writer/producer takes up the mantle, buys the rights from the person (or from their Estate if deceased), and goes through all that legal red-tape before it begins again. James Cameron, for example, was not interested in doing Terminator 3 - so another director continued the popular saga. It does happen. Hopefully, it will be the same for Super Mario Bros Z in the future.

Here, I must say that a favourite prog of mine from the 90's was more rushed than incomplete. Tech thriller 'Bugs' had a sad, ambiguous ending rather than the usual cheerful one where they all got promoted or retired gracefully. And I was left more puzzled than anything!

Robert Douglas
Sat Aug 18 00:59:09 2012

@ C-star,

Everybody has their own method to guage how many entries they might need. The normal FF (except for Sorcery! and Creature of Havoc) number is 400 - but this can vary in amateur titles. I prefer 400 as this is often a comfortable constraint for a fair-sized adventure. Of course, having multiple choices (paths, items, weapons, etc) must be taken into account and may require anything from 500 up to 1000!

When scribbling (in pencil) my rough draft, I leave brackets with blank spaces, for example: '...if you wish to search the barrels ( ), or the cupboards ( ) or do you think it's too risky and take either the north door ( ), or the western one ( )?'

After completing a particular stage in the adventure, I then type it up properly on the computer - perhaps the most time-consuming part of gamebook writing - although fun at the same time - as I ponder how best to describe, narrate, make the dialogue realistic, etc. As I progress on the proper version, I select from 'vacant' entries, note them down on both versions. This way, I can also keep track of what's remaining.

As you can imagine, as I complete more and more options, the amount of vacant entries dwindle (often at an alarming rate!) at which point I try to conclude the draft adventure as best I can without it looking rushed. If I've counted, for example, 57 entries remaining then I try to use these up in the best way I can, saving them more for surprises and key encounters than a convoluted path system or multiple item options.

In The Curse of Drumer

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In (Puffin Series) FF#41 Master of Chaos, the author

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One more thing: mostly, I plan an adventure as I go along, making the occasional 'reminder' on a 'Notes' sheet for my own reference. There are flashes of inspiration for a scene, encounter, etc which requires me to insert a particular item, weapon, or information in preparation of reaching a particular point in the adventure. I don't use a map or even 'path tree' to keep track of my own adventure. It's all in my own head and the Notes Sheet. That's it.

In TCOD,

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And that's just one example!

My style is more an adventure that branches and develops as it progresses, with ideas coming to me as I go along.

Robert Douglas
Sat Aug 18 01:50:47 2012

Oops! I forgot to mention that I also have a sheet with all the entry numbers listed (ie. 1-400) in columns. As I use one up, I cross that particular entry out. After a while, it can get a bit messy and difficult to read, so later on I create a new list of 'vacant' entries. For example, it might list: '5, 17, 29, 40...etc' as vacant. I check these against the proper version to make sure I haven't forgotten to write any options when writing the rough draft (if there's an anomaly, I check back through the draft to try and locate it). If it tallies, I total them up and plan the concluding part with what's available.

Haoie
Sat Aug 18 07:28:37 2012

Thanks Rob - I figured it'd be something like that, but really couldn't see how the clues matched with the results.

C-Star
Sat Aug 18 08:46:56 2012

(Sarcasm)Ha that doesn't sound complicated at all!(/sarcasm) Still, I think I'll stick to playing gamebooks rather than writing them. And btw, I'm glad that Blood of The Zombies lived up to the expectations of its fans! The idea of scrapping the skill and luck scores does seem to be oversimplifying a bit, but people didn't seem to mind that. But the new form of combat sounds a little bit on the unforgiving side...

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DON'T ROLL A ONE, DON'T ROLL A... Ah sh-(Eaten by 19 zombies). Or do the weapons and their bonuses make this a lot easier than it sounds?

Glen
Sat Aug 18 15:24:27 2012

I've not played Blood of the Zombies but I can say that the title does not make a good impression on me. I've always considered zombies not to really have any "blood" to speak of. At least not the bright red flowing kind.

C-Star
Sat Aug 18 15:54:10 2012

And I'd imagine zombies would have some blood inside them somewhere, just that it wouldn't be doing anything. I'm not bothering looking on Wikipedia for it or anything though!

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