Ulysses Ai, refresh my memory.. did you recommend somewhere in the guestbook to do your works in sequence? I seem to recall you suggested it in order to get the 'best possible' ending or easter egg in the later story(s). Or something to that effect. Refresh my memory? (I'm sorry, but I really don't feel like clicking through page after page of the guestbook to find this reference!) *sheepish grin*

Jordan
Sat Jan 22 01:18:59 2011

Hey, Clyve. Yes, Ulysses did suggest that. Though his adventures can be played as stand-alone gamebooks, you can increase specific weapon training throughout the course of your adventures. Also, you have multiple opportunities to increase your luck, skill and stamina, and the increases to said things goes from gamebook to gamebook. For example, if your skill managed to increase to 14 or so in Golden Crate, you can increase it further in the latest episode. Ulysses, I very much look forward to your latest adventure. If I may make a suggestion, or request rather, I hope that, after you finish all of the episodes of the WWGB series, you do another adventure similar to Diamond Key. Or even something different. Perhaps a mystery with horror/fantashy elements?

Ulysses
Sun Jan 23 02:00:46 2011

Clive55:
Jordan is correct. Some areas of the gamebooks can be accessed only if you have completed the previous episode, usually to gain a bonus.

Jordan:
I have 2 other stories currently under development that are set in the same world as The Diamond Key.
The first is a spinoff about the Orcs who have set up their own kingdom and are up to something. You play as a puny orc who was raised in a temple by humans, sent in to spy on your people. You are forced to learn quickly the harsh ways of your people and grow stronger. You also have an alightment that shifts according to your actions and leads to one of six equally valid endings.
The second is similar to Deathtrap Dungeon, but is set in a series of arenas packed with spectators. Therefore it is a lot more fiscally responsible that watching contenstants disapper into a hole in the ground. Revenue from ticket sales more than covers the overheads of hosting such an event, although the payback period for multiple stadium construction is measured in decades. Still the boost to the local economy by spectators from out of town is not insignificant. You play as a local proprietor trying to make ends meet in your novelty hat store... Actually that's not true. You play as one of the contestants (of which there are 100s, from noble warriors who choose to attend, to prisoners who are there as monster-fodder). The arenas present a series of challenges and battles which are designed to entertain the crowd, oh and find the champion who will be the next king (until the economy dips). You play as one of six characters who will all have different experiences as they fight their way through.
I've written about half of both projects, but they are long ones which will be about 1000 refs each. You probably won't see them for a while yet. After that I will retire from gamebook writing unless I start getting paid for it.

Jordan
Sun Jan 23 23:00:06 2011

Oh, I didn't know that this was a voluntary thing. Wow! Nice going, Ulysses, Phil, and all the other authors of these books. I've heard of the Deathtrap Dungeon Ulysses, but never played it. I'm assuming it's an actual Fighting Fantasy book. Any online versions out there to play?

Ulysses
Mon Jan 24 01:22:02 2011

Jordan:

Secondhand bookstores or Ebay might be the best place to find a copy of Deathtrap Dungeon. You won't find it online legally. It was included in the re-release of some of the FF titles, but there's no need to pay full price for it.
The re-release seems to have died off anyway. I only saw the books in a few stores a couple of years ago, and now don't see them anywhere.

Aiken
Mon Jan 24 13:27:36 2011

Ulysses- the Deathtrap Dungeon homage sounds awesome. Well both books do, but especially that one. You could have a stat. called "Popularity" that goes up if you please the crowd by being heroic/bad-ass and down if you are cowardly or evil. At crucial moments the crowd might then decide your fate, a la the Roman gladiatorial games.

Ulysses
Mon Jan 24 13:34:04 2011

Aiken:

How prophetic of you, it does indeed have a stat like that :)
The contest is to select the king, and so it's hardly an unbiased contest. The six characters you can play as come from different backgrounds (e.g. one is a prince, another is a slave), and start out with different popularity ratings. Your actions can result in your popularity going up or down, and unpopular characters are quietly assassinated by officials if it looks like they might be getting too successful.

Haoie
Thu Jan 27 20:11:17 2011

That's awesome! I was really disappointed with the sequal to Deathtrap Dungeon, Trial of Champions - The only good part is before you go into the dungeon itself. Armies of Death was quite a bit better.

Bert
Mon Feb 7 21:06:02 2011

Ulysses, this appears to be the playing order: Wrong way go back - Planet of the Spiders - Golden crate - Hypertrout - Contractual obligations. The last one links to Return to G15-275 which I cannot find, so this one is perhaps not completed yet?

And then there's The diamond key which appears to be standalone. Correct?

In other news: I absolutely love this website but finding something in the guestbook is a pain. It would be great if each gamebook would have it's own section.

Ulysses
Mon Feb 7 22:50:11 2011

Bert:

The order is as you listed with one exception: After Contractual Obligation comes The Dead World. Return to G15-275 is Episode 7 which is currently under development.

The Diamond Key is stand-alone.

It has been suggested before to have individual guestbooks for each gamebook. I can't recall the webmaster commenting on this suggestion individually, but as things stand now that would mean having 29 guestbooks, which is a rather clumsy way to handle things. A better solution would be to convince authors to provide walkthroughs for the Downloads section. I certainly write walkthroughs for each of my adventures; then I print them out and lock them in a chest in my basement.

Bert
Tue Feb 8 09:07:54 2011

Ulysses:

I missed The Dead World, because it is available on-line only. Is it possible to make a downloadable copy available as well? I never play on-line, I print the adventure and play it as a book. With 7 episodes of this quality it's quite an epic undertaking of yours!

Yes, 29 guestbooks would be overdoing it. I was more thinking about one questbook with (at least) 29 separate topics. Another good option would be a search facility. That would fix the problems too for it would allow one to quickly find all messages relating to a single advanture.

Personally I don't use walkthroughs. If I can't solve the adventure in the normal way I'll "take the book apart" until I see what I was supposed to do. Of course I haven't played one of your longer adventures yet so I reserve the right to change my mind about walkthroughs in the future :-)

Ulysses
Tue Feb 8 12:47:06 2011

Bert:

I asked the webmaster not to make the text version available for download until after the online version has been available for some time. This was so that people wouldn't be tempted to read the text version first and thus miss out on playing the story fresh in the online version (which I think is better); and also so people could not cheat by looking at the text version when they encountered difficulty.

That said, it has probably been long enough now for The Dead World to appear on the downloads page, especially since The Dead World is really just a brief stopover in the series and not that impressive.
Mr Webmaster, can you put the text copy on the Downloads page, please?

Yes, fair enough. It's there now.

Bert
Tue Feb 8 15:15:45 2011

Ulysses: thanks for your permission to make The Dead World availabale for download. I, and the stockholders of Hewlet-Packard and the local printerpapermill, are very greatful :-)

Aiken
Thu Mar 3 15:11:15 2011

Ulysses: "..subtle but unique fragrace...".

If only other authors defended their work with your level of tenacity, ingenuity and commitment.

Bravo!

Ulysses
Mon Mar 7 02:30:54 2011

Bert:
I hope you're printing double-sided, 4 pages to a page, fast draft on recycled paper...

Bert
Mon Mar 7 08:37:16 2011

Ulysses: Close, but no cigar :-) I reduced the font to 8, reformatted the text in columns and removed a few empty lines. The result is a reduction from 183 to 74 pages. Printed double sided this results in 37 actual sheets of paper. Which is exactly two more than my stapler can handle so I use a plastic binding strip. Its draft but on first quality paper otherwise my printer jams, which is something you really want to avoid when printed double sided!

The result looks very good and professional, and I'm sure it'll last a long as a real book. The quality of your work deserves it.

Ulysses
Thu Apr 7 21:05:19 2011

Hello everyone.

For those of you who played The Dead World,

SPOILER

END SPOILER

john
Fri Apr 8 00:55:01 2011

Sounds great. I look forward to playing it. Regarding the sphere, I wasn't able to figure it out at all, but that might have something to do with the fact that (A) I'm nearly blind and use a screen reader, and (B) I've never been able to get that kind of thing in the first place. I was hoping it might be solved just by having the slider puzzle with me, but no luck.

binki
Fri Apr 8 05:16:09 2011

You mean "an image of an 3 by 3 grid with a 2 in the upper right corner and a 1 in the centre square of the bottom row"?
Well, I did with some use of pencil and paper

Ulysses
Fri Apr 8 07:44:54 2011

@Binki

Did you solve it in the story, or just work it out later?

I ask because there are consequences in the later episodes if you solved the puzzle or not, so I am curious as to how many people will actually see the alternate storyline.
When I wrote The Diamond Key I made the mistake of creating several areas and storylines which I believe only a slender minority of people ever found. For example, it's possible to obtain 2 Diamond Keys. Did anyone ever have 2...?

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