Hi all! I'm doing the April A to Z blogfest on why gamebooks are great. Today, I have interviews with three of ffprojects contributors - have a look at what they said.

http://virtualfantasies.blogspot.com

Robert Douglas
Tue Apr 3 16:11:13 2012
General Chat

Hi Stuart, nice to see the interviews up and running. Every little bit helps.

I stand corrected about Star Strider's release date - but for some reason Luke Sharp's gamebook is stuck in my head as the very first time I encountered FF; my visit must have been later than I'd said. Still, Creature of Havoc is definitely the first gamebook I bought.

Sebastien Boudaud
Tue Apr 3 20:08:07 2012
Publicity

NEWS FOR FF FANS.

Le Grimoire Publishing was created in 1992 in France and published French Lone Wolf RPG in France since 2007 and many other Roleplaying Games.

We just opened an art Gallery last week. Le Grimoire will purpose unique artworks from great artists as Gary Chalk and Russ Nicholson... 3 artworks are actually available in the GALLERY. In several days we will purpose another artwork from Russ Nicholson, from FF universe: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.

http://www.legrimoire.net/store/en/15-galerie-des-artistes

Robert Douglas
Thu Apr 5 22:17:59 2012
General Chat

This might sound an odd thing to ask, but: which of your favourite song theme can inspire a gamebook idea?

Perhaps we could make a competition out of it?

Alexander Ballingall
Tue Apr 10 04:50:05 2012
Publicity

Hi folks,

the team here at Fighting Fantazine are launching a series of illustrated, hyperlinked pdfs of amateur FF adventures this month. While the first title is (and some later ones will be) taken from the pages of the magazine, we'd like to see other non-magazine amateur FF adventures presented in the range. If you've an amateur FF adventure (of between 150~450 references in length) and you'd like to see your adventure possibly included, please get in touch with myself at the following: editor at fightingfantazine dot co dot uk.

Cheers,
Alex

Alex Bass
Thu Apr 12 13:44:03 2012
General Chat

I have spent the last couple of years on the net, looking for a way to make my own gamebooks so that I can share my adventures with other people. I have had little luck of finding one that didn't include programming knowledge or downloading several files that may or may not work on my system. I have found your website about four months ago and have loved the gamebooks that you have. I want to make gamebooks like these, but I am having little luck. Can you help me?

If by 'gamebooks like these' you mean automated versions that track your stats etc. then as far as I know a certain amount of programming is unavoidable. Nonetheless, I would recommend that you take a look at http://www.fightingfantasy.org or http://www.spielbuch.net, both of these let you make gamebooks for online play and you might find that the programming is not so bad once you get down to it.

Stuart Lloyd
Thu Apr 12 17:32:06 2012
General Chat

Hi Alex,

It's great to see you want to write more gamebooks. There are plenty of gamebook creation programs out there.

Scroll down this page - it is the group after the author/illustrator pages.

http://www.gamebooks.org/show_links.php?type=gamebooks

I use ADVELH to make gamebook documents - you can also make hyperlinked HTML files.

If you want to make more of a hyperlinked program, I have used Adventure Cow http://www.adventurecow.com/ which is very simple to use - you just type in the paragraphs.

Choice of Games
(http://www.choiceofgames.com/category/user-made-games/) says that its system is easy to use even for users with no programming language. I have not used it os I cannot comment.

There is also the Choose Your Own Adventure Wiki where I presume you write a gamebook by creating several hyperlinked wiki pages.

http://editthis.info/choose_your_own_adventure/Main_Page

Hope this helps!

ffproject
Thu Apr 12 18:20:01 2012
Devil's Flight

Devil's Flight

I've added Gaetano Abbondanza's new gamebook to the downloads page. There will also be an online version of this in the relatively near future.

bcyy
Mon Apr 16 06:55:44 2012
Rebels Of The Dark Chasms

Hi everyone, I think I've given up on Rebels of the Dark Chasms. If anyone could find a path which guarantees a 30% chance of beating the game, even with perfect initial rolls, a walkthrough would be appreciated.

Failing that, any way to complete the game would do.

bcyy
Mon Apr 16 06:58:12 2012
Devil's Flight

By the way, congrats to Gaetano Abbondanza for the new sci-fi horror adventure!

Still waiting for WWGB ep7. Brilliant series!

bcyy
Mon Apr 16 08:01:58 2012
General Chat

I'm not sure if I'm qualified to answer the questionnaire, but here goes (for the applicable questions, anyway):

What was the first gamebook you read (that wasn't your own)?

Metal City Mayhem (Sonic series)

What is your favourite gamebook?

Creature of Havoc or Moonrunner, can't decide which.
Captif d'Yvoire (T&T) and Warbringer (Way of the Tiger) also stand out, but they suffer from belonging to mundane series, IMHO.

What gamebooks/interactive fiction would you recommend to a newcomer to the genre?

Midnight Rogue, Vault of the Vampire, Creature of Havoc. In exactly that order.

Summarise what a gamebook is to a newcomer in 100 characters or fewer.

A novel in which the decisions of the reader or random events have an impact on the plot.

Why are gamebooks great compared to games or books?

Please define the terms "game" and "book".

Where did you come up with your ideas for gamebook game systems (in this case additional rules for FF)?

Actually, I don't think I would add additional rules if I ever wrote one. Additional rules deviate from standard rules, and could be stressful for the player to implement if they are either too complicated or are implemented too frequently. They could also be difficult to implement for a computer-coded version, thus limiting their development (I converted Lair of the Troglodytes as a C programming exercise, but stopped at converting ones with more complicated rules, since those rules were incompatible with my central subroutines dealing with stats and combat).

When it comes to writing a gamebook, what's the most important thing that you do?

Make sure it would be worth reading. Not necessarily fun - educative or inspirational would do too.

Haoie
Thu Apr 19 20:49:43 2012
Above The Waves

This might be obvious, but did anyone notice the parallels between the new gamebook Above the Waves, and Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now?

Adam E. Johnston
Mon Apr 23 09:38:13 2012
Above The Waves

Oh yeh, for sure Haoie. A couple of things that jumped up at me were "Marlowe" on the plane (protagonist of the book), Kurtz (anatagonist of the book) and of course the idea of venturing into the unknown jungle, as the novella describes the journey into the Congo basin. It was a fun gamebook, but I think it would help to have a bit more backstory in the beginning (ie, how the world is now dominated by aircraft and has a post apoc feel, despite modern technology- like the nuclear reactor- existing). Still, lots of fun, a great read.

pi4t Tue Apr 24 00:01:13 2012 Hellfire	In Hellfire, on section 263, the text indicates that the Spider Man is mean to kill you if he hits you at all. I was hit and nothing special happened. Is this a bug?
	Yes it's a bug. I have fixed it now and it works as in the original : you test your luck to see whether you live or die. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Phil Sadler
Tue Apr 24 07:16:21 2012
Hellfire

You can avoid death if you are lucky.

Phil Sadler
Wed Apr 25 09:15:26 2012
Hellfire

OK Andy, I spoke too soon. Thanks for fixing it.

duffmeister
Wed Apr 25 10:05:32 2012
Devil's Flight

'Devil's Reach' is completed at last! Excellent adventure, I felt a real chill throughout the adventure and I thought it was an excellent Survival Horror themed adventure. The 'Aliens' similarities were enough to make it a noticeable similarity while allowing it to stay different enough from it to be every original.

SPOILER

END SPOILER

I thought the setting was very well concieved, with all the parts of the ship different and interesting. Many congratulations on a horrific but awesome adventure!

duffmeister
Wed Apr 25 19:19:02 2012
Devil's Flight

Whoops...'Devil's Flight' rather...ah well, what I said still stands.

Gaetano
Wed Apr 25 22:55:34 2012
Devil's Flight

Glad to hear you enjoyed it, Duffmeister.

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