Anyway, it set me to thinking... How many major quests are there in the first six books? How many recurring non-player characters? How many different locations? If it was a CRPG, how long would it take to play through?
And doesn't it make you wish there were another six covers on that infographic..?
Hell yes, I take we aren't going to see 7+ in the re-published line?
ReplyDeleteNot in the first six titles due next spring, Scott. Nor in the next six, which hopefully will be out in time for Christmas 2013. But if those are successful, the sky's the limit.
DeleteSo that would be a definite twelve gamebooks scheduled for a Lucky 'Thirteen? Gamebooks are back in town. Awesome!
DeleteI did say "hopefully" in time for Christmas... But there will be at least the first six next year, and twelve if I can help it.
Delete"And doesn't it make you wish there were another six covers on that infographic..?"
ReplyDeleteHmm, now that you mention it, it almost seems like a good idea.
Also buying a tablet now to buy the FL apps.
I should have some news about the new apps (for all platforms including Kindle) very soon. And wait till you see the artwork - it really brings the world of Harkuna to life.
DeleteSince I never took an interested in those apps, I hardly know anything about them.
DeleteSo the first apps are not on android (yet?)
Does "for all platforms" include PC?
DeleteIs it possible to become a beta tester? I just bought my nexus 7 und was doing some googling on making the Fabled Lands Java-App executable on Android (sadly, I don't think it's possible) - so, if you need input/feedback and devotion, I would be happy to serve you both :D
DeleteSounds like Fabled Lands stories are getting famous enough to be realized as games by big companies ^^
DeleteGosh, all this teasing about 7 -12! Do you two already have them written and have the manuscripts sitting in a vault somewhere? If so, we've waited long enough! Your fans are ready!
ReplyDeleteBooks 7 and 9 already exist in - I won't say fanfic form, that sounds disparaging. They're written by FL enthusiasts who have taken up the baton from me and Jamie, and very ably too. They're out there. In fact, book 9 is right here:
Deletehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/36246488/The-Isle-of-a-Thousand-Spires-1
wow book 9 is so well made i wish it was in print already!! Thanks for the link Dave.
DeleteDoes that mean that - if in a farer future it would come to publish volumes 7 to 12 - you would rely on those fanmade books and?
DeleteDefinitely. There's a lot of talent out there and I expect that many of the guys on the Yahoo group have a more thorough (even encyclopaedic) knowledge of the FL world than Jamie and I do these days.
DeleteWhy is the fan made fabled lands 9 not free to download, scribd wants me to pay.
Deletewanderer - sign up (it's free), upload a document, any document (such as a character sheet) and it will then give you free access to all downloads.
DeleteI did that and now I have it, thanks!
DeleteSpeaking about the huge amount of "paras", we must remember that some of the quests are specific for the different classes, so a lot of them remains closed until you restart with a different character. Just yesterday I made for the first time a quest in book 1, specific for the Rogue, then I moved to Harkuna again and to the northern steppes, and I completed for the first time the quest of the High King (I never managed to do it).
ReplyDeleteThis is the most incredible power of these books: you could go on hours and hours and hours and still know that something is hiding somewhere, or waiting for you to be able to catch it!
So do you have to be a Rogue to awaken the High King? I never realized that. (Blame Jamie, he wrote that book!)
DeleteNo no, the first one is specific for the Rogue (steal the armour from the temple in Caran Baru); the quest of the High King is simply something I never completed before. I should have put a point before "then"... wrong mistake for a syntactician! :)
DeleteI absolutely agree there should be a further 6 books I was a late comer to this series but an ardent FF player in my youth so only found these when they were republished. Heres to a full set in the future.
ReplyDeleteAlso hope that the Blood sword series comes out too as an old Dragon Warriors Player from the Corgi book era.
Funny you should mention Blood Sword. Those books will be reissued, and I'll have a post with more news in a few weeks.
DeleteExcellent, as that's one set that I've never been able to complete.
DeleteIn addition to the other twelve gamebooks planned for next year?! In addition to the Way Of The Tiger series?! Woohoo - it's Christmas already!
DeleteWell, six books for sure, in the spring. And then a very strong chance of another six by Christmas. Plus apps for FL books 1-6, and Way of the Tiger too, we hope. Still trying to secure print rights for WotT, so keep your fingers crossed!
DeleteI bought all the new 6 books hoping that will motivate you to go on with the series...
ReplyDeleteAfter all, from the yahoo group, we know some parts of book 7 are already written.
Please consider publishing it before 2013 :)
I (and dozens of other people i am sure) will even volunteer for testing if necessary ;)
It's true that Book 7 was written - not by me and Jamie but by (I think) Karl Craig and Mitch Edgeworth. There are two problems with us publishing that version, though. First, we don't have the rights. We own the world, but the authors own the copyright in the specific text of that book. It probably wouldn't be a problem to get the rights, seeing as they obviously wrote it as a labour of love, but the more pressing problem is that we'd have to commission artwork and a cover, and that's a pretty expensive undertaking. However, I'm sure you can find it online somewhere - maybe on the Yahoo group?
DeleteReading some of the notes for Book 7 makes my spine tingle! It sounds like such an awesome book - I don't see why they would have a problem wanting to publish it or give someone the rights so they could publish it!
DeleteI know that (good) artwork can be expensive . . . you could always have an E-Begging session. I'm sure a lot of the fans would throw some money at the project. You could always ask for art submissions too! There are a lot of great artists on the Internet who'd love to lend their talents!
"A lot" of the fans? How many do you think there are, Chris? FL readers are notable more for their superior intelligence and good taste than for their numbers :-) Of course, we hope that the reissued paperbacks and the forthcoming multi-platform apps will change that...
DeleteIn the meantime, I'm pretty sure somebody on the FL Yahoo group will point you at books 7 and 9. Tell 'em I sent you. In fact, you may run into Jamie there.
Wow - weird to see my name pop up here! I do vaguely remember writing some of that, though it must have been years and years ago now, when I was around 16 or 17. I only did about 50 paras (the river section) and I had no idea someone else had written the whole book. I presume, since you mentioned me, that they included what I wrote.
DeleteI think the reason I stopped was that it was such a daunting prospect, and that I knew it could never compare with anything you'd written. Definitely gave me a better understanding of what a monumental task it is to write any gamebook, let alone one as complex and linked as Fabled Lands.
The version I saw has only your name on the title page, Mitch, so whoever else contributed is being bashful. (I'm just guessing that Karl Craig wrote some of it because his name is on the file properties.)
DeleteGamebooks do take a certain kind of mindset. Jamie and I used to dash them off in 3 or 4 months each, but if I were to write one these days it'd take much longer - if I could do it at all.
Any chance you could share fan book7 on this page? On a different note, the yahoo fl group is not open for joining, at least my application for joining was rejected
DeleteIncidentally, if we did have the money to commission new covers for books 7-12, given that Kevin Jenkins is now far too busy making movies, the artist we'd go to is Simon Dominic:
ReplyDeletehttp://slodive.com/inspiration/amazing-concept-artworks-by-simon-dominic/
Who doesn't think that "Inspirational Work 8" there wouldn't make a great cover for The Serpent King's Domain?
I have never read those fanfictions but, with all my respect for the people who spent hours and hours to write them, I cannot consider them "FL 7 and 9", if the creators of the Fabled Lands didn't take part in the work.
ReplyDeleteI don't think something like that is possible at least for FL. The system is too complicated, all those "bridge quests" between different books and all the codewords have to match in a perfect way. I don't think it can be possible if you and Jamie Thomson don't take part in the creation of the books, and a second part of FL made by stand-alone books simply won't be FL.
Probably a team work could be a solution for the following books, seeing that you have other important projects to carry on, too: after all, you mentioned that a part of FL 5 was ghostwrited, it wouldn't be so different. Hopefully, the new apps could bring you enough fans and earn enough to cover all the project, including artwork, cover illustration etc, and bring to conclusion this wonderful, unique adventure...
We'd definitely use a team. That's how we're used to working these days, given our experience in the games and TV industries, and we have many other projects to work on, as you say. The app sales will be the deciding factor. The books in print don't sell enough to justify further episodes, but if the apps take off then they could tip the balance.
DeleteNow I will definitely buy all apps.
DeleteI guess I'll buy the apps to up the chance of seeing books 7-12, but I can't say I'm particularly thrilled. The books are about 1000x (approximately) better than the apps. And I like apps. I just didn't love the fable lands apps. I don't suppose Spirit are going to change the way they work? I liked the artwork well enough, but somehow the rest just didn't feel right.
ReplyDeleteI actually have a question about writting these books. I started to write a book similar in style to Fabled Lands. I was wondering if there was a resource you could direct me to or a previous blog post maybe I haven't seen that may provide insight and/or advice tor writting such books. Anything you can suggest would be immensely helpful!
ReplyDeleteA good place to start is Stuart Lloyd's blog. He has a whole bunch of excellent posts about how gamebooks are put together:
ReplyDeletehttp://virtualfantasies.blogspot.co.uk/
Of course, a lot depends on the kind of gamebook you want to write. Inkle's site discusses ten different approaches here:
http://www.inklestudios.com/archives/790
and you could use their Inklewriter system if you want. (Contrary to assumptions, I didn't use it for Frankenstein, I just wrote the text and logic directly in Word, but don't try that at home.)
Emily Short writes on the cutting edge of interactive fiction. To some tastes she may come across as overly academic, but if you're writing interactive fiction in 2012 it's important to recognize that the old game-challenge angle has been pretty much superseded by videogames, which is why I made Frankenstein about consequence and character instead of "solving the plot". That's what interests me about IF these days, although lots of people bought Ian Livingstone's latest dungeon bash so maybe there's life in the old skool approach yet.
Having said all that, the best way to learn, as with all writing, is to jump in and do it. That way you learn what works, rather than just being told by somebody else. Good luck.
Thank you! These resources will help greatly!
DeleteI think there is a lot from IF that can be brought to game-Kindle-app-books. I am intrigued as to why Fabled Lands has not been released on Kindle? Surely it wouldn't be too hard to add in hyperlinks, and whilst I don't know much about the economics of Kindle books it would cut out the cost of the printing. The only issue I can foresee apart from publishing rights issues would be where to display the pics. It might work better if each entry had a page to itself with text and any linked pics. AndyB
ReplyDeleteWell I think you're right, Kindle is a huge platform for interactive fiction: I have already read some gamebooks on it and many others often come out, so it's been quite sad not to see a Kindle version of Frankenstein as soon as it was released for iOS. I hope that when Frankenstein is available for Kindle, many other gamebook fans will be able to read it... and I will surely be among them. :)
DeleteYes, when the publishers made the decision to release Frankenstein on iOS only, they probably didn't realize how annoying that would be to owners of Kindles, Android tablets, etc. Once you've chosen an ereader, you're locked in and it makes no sense at all for publishers to ignore segments of the market, even if iOS happens to be the biggest (in apps, not ebooks, obviously).
DeleteGreat news re: Spirit coding for Kindle. Two caveats 1) The UK Kindle doesn't handle Apps yet. B) if you were to make one with dice rolling built in I think there should be a facility to manually enter results, as this would allow ppl to fudge their rolls if they wanted, not everyone wants to play by the official rules :-) AndyB
ReplyDeleteThat's true about Kindle Active Content not being available outside the USA. Not much we can do about that except that hope Amazon extends it to Europe soon. As for dice - well, personally I don't see any sense in keeping dice in app versions of gamebooks. I put that alongside rustling paper sound effects and curling page anims as a pointless carry-over of a feature that belongs to a different medium. But that decision is up to Spirit, not me. I'll certainly suggest that if they're having dice they should include a cheat option :-)
ReplyDeleteMy copies of FL 5 and 6 arrived the other day and I'm very happy. I hope my Amazonian dollars help to get parts 7-12 happening someday. Interesting to hear about the 'fanfic' 7 and 9. If you and Jaimie were to acquire the rights and give them some editing I wouldn't have a problem with it. If they're well written it gives a good boost to finishing the set.
ReplyDeleteI think the guy to edit those would be Andrew Wright. He's a bigger authority on Fabled Lands than Jamie and I these days. But he's pretty busy with his gamebooks for Tin Man, I think.
DeleteI just want to say how much I love the Fabled Lands books, and the world they're set in. I have hope that books 7-12 will see the light of day in some form or another. Of course actual books would be great to have in the collection but even if they exist only in a digital format I'd be more than happy. The series had been dead for some years by the time I got into it and all the recent developments have been like a dream come true. I don't even think pictures or fancy bells and whistles are really necessary; the Fabled Lands are so vivid, I could see everything so clearly in my mind. Although, it would be really cool to see them made into an RPG style video game. It would kick Skyrim's ass!
ReplyDeleteWell now, that's more the way Jamie and I would like to take it these days. A full-on multi-million-dollar state-of-the-art CRPG... Oh yes. Where's that winning lottery ticket when we need it?
Delete