I've just heard about a great resource for gamebook fans: thirty-one themes in the medium, from horror to SF to modern to non-fantasy. Duncan Thomson's (no relation to Jamie as far as I know) in-depth post covers hundreds of different gamebook series both classic and modern. Check it out on Rand Roll here.
And if you want to write your own gamebook, Stuart Lloyd has compiled an invaluable reading list to get you started. And trawling through some old posts here (such as this one) might also prove inspiring. I also find it useful to listen to Hieronymus J Doom's perceptive analyses of gamebooks on the Haunted Phonograph and Ed Jolley's Adventure Gameblog.
Talking of gamebooks, have you been keeping up with Prime Games' development reports on the CRPG version of Blood Sword? The latest concerns my favourite character class to write, the Trickster:
"The Warrior holds the line. The Enchanter bends the arcane. The Sage unveils hidden truths. The Trickster thrives where no one else dares -- in shadows, in whispers, in the thin places between honour and survival. Assassin, Knave, Hunter, or something in between, the Trickster proves that guile can be sharper than steel."
Read more about the Blood Sword CRPG and add it to your Steam wishlist here.
I'll check out Duncan Thomson's list, Dave, although I suspect my 'new' gamebook reading days are largely over. I have bought the revised 'Castle of Lost Souls' though. I'll try reading it within the next month before I go into the horse racing 'zone' for six months. I also intend getting Stuart's 'Virtual Reality' hybrid should he ever finish and release it.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note (and apologies if I've mentioned before), but I read and enjoyed Fred Hoyle's 'The Black Cloud' that you recommended, or mentioned at least. Although a few notches below RL Sheriff's 'The Hopkins Manuscript' I thought.
It's probably just as well then, Andy, that I don't have plans for a new gamebook in the near future. Shadow King is still on the drawing board, and new ideas get added daily to the already-bulging concept doc, but it may be a good while before I get around to it.
DeleteI agree with you about the relative merits of The Black Cloud (4 stars from me on Goodreads) and The Hopkins Manuscript (a rarely achieved 5 stars). And while we're on the subject of outstanding writers, I hear from John Whitbourn that he has written a play about Monica Jones, Philip Larkins' lover, and how she came to buy a conservatory that she never used. There's a fair chance of it being put on somewhere in London, and if so I'm planning to be there on opening night.
Present company was excluded on the new gamebook front, Dave! I certainly intend buying your Cthulhu inspired book anyway. Not included in Duncan's list was an enjoyable pair of books from the 80s called Forbidden Gateway that had a faint Lovecraftian vibe as I remember. Unfortunately they didn't survive my gamebook culling of decades back, so I don't know whether they stand the test of (or Terrors Out Of) time. Re reading my message above I also see I've gone very 'quotation mark' heavy. Dunno why. Perhaps I'm being driven into some sort of punctuation related madness. 'The Colon Out of Space' perhaps. (Blimey, that was bad even by my own abyssal standards).
DeleteThe Mr Whitbourn 'Monica Jones' play is great news, especially if it comes to fruition. I'll be jostling in the queue with you to get front row tickets. If I can get over my aversion of going to London that is, having always previously got lost (admittedly pre Sat Nav days the last time I went). You can write what I know about most poets on the back of a postage stamp, however I have read and enjoyed the John Sutherland book, 'Monica Jones, Phillip Larkin and Me..' so I wouldn't be starting completely from scratch in this case.
You're way ahead of me there, Andy. I know John was peripherally involved in that book, but I haven't read it. Pretty much all I know about Larkin is from poems John has pointed out or anecdotes he's related. I think I might quite like Larkin's poetry, though, seeing as it's dark and doomy, and it has the added virtue that there isn't much of it. So maybe I should read a bit more before (fingers crossed) the play opens.
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