tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post7345327124420919107..comments2024-03-29T07:35:51.362+00:00Comments on Fabled Lands: The first glimmer of the Fabled Lands MMODave Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-90915392454691238042015-11-04T23:45:39.238+00:002015-11-04T23:45:39.238+00:00Jamie's right, Joe. From 259 in book one you&#...Jamie's right, Joe. From 259 in book one you're going to 365 in book 4 (ie The Plains of Howling Darkness). Lucky you bought all six books as you'll need to go back and forth between them quite a lot to explore everywhere!Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-63219301293106397042015-11-04T21:10:51.009+00:002015-11-04T21:10:51.009+00:00Hi Joe, Actually it''s is correct as it is...Hi Joe, Actually it''s is correct as it is. If you look at the option in book one it says 'East into Nerech' and then when you turn to that para in the plains of howling darkness it starts with 'You ask the gate guard to let you into Nerech'. <br /><br />Whenever an option takes you to another book the title of the book is italicized, just to let you know you need the other book really. Just a style thing.Jamie Thomsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08899124425912889707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-5224624347468325022015-11-04T20:10:27.457+00:002015-11-04T20:10:27.457+00:00Okay great !i was on 259 and water to go east to t...Okay great !i was on 259 and water to go east to the plans of howling darkness . Then it says turn to 365 and then it drops me mid plot into a story .. I'm also not sure why the words are. Italicized ? Thanks for the help Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05923782570518517414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-3097999424883444132015-11-04T19:58:51.366+00:002015-11-04T19:58:51.366+00:00If you let me know the number, Joe, I can take a l...If you let me know the number, Joe, I can take a look and work out what the correct number should be.Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-72017058468040702662015-11-04T16:55:37.163+00:002015-11-04T16:55:37.163+00:00I'm not sure where to post this question . I j...I'm not sure where to post this question . I just got into reading the books and have bought all 6 .. My question is about book one . I'm doing really well but I'm finding a place where I'm stuck . It tells me to turn to a page and read a number well when I turn to that page it jumps into a middle of a story that has nothing to do with the previous number .. Is there a web site that has the number fixes ? Any help would be super appreciated thanks Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05923782570518517414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-71786317677573501472015-10-18T23:38:38.470+01:002015-10-18T23:38:38.470+01:00If I were an app developer, I wouldn't think t...If I were an app developer, I wouldn't think twice about the original fans. FF was far more successful than Sorcery when they came out as books, for example, but look at the app sales.<br /><br />We already know what works as far as "gamebook apps" are concerned. Inkle have shown that with Sorcery and 80 Days. It's not even a hard lesson to learn, but I see that other developers just haven't got it.Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-76449165784505182852015-10-18T20:59:52.369+01:002015-10-18T20:59:52.369+01:00It's the perennial problem isn't it - deve...It's the perennial problem isn't it - developing something that appeals to the original fans (as they're obviously the most likely to purchase it) but also seeks out a new audience unfamiliar with the original. To be fair, that's clearly what JD was attempting with the LW app, but it does seem that little of the spirit of the books has been carried over as far as I can tell.<br /><br />I'm not sure about gamebook readers not playing apps. Personally I don't play first person shooter-style games at all, but do play strategy-based world-building games (like Civ or indeed anything from Sid Meier's stable). I'm picking that the 80s/90s gamebook readers will be playing apps, since (like the gamebook authors themselves) they'll have migrated onto computer games when those took off. They likely will be playing apps of some sort today, but knowing what types is difficult (maybe a blog post for you? Or even a survey - give away a signed book as a random prize and you'll be fighting off responses with a stick. Especially if it's Walls of Spyte!).<br /><br />Maybe the final product of Frankenstein Wars will give you some clarity on exactly what's likely to work and who would be best to develop it.MikeHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-71114927225603561572015-10-18T13:32:43.939+01:002015-10-18T13:32:43.939+01:00I haven't tried KoDP but I hear good report of...I haven't tried KoDP but I hear good report of it. It seems to me that Fabled Lands would make the perfect gamebook app, as it's perfectly structured for a non-linear, fully personal experience. It lacks the fame of gamebook series such as Fighting Fantasy, true - but I'm doubtful if the fame of a series back in the '80s or '90s makes a lot of difference to the success of an app today. Most of the original fans of classic gamebooks probably don't even play apps, so what really counts is the content itself. On that score, FL is ideal... if we can find the right developer, that is.Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-43936380503167312932015-10-17T22:46:16.862+01:002015-10-17T22:46:16.862+01:00Have you played King of Dragon Pass, Paul (or Dave...Have you played King of Dragon Pass, Paul (or Dave)? This one has been on my 'really should get around to trying it' list for some time, as it seems to be a popular amalgam of gamebook and app-style world-building.MikeHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-17185716761407683512015-10-17T22:41:30.185+01:002015-10-17T22:41:30.185+01:00It really did seem that it was trying to target a ...It really did seem that it was trying to target a new audience, one more accustomed to first person shooter games, than a more general strategy gamer audience. Maybe that's deliberate since the former audience would be much larger, but the game then doesn't seem to have retained much of the flavour of the books. Which then casts doubt on Joe's prediction that fans of the game would then discover and enjoy the books.<br /><br />Not so sure about Joe's writing style. I always found Lone Wolf to be written in quite a clunky, almost faux-literary style. Florid is the word I think (thought curiously his Freeway Warrior series is much better in this respect). The clunky style is quite apparent if you read LW and Blood Sword back-to-back, which I've just done.MikeHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-85060403321220690752015-10-17T13:55:17.767+01:002015-10-17T13:55:17.767+01:00Life of a Wizard is probably my favourite original...Life of a Wizard is probably my favourite original gamebook app of recent years. I'd dispute your point that every choice is meaningful - the story is pretty linear. In many cases, you're really just choosing precisely how you want to overcome a specific obstacle, to hit the next story checkpoint (and by implication, which stat you want to improve as you do so). <br /><br />Where it shines is that it provides immense diversity in the types of character you can play. If you play through it six times, you'll likely create six vastly different characters by the end of the game. Very few apps, or gamebooks, provide that sort of flexibility in customising your character. That, for me, is the game's big draw - and why I've played through it about 40 times so far.Paul Grestyhttp://pwgresty.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-59701940455683749822015-10-17T13:44:34.293+01:002015-10-17T13:44:34.293+01:00I played the first part of the new Lone Wolf app, ...I played the first part of the new Lone Wolf app, and it didn't grab me. I don't know how much of the game Joe Dever personally wrote, but I suspect it was little or none - certainly, I spotted some clunky-sounding sentences that didn't seem his style. <br /><br />Re. the combat... yeah, it comes across as crazy complicated and frustrating. You have no tutorial, and no real way to know what you're doing the first time you launch into the game. I never got past my first combat before I gave up on it.<br /><br />I've read reviews from other people who've stuck with it, and found it very enjoyable and rewarding. Me, I only ever loaded it up two or three times before I removed it from my phone (with those combat graphics, it's quite a memory hog, as well - it eats up about a whole gigabyte of the phone's space).Paul Grestyhttp://pwgresty.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-91565286580922137942015-10-17T12:34:29.499+01:002015-10-17T12:34:29.499+01:00One wonders why, if that pitch was made 20 years a...One wonders why, if that pitch was made 20 years ago, we still don't have anything like this? Skyrim, Fallout, and others of their ilk are great (given the number of hours I've spent on them, it'd be hypocritical of me to say otherwise), but the gaming experience is not really customised to your character or previous interactions (certainly not more than superficially, anyway). They also both suffer from high-level characters being largely clones of each other, regardless of the path you've taken to get there (from which a lot of classless RPGs, as well as computer RPGs suffer) - characters are only distinct in the early to mid-level range.<br /><br />There's a great text-based (Android) mobile app called Life of a Wizard, where choices you make early on continue to resonate as you progress through the chapters and whilst there is a fixed structure to the progression, it manages (in quite a simple way) to make all of your choices meaningful that encourages replayability. It's not perfect, but I'd recommend it. Turn that up to 11, add a graphical interface, and layer on some FL elements, and I'll gleefully hand over a chunk of money for it!Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04062647064149474954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-37827909544143070052015-10-17T07:20:55.141+01:002015-10-17T07:20:55.141+01:00Great concept ! Great concept ! mundialecterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10204293820750293401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-21696420415785856062015-10-16T23:03:55.443+01:002015-10-16T23:03:55.443+01:00I haven't seen it, Mike, but I've heard ot...I haven't seen it, Mike, but I've heard others complain about the emphasis on combat. If we ever authorize FL apps I expect they would use the map as the top-level interface (like Sorcery, for instance) with short sections of text below that. FL meets Civ sounds like a good template.Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-28404994697986461702015-10-16T22:00:53.112+01:002015-10-16T22:00:53.112+01:00Oh how I'd love to see a true FL app which ret...Oh how I'd love to see a true FL app which retains the core storytelling and game mechanics of the books, but makes it an immersive gameplaying experience. Something like FL meets (Sid Meier's) Civilisation would be a dream for me.<br /><br />On a (tenuously related) note, have you played or have any thoughts on the new(ish) Lone Wolf app, Dave? From what I gather from reviews and trailers, it seems to be a very nice shiny thing, but dominated by combat and not really using the character or storytelling from the books. So basically what I'm saying I think is don't repeat this. :)MikeHnoreply@blogger.com