Frankenstein web demo

After all the recent posts about the writing of my interactive Frankenstein book app, you may like to try it out. And now you don't even need an iPad or iPhone, as development wizards Inkle have put a Frankenstein web demo up on their site. Pop over and have a conversation with Victor about what he's got in that tank - just click where you see the words "Give it a try."

This demo is the sort of thing that publishers ought to be putting up on their websites too, incidentally, not just leaving to developers. But we're only in 2012. Softly, softly.

Meanwhile, if you are iOS-enabled then you can buy the book here.

Lord Mortis has risen! (again)

We're interrupting our series on the forthcoming Frankenstein book to bring you the latest news of another great gamebook app, the iPhone version of Megara Entertainment's visually stunning Keep of the Lich Lord, which aficionados of the gamebook genre will be aware was originally published as Fighting Fantasy #43 back in 1990. This is a thoroughly revamped edition, with new material by author Richard Hetley, who has relocated the action to the world of Harkuna.

If you're experiencing a slight sense of déjà vu, that's because, yes, I did already post about the new Lich Lord app. But that was the iPad version; more people have iPhones - and if you don't, I'm sorry, but we are trying to make sure that all the rest of our gamebooks will come out on all platforms. (And anyway, iOS is best, so there.)

There's a review on App Advice here, and you also get a sneak peek at this fabulous picture by the awesomely creative Maria Nikolopoulou, one of Megara CEO Mikael Louys's team of talented Megarettes. At $4.99 Lich Lord is cheaper than the original book was over twenty years ago - and now with the addition of almost a hundred brilliant full-colour illustrations. And this weekend you can get it at the special price of 99 cents. Yes, 99 cents. So why are you still reading? Go get it here (UK) and here (US)!

Fear itself

If you enjoy games like Alone in the Dark and Call of Cthulhu - both of which Jamie and I have spent many a happy (and happily terrified) evening playing - then you will love Megara Entertainment's Arcana Agency iOS gamebooks. The first (AA: Prologue) was published a couple of years back to critical acclaim, but in the meantime Megara have been sidetracked with projects like Fabled Lands and Keep of the Lich Lord. Now comes news of a new instalment in the series, written by Paul Gresty and with art by the talented Megara team.

There's an Arcana Agency Facebook page where you can see the new release taking shape, with great concept art and story snippets to whet your appetite and curl your tentacles, like this one:

The Mystery of the Walking Corpse
Just as Arcana Agency is ready to close for the weekend, Humphrey Brown and Tom Shanigan are called to the morgue of New York Cornell Hospital. One of their bodies has disappeared – apparently getting up, and walking out of the hospital by itself...

The picture, incidentally, is by Faiz Nabheebucus and shows Amber Giles, intern at the Cornell Hospital. "The Mystery of the Walking Corpse" is just one of several cases lined up for the new app. Jamie and I have had a sneak peek at the storyline and it is really something. Now... how about an Arcana Agency RPG?

A lich you can't scratch

The Keep of the Lich Lord returned from the dead this week as another visually arresting app from Megara Entertainment. If you're a Fighting Fantasy fan, you may remember this book as my and Jamie's contribution to the classic UK gamebook series.

The Megara version comes with new art and new text - I know, because (see below) I never put "a" Cerberus in anything! So, even if you played the original book, it's obviously worth picking up the app for all the new material. I'm told there are over a hundred illustrations, all in full colour. All Megara's excellent work paid off and the app shot up into the charts in both the UK and USA. Oh, and you might like to know that, as an added bonus, Megara has relocated the action from FF's world of Alan to our own Fabled Lands universe!

The Lich Lord app is for iPad and iPhone only, but we're aiming to change that with our future gamebook releases, which will ideally be available on as many platforms as possible: Android, Kindle, Windows, iOS and whatever else we can manage. Big plans. I'll tell you when I know more.

Sharing some secrets

A couple of snippets today. First, Stuart Lloyd has posted up the first of four in-depth reviews of Fabled Lands on his Virtual Fantasies blog. Some interesting insights there even for those who are familiar with the FL series.

And here's something to trumpet about: the Fabled Lands app from Megara Entertainment is proving a very big hit with iPhone and iPod Touch owners. The game is holding up there in around the #45 mark in RPG ratings on iTunes, and has been bobbing up close to the Top 100 in all adventure games.

This amazing success story means that Mikael Louys, Megara's Grand Fromage and all-around creative powerhouse, is able to pretty much guarantee release of the forthcoming apps for Cities of Gold & Glory and Over the Blood-Dark Sea. And if those do anything like as well as the first game, I think you'll be seeing the rest of the series before too long.

Incidentally, if you haven't yet got a copy of one of the Fabled Lands apps, iFanzine are giving away 20 copies (your choice as to iPad or iPhone version) so head over there posthaste and stake your claim.

Mirabilis launches on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7 and desktop apps

A cross-post today from my Mirabilis comic blog. Mirabilis season one, all 200 full-color pages of it, launches this week on Graphic.ly's multi-platformed storefront. If you've had your nose pressed to the Apple Store window wondering about that iPad, save your money - the new version is out in a month or two anyway, and in the meantime you can not only get Fabled Lands on iPhone, you can now collect all eight issues of Mirabilis on a whole bunch of smartphones and other devices.

Which devices? Well, desktop or laptop for starters. You can get the free Adobe AIR application which really is a nice presentation frame for your comics. Then there are the iPad, iPhone and Android versions - also absolutely free, naturally. And if you prefer to go old school, there's Graphic.ly's web reader that lets you have a look inside all their latest titles and to view the ones you collect on stunning fullscreen view. Setting up your Graphic.ly ID takes a couple of clicks and then you can read your comics on any or all of the supported platforms.

Still not convinced? Okay, well try this: as an introductory offer you can get both Mirabilis #1 and #2 for free. And Graphic.ly offer a whole bunch of other great titles in their online store, many of them free, and all backed up by the kind of extras we're coming to expect in digital comics: creator info, interviews, trailers, character tags and so on. Having just raised a further $3 million investment, Graphic.ly are ramping up to be one of the major forces in the new comics media, and we're very proud to have Mirabilis as part of their 2011 flagship line.

This digital lark, there might actually be something in it, eh? But if you don't think so, hold on a few weeks and, if you live in the UK or Ireland, you'll be able to buy Mirabilis as two deluxe hardcovers.

Now, any choices I've left out..?

Fabled Lands e-gamebook now on iPhone

That's not a picture of Jamie wondering who farted, it's just visual proof that, despite fears to the contrary, Megara Entertainment's Fabled Lands iPhone game is far from being totally JPRG in style. In fact the app has hundreds of pictures with a range of styles reflecting the various locations, all aimed at giving a respectful facelift to the old '90s incarnation of the books.

Wait - back up a sec. Did I say "iPhone"? I did indeed, because Mikael Louys's team have done the conversion work so that you can play the game without needing to buy an iPad. You ask me, I'm still going to tell you to buy an iPad, but Mikael wanted to make it easy for you. The game will run on an iPod Touch too, so you don't even need a fancy phone.

Mikael reports that the FL app has shot up to #63 in the main USA roleplaying rankings on iTunes. This is no mean feat, given that it has been on sale for barely 36 hours. I know I will be asked two questions. First, "How can one or two sales make any difference to FL's future fortunes?" Well, as I've explained before, getting a high ranking on iTunes makes a game more visible, which leads to more people being aware of it and hence more copies sold. This is why early sales are so important, to boost that ranking quickly up and reach escape velocity.

Which leads to the other question: "How will buying an iPhone app lead to new Fabled Lands books?" Because no entertainment business these days can survive by selling one product. Marvel don't make money by just selling comic books, they create properties that are multi-stranded and you support those properties whether you buy the comic, the DVD or just the Iron Man lunchbox. Fabled Lands LLP makes just as much revenue from sales of the FL app as from sales of the new edition print books, meaning that a sale of either of those is another tick in the column that may convince the FL board to fund new gamebooks.

But who cares about all that business stuff? The fact is that Megara have produced a brilliant reinvention of the first FL book as a 2D roleplaying game, in living color with atmospheric music, and you get at least 20 hours of gameplay for about $5. It's a no brainer, even for old Jamie the Orc there.