17 replies to this topic

[creatures-of-gaia.com]

Hello,

Do you remember the good old times with books like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_Fantasy

Well, I wondered what you would think about bringing this idea to the web ...community fashion.
That you open your browser and see a small text, and have to click on links to make choices and influence how the story unfolds.
The whole could be improved by adding some artwork and a simplistic battle system.

Lastly, since most of the work involved is actually writing the story and providing artwork, perhaps we could let the "community" itself let the "book" expand and improve. A bit like in a wiki where you add links and edit text, letting anyone contribute.

What do you think?
...I personally think it would be fun to play.
The trickier question is whether people would be willing to contribute by improving/expanding the story without degenerating in low quality crap.

Cheers

[aattss]

Seems like a good idea. I would have it so that random players would have the option to do a user-created option, and then they would rate it. If it got a good rating, then an admin would add it, but if not, then it would be discarded. To prevent spamming, someone can only create an option if any previous options were accepted or denied.

[Acharis]

Well, I wondered what you would think about bringing this idea to the web ...community fashion.
That you open your browser and see a small text, and have to click on links to make choices and influence how the story unfolds.
The whole could be improved by adding some artwork and a simplistic battle system.

Khem, you haven't googled it first? These were brought to web several decades ago already. First as pure gamebooks with artwork, then with combat system, and then these evolved to browser games (but that last part is questionable since very few retained the "select paragraph" core mechanic).

Example: http://www.ffproject.com

[creatures-of-gaia.com]

Yeah, I think the novelty would be to allow anyone editing it / contributing ...a kind of self improving, self expanding storyline.

[lmbarns]

Wow, it looks like they signed a deal to release a new version on iOS and android.

Looking at the list of "Fighting Fantasy" books, they're amazing.

This one has a "fear score" determined before you start playing, each disturbing event adds between 1-3 fear score, if the player gets to the max fear number they "die of fear". lol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Hell Not only that, it's a horror taking place modern day, pretty rare and it's from 1984. I want to use that in a dungeon crawler.

This one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Thieves_%28gamebook%29

Most encounters in the city are potentially lethal, several being no-win situations where the best outcome involves injury or loss of money.

YEEEESSSSSS....


All of them look amazing. Great inspiration.

Actually this company has a bunch of them on iOS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Blue_Bubble#iPad_Games

[6677]

I only had one of them, I always used to lose my dice aswell and accidently tore out one of the "inventory" pages once. I want to read that again. TO XNA.

[jbadams]

See also: "interactive fiction".

[LorenzoGatti]

Gamebooks are a perfect fit for web-based interactive fiction where you click on hyperlinks to proceed, without the artifice of paragraph numbering.
They have immediately evolved beyond the limitations of gamebook format, embracing opportunities offered by web technology (apart from hyperlinks, use of graphics, modifying text, structured information presentation) and by computer-assisted interactive fiction technology (tracking and presenting arbitrarily complex locations, character states, inventory, plot advancement and anything else; fine-grained interactions within paragraphs and generic commands like movement, enabling a better match between paragraphs and scenes).
You are free to adopt a nostalgic style (good descriptions bringing to life a sequence of very important tough choices) but don't neglect progress.

[creatures-of-gaia.com]

Yeah ...I think we're straying away from the main point though: letting the community easily edit the "book", like a wiki.

Current games of that sort are usually "static", they are made once by hard work of a bunch of people but don't evolve afterwards.
Here, it would be more like an ever-growing book made by a community.

[Fulgrate]

I had a book like that, but you were a fox and depending on your choices, you either got home or you got killed by a hunter, trap, other animal. : D Ah, the 90's. The book is basically pictures with texts saying "Go through this fence hole" or "go to the stream", and will tell you what page number to jump to next based on your choice. They were quite fun.

I also now remember that there were NOVELS like that. I especially remember the story of some guy who got the ability to slow down time. And when you got to a point where you made a choice, just like with the picture book, you go to a particular page based on your decision. A very interesting story. : ) Thanks for reminding me of it. Also, I think it would definitely be a good idea to make a digital version of such things.

[creatures-of-gaia.com]

I think I could get something running pretty quickly ...I just don't know if there would be people wanting to play it and write for it

[jefferytitan]

This one has a "fear score" determined before you start playing, each disturbing event adds between 1-3 fear score, if the player gets to the max fear number they "die of fear". lol http://en.wikipedia....i/House_of_Hell Not only that, it's a horror taking place modern day, pretty rare and it's from 1984. I want to use that in a dungeon crawler.

This one: http://en.wikipedia....eves_(gamebook)

Quote
Most encounters in the city are potentially lethal, several being no-win situations where the best outcome involves injury or loss of money.
YEEEESSSSSS....

Read/played both of them. Great fun. Although (like a few I suspect) I cheated on the rolls due to not having dice handy and hating losing. ;)

[Dragonsoulj]

I think I could get something running pretty quickly ...I just don't know if there would be people wanting to play it and write for it

I'd be interested in playing it. I could potentially think of things to write for it (the wonders of being a Dungeon Master XD).

[aattss]

You could probably post it on Facebook, and you could raise money for advertising on Kickstarter or Indiegogo (although the main goal of such a campaign would be for the publicity).

[creatures-of-gaia.com]

Well then ...I could give it a shot.

Now, all that is missing are people interested in it and some good name / url for it.

What do you think of "Open Quest" ? Or do you have other suggestions?
Actually, I would have enjoyed a domain like "be-a-hero.net", sadly that's already taken.
However, finding an alternative cool sounding name/url would be really cool.

Edited by fuzzy fizz, 06 July 2012 - 03:28 AM.

[ygworlds]

Video based versions of these games were made, both on PC and later on DVD where the story rather than being text was a short video clip followed by your options. With the speed of the internet now it would be entirely possible to make a video based version of this - if you can convince enough of your friends to star in it ;)


Of the list my favourites were:
Deathtrap dungeon, and it's successor trial of champions (I actually coded trial of champions into an MSX on BASIC when I was 10)
House of Hell (as stated above the fear factor was very cool, and surely ripped by Call of Cthulu?)
Freeway Fighter (although was annoying that you had to stop everywhere or you'd run out of stuff)
Rings of Kether (amazing space adventure, still to this day not a clue what was going on)

Also special mention to City of Thieves, the basis for the advanced fighting fantasy games of dungeoneer and blacksand - a novel way of creating tabletop roleplaying through the concept of a movie script.

[aattss]

Well then ...I could give it a shot.

Now, all that is missing are people interested in it and some good name / url for it.

What do you think of "Open Quest" ? Or do you have other suggestions?
Actually, I would have enjoyed a domain like "be-a-hero.net", sadly that's already taken.
However, finding an alternative cool sounding name/url would be really cool.

beaherothegamebook.net?

It's not uncommon to find an url already taken, which is why, for example, FTL is at ftlgame.com instead of ftl.com

[creatures-of-gaia.com]

...so, here is the first draft:

http://be-the-hero.net