I'm not going to lie, this is more than I was hoping for. I think it might be the most expensive app/game I've ever considered buying. However it's downloading and installing onto my iphone as I type this. I was going to wait and see if it went on sale, but 1) I've been pretty excited about this coming out 2) the "little touches" in the feature list intrigued me and felt like there was a lot of thought and love that went into this game and 3) I wanted to support the developers so more titles come about. Hopefully in the future there was be a "hub app" that holds all the Tin Man "Gamebook Adventures" allowing me to pick different titles off a virtual shelf and taking up less screen space on my phone. I know it won't be there for the first two games but perhaps they can add an import/export feature for the future (the way Undercroft allows you to export your data from their lite version to their full version). Now if you excuse me I have some reading to do.
Hey Carnivore! Neil might jump on later with some more details, but I do know that we are looking for writers to do stuff outside the swords n magic genre. There are handful of books that are already slated to be finished fairly regularly starting with "Siege of the Necromancer" in about a month or so (and probably every month or two after that a new one will come out). Most of those fall into the fantasy setting. However after that we are hoping to really broaden the genres to try to include not just more types of scifi stuff, but also (as you mentioned) detective stories, mysteries, modern day stuff etc.. Cheers! -B (i am the dev on the project, in case you were wondering who the hell i am
hi dev, i am also curious how you plan to deal with the different books - will they all be seperate ie icon for each or with they be either seperate(each one) but if you have one then dlc - so that you only have one icon. ps love the idea of steam punk, detective noir btw
Game Impressions I had some time to start the game in the train this morning and I must say it exceeds almost every expectation I had. The interface is really polished and beautiful, font size and style can be changed, main menu is very stylish, every detail has been carefully designed. There is a nice background music, nothing too catchy (which is cool since it loops very quickly) but setting the mood allright. Story so far is really good and very well written. can't wait to see what happens next. The only thing i'm not so happy about is the fighting system, which is heavily based on chance, with no measure of your character's skill to impact the outcome of the fight. At the beginning of the book, your roll dices to decide your vitality points (HP) and Fitness point (something like luck in the Fighting fantasy series, but more cleverly integrated in my opinion). For the fights themselves, your roll two dices and the highest dice is highlighted. Opponent does the same and if his highest result is less than yours, you inflict damage. In the end, you may end the fight in two turns if you're lucky or die with "no reason". In this regard, the skill system of Fighting fantasy is better since it measures how good you are supposed to be in combat. A bookmark system allows you to "save" three times during the adventure, which is a nice way to allow you to cheat "reasonably". All in all, first impressions are really good and I can't wait for more
the polish, as i expected is top drawer. the word of orlando is brilliantly brought to life and you are drawn into the game world by some nifty history and timeline information. the combat moves by swiftly so you never get too bored, its pretty much as youd expect from a gamebook style system in that respect. above all it appears very well written, very descriptive and with some fine artwork to accompany this. problem tho. i had only done a few pages, up to the point you have first nights rest and then jumped into the menu screen to look at a few things and see what options there were. i clicked on the storybook to continue and i was at the start again! this does not happen if i quit back to the springboard and restart. there may be somewhere else to tap to continue from within the game, else i declare this a bit of a bug
I had the same problem while trying to activate/deactivate the quick dice with a story already started. Every time it forced me to reroll my character and start anew.
Hi all! I know Ben our superstar coder has already jumped on this thread today but I thought I would also get on and address any issues and questions myself. I'll be hanging around here a fair bit so please do fire at me any comments you have. Thanks for the generally positive response so far! So first up... That's fair comment carnivore. When we initially began looking at producing these gamebooks we wanted to involve traditional gamebook writers who knew how to handle the sort of logic based narrative that are needed to make these work. As you so rightly point out, a lot of traditional gamebooks are fantasy, so therefore a lot of the writers were more comfortable creating content for that setting. However, while being a big fantasy fan, I do realise there are other genre ripe for this format and we are already working with one writer in particular on a Sci-Fi gamebook that would perhaps fall more accurately into your "aliens" style setting. We'll be releasing information about that in the coming months. I hope that perks your interest and you continue to follow us! edit: we're also looking into a steampunk setting too!
This is an interesting issue and one we've discussed at length in the Tin Man tower. To set up an app for downloadable content is quite complex and for a small team like us quite expensive as it will take time. It is definately something that we would like to do and is definately on the Gamebook Adventures roadmap but it really all depends on whether it is a cost effective exercise for us which is ultimately decided by how many we sell.
I'm really excited about this. I'm just off to download it but I thought I'd lend my support to the idea of a Steampunk / sci-fi setting. While I love fantasy I find that there are almost too many conventions that 'must' be adhered to and thus limits any possible narrative and story development. To my mind sci-fi doesn't have the same limitations. Sorry my reasoning isn't put more eloquently but I'm Typing on my iPhone!
Hey Guys! I am trying to recreate this issue, (and fix it of course (I am the dev for GA. I know I have said this before, but just in case..) Can you get it to restart your game every time you change the quickdice? or does it just happen sometimes? Does it only happen after you have gone a certain number of pages etc? Also, any more info on your setup would be good as well? (ie what kind of device, what OS etc..) Thanks! I definitely want to get this bug fixed I am happy to check back here, or you can contact me directly at [email protected] Cheers! -Ben
Enjoying this so far - I'm at Eltane's Castle right now. One small 'glitch' I noticed though... I had to play the start a few times before I lived long enough to get anywhere and the first few games I played, a guy stalks me in the shadows when I'm on my way back home - and tells me that he has Kari. So the last time I played, I managed to chase the Assassin and made it to the Graveyard... And from there the adventure continues... and elements of the story allude to me having to rescue Kari... but no one has actually told me that she's been kidnapped in this line of the story that I've taken. Had I played this route the first time I started the game then I would be very confused now and there'd be a chunk of plot that wouldn't make sense... Cheers, Jamie.
I run the game on an Iphone 3G with latest OS. I recreated the problem three times this morning, always while ticking/unticking the quick dice box. The first time it was right at the beginning of the game, then after the first fight. thanks
Hey Vagrant, Thanks for the quick reply, just want to check the process you go through to get the bug: (I am having a hard time recreating it, so I am going to have to go through the code line by line and look for badness the slow way) You play for a bit, you open the character sheet you hit the main menu button you go the the options, you toggle the quickdice, you go back to the main menu (click on the main menu button) you click on the big book it takes you to the character creation screen? OR You play for a bit -> menu -> options screen you toggle the quickdice, you try to go back to the main menu but it takes you to the character creation screen right away? Cheers! -Ben
Hi there Jamie. This is a great find. However, I've just playtested this through chasing the assassin in every which way possible and each time it results in you meeting the Footpad who warns you of Kari's capture. I'm wondering if there was perhaps some other way you have got around this? Feel free to send me a PM with exact route you took.
ok fair point - and seeing as people seem to like this, i will do my bit to help the cost ....bought !
You have to remember really that gamebooks originally evolved in a time before big snazzy computer and video games. At the time it was very hard to have interactive entertainment the likes that we all now take for granted. With the rise in popularity of the e-book so it seemed perfectly logical that gamebooks would also work on handheld portable devices. It's all come full circle! We're gonna look at doing a lite version prior to our second gamebook launch, The Siege of the Necromancer. This is likely to include the first few playable pages of both Assassin and Necromancer. Watch this space.
That is fair. Provided both books sell well enough to warrant doing more, then I think it should be a strong consideration. If the iPhone allowed us to display as many screens as the device had memory for (or had another means to list all avialable apps aside from Spotlight) this wouldn't be such an issue. But if I have gone through, unlocked achievements and history and such, I don't want to remove it from my iPhone only to lose all that data. I know that already I am using up all my screen space as it is. I think a "hub app" with in app purchase system for new books and a central place to read all my "Gamebook Adventures" will be worth the investment in time and money. It would be another feature to set yourself apart from the competition and it's already a concern that will only get worse each time you release a new book. Basically, unless Apple redesigns it's interface, it's an issue that won't be going away.
I encountered another bug. IN section 121, while wearing the chain shirt, none of the options appeared in green, therefore leaving me with no option to choose from. I didn't try to replicate the bug since my bookmark was quite far away.
