Disclosure: The featured gamebook has been written by GBN’s very own writer and editor, KJ Shadmand. Re-imagining classic works of literature as gamebooks is not an easy task. After all, novels tend to be linear and have a single ending, whereas gamebooks thrive on branching narratives that not only allow multiple paths to the story’s …
New Gamebook: The Island of Doctor Moreau – An Interactive Adventure Read More »
Solar War is the soon-to-be released new gamebook by Sam Isaacson, author of The Altimer and New Gaia. The system is identical to the earlier two books, and it can work as a standalone story although those that have read the others will appreciate some familiar names in there. It’s a return to the dark …
When news broke that the latest installment in the legendary Fighting Fantasy series was going to be written by Rhianna Pratchett, there was quite a buzz. The prospective author was known to have a slew of writing credits including Tomb Raider, Heavenly Sword, Overlord and Mirror’s Edge, and her name alone carries the air of …
Serania – Path of the Scion is a fast-paced, choice-based roleplaying text adventure, set in a Nordic style medieval fantasy world where your quest is to uncover the mystery of your ancestry. In doing so, you must escape the king’s feared Blackblades, find friends and fight foes, discover forgotten places, work undercover in the town, …
Gamebook releases are coming thick and fast, so it seems a great time for The Gamebook Zine – a free upcoming magazine dedicated to gamebooks, interactive fiction and related materials – to hit the shelves. The magazine’s first issue (Spring, 2021) will be released digitally on Itch.io, DriveThruRPG and as a printed magazine via Lulu …
Would you be interested in a piece of interactive fiction that claims to be “the biggest gamebook ever written”? If so, you’ll be glad to hear that ALBA – a post-apocalypse science fiction gamebook – is currently on track to fund on Kickstarter. ALBA seems to tie into several different sci-fi genres, promising an open-world …
Kickstarter: ALBA – open world post-apocalypse sci-fi Read More »
New year – new adventures! But first, a look back… Digital interactive fiction is mostly remembered as text-only adventure games, but the physical gamebook might have more in common with the digital point-and-click game-type – since it has a slightly more controlled narrative, illustrations and similar story lines. A point-and-click game features a graphic scene …
RETRO: Point-and-click – Zak and Dave on love adventures! Read More »
This feature is a departure from GBN’s usual content. It is not a newsbyte about a recent release of interactive fiction, nor a review of a gamebook author’s work. Rather it concerns something a bit more serious and markedly less fun: the very survival of Gamebook News.com. But first, some backstory! Recently, GBN applied for …
A bunch of different games have been released by Choice of Games / Hosted Games over the last few weeks. In October, Hosted Games released Too Different, a multiple-choice interactive-fiction game, available for Steam, Android, and on iOS via the Hosted Games app. In it you must unravel the mysterious past of your parents and …
VCC and T7D have a fresh offering: a new Commodore 64 release – the interactive game Survival Messenger Adventure! The thesis of the game is simple: you are stranded on an unknown island where you find a mobile phone. The device puts you in contact with a number of strangers from whom you must receive …
First things first: MASTER is a brutal sixty page dark fantasy story filled with violence, monsters, and psychedelic visuals. You play a great warrior whose superlative training in destroying daemons has developed your sight to the point where you can see into the bodies and minds of your opponents. Useful? Yes! Especially when your sole …
GBN has been excited to be in touch with Don Bosco, an award-winning writer and publisher of thrilling fiction for teens and children, and founder of the publishing studio Super Cool Books. In 2019, Don published his latest gamebook: Last Kid Running, Welcome to the Scramble. Here is its synopsis! LAST KID RUNNING is a …
INTERVIEW: Don Bosco, author of Last Kid Running Read More »
GBN appreciates the fact that gamebooks are tricky to write at the best of times, but how about a thousand paragraph gamebook that has time travel as its central theme? If it takes courage to attempt such a thing, then Joseph Daniels – author of The Legacy of Craven Manor – is amongst the bravest …
GBN was excited when Soren Jonsson – a creator of two augmented reality gamebooks – got in touch and offered to talk about the first two installments in the Peasoup Smartbook series: Firemaster and The Archmage Tower. Aimed at 9 to 13 year olds, these books use the Firemaster app (available via Google Play or …
INTERVIEW: Firemaster and The Archmage Tower, by Soren Jonsson Read More »