I would like a larger canvas too! Sadly though, the time it takes to write one of these books at current length (let alone edit, proof and test every page and link) already stretches our resources. Regarding old gamebooks, the length of ours actually exceeds many of them! As drelbs says too, we have added longevity by including all the achievements which encourage you to find more paths that reveal more of the story narrative and learn more about the world. Alongside our constantly updated Orlandes Uncovered feature as well as the world map, we feel you get lots of value as the world is constantly evolving. Indeed. You have pretty much hit the nail on the head. One of the things we like to try and do is cross thread some paths which open up new insights into the story, which, when an alternate path is taken in another reading, this then gives the reader a more pieced together picture of the events taking place. Hope that makes sense.
Yeah, I figured that it would be too difficult to make a longer story, but I just had to ask because if anyone would do it justice I think you guys would. I liked the story in GA1 but I just wished I had the opportunity to experience more of it as it felt like I was rushed from location to location without really getting to know it more. I would have loved to have spent twice the amount of time or more in the city among other things. Don't get me wrong, I think there is plenty of value in what you are offering and I don't feel cheated in the slightest. Its just that it is done so well that I wish the journey was longer with each read through (without having to go back and chose different paths. That's fun too, though!)
I noticed it when I created a mini gamebook of 50 pages and you couldn't die in it. There were several choices. It took around 4 days to write and I gave it to someone who finished it in 15 minutes xD So I can definitely emphasise!
Don't worry, you'll be back in Orlandes City soon enough.... Thanks for you kind comments! Hopefully you'll get the same enjoyment out of our upcoming gamebooks too. You'll find some books are more epic in the way the narration flows (move from place to place very quickly over a long period of time), while others are more confined within a smaller area. GA2: The Siege of the Necromancer is like that for instance as it all takes place in one day, mainly in one key location. Yeah writing gamebooks is a bit of a dark art isn't it? It's always about trying to balance the pace of the story and trying to maintain an exciting narrative, all the while managing many, many different paths! Thankfully, we love writing and editing them.
Yep What was really funny about the one I wrote was that it was on prompt cards (You know those coloured ones on a ring binder xD) and I couldn't fit much of the story into one "page" (aka prompt) so I had to make them double-sided and that's also another reason it was so "short." However, I think I maintained the right about of story and choices.... <.< >.>
I am a bit late to the conversation, but I thought I would jump in with some stats: (because I am a coder, and I love numbers GA1: An Assassin in Orlandes, has about 510 sections, literally thousands of unique paths through the logic, and 78 endings. The shortest route from page 1 to the 'ultimate' ending is around 75 sections. GA2: The Siege of the Necromancer has 517 sections and 71 endings and the shortest route to the end is 73 sections. GA3: Slaves of Rema has 562 sections and 86 endings, and I havent done the shortest route analysis yet for that one but my guess is that it is in the 80 sections range. As a side note, each 'section' can be as short as a few paragraphs or as long as a dozen 'screens'. To compare that with the original Choose Your Own adventures, each one of those was roughly 100 - 120 pages long, and usually had between 10 and 40 endings, and the shortest path was somewhere in the dozen or so to two dozen choices range. (BTW, anyone interested should check out this amazing CYOA analysis page: http://samizdat.cc/cyoa/) The FF series is closer in length to the GA series, the FF stories tend to come in right at 400 sections (or very close to that) and the endings tend to come in around 5 to 20 + death by dice rolling (ie bad luck or monsters). So, anyhow just some interesting stats for the number loving geeks out there like myself Cheers! -Ben
Well there's late to the conversation... And then there's... Me I've been lurking around behind the scenes doing much of the editing, testing, number-crunching... So forgive me if I don't post much here... It's actually my first post ever on this forum but I couldn't help myself (number loving geek I am haha): Your guess is correct Ben My count for the shortest possible path is 87 sections... Wow that's thesis material right there... PhD in gamebooks FTW!
I love that site! And - the Adventure Gamebooks are definitely more complex than any other gamebook I've played - an advantage to being purely digital. Not to mention finding all the 'off the beaten path' stuff. The only thing missing are the 'bogus' entries, which being in the digital format, would be impossible to get to.
We'd better hurry up or you'll be in danger of wearing down those twiddling thumbs! Seriously though - not long now....
Well it's in submission now so unsure when it will be approved. We'll likely hold off on release as well for a number of marketing reasons. So answer to your original question - unlikely, but do watch this space! P.S. Sorry for taking a while to respond. Been tied up with the Freeplay Independent Games Festival this weekend.
Ha... no. It's actually because we are doing major updates to GA1 and GA2 with special iPhone 4 upgrades and want to release all of them at the same time.
