All Fighting Fantasy apps on sale ($2.99-> $0.99)

Discussion in 'Price Drops, Must-Have Freebies, and Deals' started by StaggerLee, Apr 20, 2012.

  1. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    #1 StaggerLee, Apr 20, 2012
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2012
    To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Fighting Fantasy, Big Blue Bubble Inc. has announced that all 5 interactive gamebooks will be available for $0.99 on iTunes. The licensing agreement for these iconic books is set to expire soon, which means this limited time offer is your last chance to own these exclusive, interactive gamebooks before they disappear forever. So don’t delay, download them today.

    You can now experience the book on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and will love the classic story and original illustrations with a technological twist. No more dice, pencils, or bookmarks. All the special features are built in!

    The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

    Deathtrap Dungeon

    Citadel of Chaos

    City of Thieves

    Creature of Havoc

    Features:
    * New! Player Achievements
    * Universal app iPad support
    * Scrolling image gallery of unlocked in-game art
    * Tap the on screen buttons to flip pages (No papercuts!)
    * Shake to roll the 3D dice using the accelerometer (or tap through with ease)
    * Inventory items selectable via touch-screen
    * Game-save feature allows you to retrace your steps
    * Includes both original illustrations and digitally re-mastered versions
    * Integrated iPod music library access
     
  2. strivemind

    strivemind Well-Known Member

    Probably has something to do with Epic Games acquiring the license and recruiting indie/student developers to port the books to the Unreal engine. Source.

    So now do I pick them up, or wait for the Unreal versions?
     
  3. MeanTuna

    MeanTuna Well-Known Member

    Feb 20, 2012
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    Got the 4 that were missing from my collection..
    I prefer the gamebook series and above them I prefer the Choice of games Series but reading that they may be gone and not knowing how the new ones are going to be I decided to snag them at this tiny price
     
  4. medianotzu

    medianotzu Well-Known Member

    Nov 21, 2009
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    From what I've seen, the new licensing agreement doesn't mean that the new apps will be gamebooks. In fact, they look like they're more FF inspired than ports of the actual material. I would assume that these gamebook versions can still stick around, but I am not well-versed in how digital publication, licensing and copyright law work.

    Anyway, I would get these for $1 apiece. They're classics, and contain some of the best fantasy art you'll ever see.
     
  5. Appletini

    Appletini Well-Known Member

    Jan 8, 2011
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    The actual gamebooks aren't being ported to any engine; the games that are being developed are all completely new incarnations (wave-based defense, action-adventure, pseudo-RTS, etc.) very loosely based on the events in the original books and, quite frankly, all look like complete and utter rubbish.

    If you're interested in the books as gamebooks, not amateur interpretations that look like gods-awful bargain bin shovelware from the early 90s, just grab the existing titles in the app store.
     
  6. strivemind

    strivemind Well-Known Member

    That's unfortunate. They should have done for Gamebooks what Legend of Grimrock has done for dungeon crawlers.
     
  7. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
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    While Meghara is doing that for gamebooks, to tell you the truth, sometimes I appreciate the more spartan book + dice combination. (It's also a lot easier on my iPhone's storage space! ;))

    If you have any interest in gamebooks, mash the buy button on Warlock RIGHT NOW and play with it a bit to see if you'd like the others. Deathtrap Dungeon is the other real FF classic of these, but it's soooo brutal - not a good 'first' gamebook. :D
     
  8. Card

    Card Well-Known Member

    Jan 12, 2012
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    If you had to pick one - which book would be the best out of these?
     
  9. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
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    The two of these five that I remember most from playing with the actual books are Warlock of Firetop Mountain and Deathtrap Dungeon. (Also the first two released on iOS)

    Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a good all-around gamebook. There's a reason it had sequels and video game spinoffs.

    Deathtrap Dungeon is just set up to kill you. (Hence the title. :p) It also spawned a Playstation video game.

    Creature of Havoc has a very unique story - you get to play the monster in this book. It's pretty good.

    City of Thieves and Citadel of Chaos are average FF books.

    If you want more details about these, check out gamebooks.org

    I already bought these all at full price - if you're a gamebook fan, I'd highly recommend any of them for a buck each.
     
  10. Juuicetin

    Juuicetin Well-Known Member

    Mar 2, 2010
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    If I really liked the Gamebook Adventures series, would you recommend this series as well? I don't really have time to try them out and I don't want to go out and buy all five of them because the reviews for them are pretty subpar. I bought City of Thieves for now since it sounded pretty interesting, but I don't know if I should take a leap of faith and just buy the rest before the sale ends. I just wanted to get some more opinions on people's impressions.

    Also, I heard that you have to start over from the very beginning if you die. It sounds pretty annoying unless these books are much shorter than the GA series.
     
  11. roninld

    roninld Well-Known Member

    Mar 30, 2011
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    Decided to pick these up before they go away.

    So apart from GameBook Adventures (which I enjoy), are there any other types of games like these that are recommended?
     
  12. MeanTuna

    MeanTuna Well-Known Member

    Feb 20, 2012
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    I like the Choice of Game series, they are almost all text with very little or no graphics but they are very fun Choose your adventure games. Almost all of them are free, ad supported, but the ads are unobtrusive and you can disable them with iap.

    Choice of Games also uploads fan created CYOA under the banner of Hosted Games, again most of them ad supported but non intrusive and enjoyable. Some of them have rather good stories with many outcomes so imo they are worth checking out!
     
  13. Appletini

    Appletini Well-Known Member

    Jan 8, 2011
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    The Fighting Fantasy series as a whole is worth pursuing, and the app versions, while not as polished as the GA games, are pretty solid implementations.

    The real problem you might have is that all of the FF books chosen for iOS translation suffer from the same issue, namely that there is one "correct" path you need to follow, otherwise you'll get to the end of the game without the specific items you need to complete it. You can explore, but you won't be able to win the game if you do, which is an incredibly bad design decision that certain GA books also copied (Slaves of Rema and Temple of the Spider God come to mind immediately, although this is inverted in The Siege of the Necromancer).

    In The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, you need certain keys to open the last door.

    In Citadel of Chaos, you'll need to have a certain item to get past the guardians before the final boss.

    In City of Thieves, you need a specific shopping list of five items before you leave the city, and it is game over if you don't find them. This one is made even worse by the fact that once you leave the city with everything, you're then told that you don't even need one of the items, and you're left at the end to figure out which combination of two out of a set of three items is the right one; getting it wrong is another instant game over.

    Deathtrap Dungeon requires collecting specific gems (as in TotSG) in order to open the door at the end and escape.

    Creature of Havoc is incredibly linear and punishing, and you'll find yourself having to start over and over before even making it halfway through the book if you don't perform the exact sequence of events necessary to proceed.

    Forest of Doom (not on iOS) dealt with this by letting you return to the start of the game/forest with all your stuff if you made to the end without the two specific items you needed to find.

    Scorpion Swamp is one I'd like to see brought over, as it was non-linear, with multiple victory conditions and a semi-"open world" design.

    House of Hell is another non-iOS favourite; while it is, again, hugely punishing, it has one of the strongest themes and atmosphere of any of the FF series.
     
  14. Juuicetin

    Juuicetin Well-Known Member

    Mar 2, 2010
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    Thanks so much for your in depth analysis! The one correct path mechanic is what annoyed me most out of the GA series and kinda took the fun out of it for me.

    After reading the front page TA article though, I think I will probably end up just taking a chance and buying the rest of the series before they're taken off the app store. It is only $4 bucks for the rest and it wouldn't be that big of a hit if they were to be a bust. Thanks again for taking the time to answer my question and I just hope I enjoy them all.
     
  15. Appletini

    Appletini Well-Known Member

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    Oh, even though I know their flaws, I still bought them all as well, given that I used to have a collection of most of the books, and they're still fun. It's just harder now to overlook the issues that you used to ignore when you were younger. The worst part isn't necessarily that you can get to the end of the game but be literally unable to complete it because of something you missed in the first few pages, but that entire encounters/places/events/rewards must mandatorily be avoided if you want to finish the game, which should immediately set off alarm bells.

    If the rest of the books would be translated (maybe the GA team should get their hands on the FF series too), I'd pick them all up to have the entire library available on one device. Not all of the FF gamebooks suffer from the same issue as the ones currently available, either; the GA series is better about this in general as well. In general, you should always be able to finish the game, with missing key items making it harder, but not impossible, to do so (as with the final boss of Spider God, which was well-done, but this fight was followed up by the mandatory gem debacle if you wanted the actual ending).
     
  16. Rokrdude

    Rokrdude Well-Known Member

    May 14, 2011
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    Bought all five

    Hopefully doesn't look as bad as some people are complaining on iPad
     
  17. Dahak

    Dahak Well-Known Member

    Jun 4, 2010
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    The Fabled Lands gamebook series has an iOS adaptation. It uses a different style of display than GA or FF though, in that it hides the dice rolling and provides images for just about everything. It's kind of a hybrid of a sandbox RPG and conventional gamebook. In addition to the main app (currently Fabled Lands II Gold Edition), there is an excellent conversion of the former Fighting Fantasy title Keep of the Lich Lord. It moves the campaign setting from the FF world of Titan to the setting used in Fabled Lands, as well as using its more detailed character/skill system.
     
  18. Dahak

    Dahak Well-Known Member

    Jun 4, 2010
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    On a complete side note -- I own all of these already, but I encourage everyone to pick them up at this price. That said, I do hope TinMan Games aggressively pursues the Fighting Fantasy license when BBB's term expires.
     
  19. VOGamer

    VOGamer Well-Known Member

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    I really enjoy story driven games so I blindly end up buying all 5 books. I already know GameBook Adventures are amazing, I have 3. I hope I don't regret this decision with the FF franchise.
     
  20. andsoitgoes

    andsoitgoes Well-Known Member

    Appletini (scrubs reference maybe? ;)) thank you for the analysis. I remembered a few styles of these books I had as a child, I'm guessing they were the FF series. They required pencil, paper and some serious die rolling :)

    But the difficulty puts me off. I don't want to fight a game, I just want to have fun. Shame, but I already found the GA series too hard and that's with all the flexibility it affords.
     

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