Gamebook Adventures 3: Slaves of Rema

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by TheTinMan, Jun 25, 2010.

  1. TheTinMan

    TheTinMan Well-Known Member

    Just wanted to post about our upcoming third gamebook in the Gamebook Adventures series, Slaves of Rema. If you've been following our gamebooks, Rema is a great continent to the south of Orlandes, once home to a great empire and now made up of warring city states.

    Here's the blurb:

    "Cruelly taken from your homeland of Orlandes, you find yourself in a far off land at the mercy of a gladiatorial arena. Somehow trying to find a way to escape overseas, can you also unravel a potentially dangerous mystery that puts two nations on the brink of war?"

    Here's some pics:

    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]

    Cover art by Dan Maxwell (famed for his great GA1 and GA2 covers) and interior illustrations created by Alex Drummond, our new artist who infuses his unique style to bring Rema to life!

    We're currently beta testing, but expect to see it sometime in July. :)

    The Tin Man
     
  2. songbird

    songbird Well-Known Member

    Dec 4, 2009
    4,449
    0
    0
    Awesome, still need to pick up the second one but excited to know there is more to come. :) How many books will there be?
     
  3. Obscure

    Obscure Well-Known Member

    May 2, 2010
    562
    0
    0
    Australia
    Looks awesome, love the art. I'll be picking this up when it comes out for sure, love your books guys.
     
  4. Acidbottle

    Acidbottle Well-Known Member

    Apr 24, 2009
    1,023
    0
    0
    hopefully these quickfire releases are a sign these titles are doing ok for themselves :)
     
  5. I was waiting for this one :D
    Only a few days to go I guess!
     
  6. Isilel

    Isilel Well-Known Member

    Feb 20, 2009
    996
    0
    0
    I am currently playing the first one "Assassin in Orlandes" and liking it, but I also have a few suggestions to improve on it:

    1. Please, instead of just giving us the 3 bookmarks, subdivide the story into 3 chapters and let us have 1 per chapter. In the "Assassin" it is impossible to know how far one has progressed in the story and thus I have blown all of them and have also hit a point where most ostensibly reasonable decisions result in death. It is tedious to have to replay a good chunk of the game over and over to get further. But re-starting would be even more tedious.

    2. Don't make a plot-critical item so easy to miss. I would have been annoyed to reach the end only to lose because I didn't have it - luckily, I already knew that I needed it from the forum.

    3. Points where seemingly reasonable, cautious decisions result in death add nothing positive to the experience, IMHO, unlike points where you know that you are taking a risk, but decide to gamble, which are enjoyable.

    4. Writing, while decent overall, sometimes has awkward moments. So, maybe a bit more editing?
     
  7. TheTinMan

    TheTinMan Well-Known Member

    #7 TheTinMan, Jun 27, 2010
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2010
    Thought I would include these two under the same reply as they are about the same thing.

    So far sales have been okay and about what we hoped for initially - a good start for a series which, until a few months ago never even existed. We can't hope (at the moment anyway) to compete with licensed brands that have a 25 year head-start so we're very realistic about our progress and where we see the series going.

    We're planning on releasing 6 Gamebook Adventures volumes for iPhone, iTouch and iPad, set within the same fantasy setting. GA3, GA4, GA5 and GA6 are being part-funded by Film Victoria here in Australia. Their support has been vital in helping realise our ideas for these. Beyond that depends largely on the success of the first 6 gamebooks. We do have more titles in prototype beyond (including some new genres) and a potential collaboration with a very famous gamebook author which we hope comes off.

    All I can say is watch this space and please continue to support us if you like our products. We're constantly striving to improve them and take on board as much feedback as possible. Thanks too to all of you that take the time to say good things about these projects, that I can assure you we're deeply passionate about. The Tin Man
     
  8. TheTinMan

    TheTinMan Well-Known Member

    #8 TheTinMan, Jun 27, 2010
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2010
    Great. Glad you're enjoying it! Thanks for the feedback - I'll address them below.

    Some of the feedback we've had has been that people don't mind this as it allows them to try different routes which gives them more opportunities to get achievements or new illustrations. However we do understand that some people do find the number of bookmarks frustrating so we have more bookmarks planned for GA3. :)

    Criticism taken there. We always knew that it would be contentious. GA2 was designed with that directly in mind and can be completed a number of ways. We'll try not to do that in the future and may well go back and re-design that aspect of Assassin in the future.

    Understood. We do try and make things as fair as possible though. Sometimes being too cautious in a situation can be a bad thing! Unfair deaths are common in old gamebooks but it is something we try to minimise.

    When we started GA1 we were unsure where it would lead and as it was self-funded we had to cut down on some expenses. We are not a large book publisher so editing was one of those areas that we believed suffered. Because of that, it was paramount for us to put editing high on the list for GA2 onwards. To that end we now have a full-time editor who works with us. He fully edited GA2 and GA3 and is about to look at GA4!
     
  9. Somerandomdude

    Somerandomdude Well-Known Member

    May 31, 2009
    5,195
    0
    0
    Doing nothing of importance.
    Somewhere
    Ok, I just got around to really reading some of this, and again, even from the beginning this is awesome! Great job again guys!
     
  10. I'll be picking up GA3 because it looks like it will be the most advanced of the first 3. (More bookmarks, harder to miss plot items and such)
    Do we have an *estimated* Release date because it is now July?
     
  11. TheTinMan

    TheTinMan Well-Known Member

    We've got another few days of beta testing to go and then we're looking to submit! We'll keep ya posted on progress.

    We have some upcoming news for GA4 too to be announced soon.
     
  12. Obscure

    Obscure Well-Known Member

    May 2, 2010
    562
    0
    0
    Australia
    That my friend is some excellent news, I'll pick it up as soon as it comes out.
     
  13. Gah, only found this thread after messaging you!
    *Waits for approx 2 weeks*
     
  14. songbird

    songbird Well-Known Member

    Dec 4, 2009
    4,449
    0
    0
    Wow, thats awesome news. Good luck with the testing and then good luck with the review process. :D
     
  15. Can't believe I'm twiddling my thumbs!
     
  16. TheTinMan

    TheTinMan Well-Known Member

    Sorry man. You may have to twiddle a little longer. We've had a few things to sort out and test.

    We'll make an announcement soon.
     
  17. Argh xD

    *Twiddles a little longer*
     
  18. wonderbear

    wonderbear Well-Known Member

    Dec 21, 2008
    120
    11
    18
    I remember gamebooks from when I was a kid and I picked up GA1 and enjoyed it quite a bit. One thing I don't remember about the old books is the length. However, after playing GA1, the one thing that I disliked most was that it felt short. I understand I can get more gameplay by trying other paths, but would you consider creating gamebooks with longer stories or is that not feasible? I would love to see what you would do with a larger canvas to play with!
     
  19. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
    11,200
    7
    38
    Gamebooks tended to be rather short (Race Forever excepted.)

    What's pretty neat about the Adventure Gamebooks series is that they've added a number of things to 'find' in the book, making replays more interesting and rewarding you a bit for exploring.
     
  20. Let us assume there are 5 paths with different endings in the game. If these 5 paths do not run against each other, the writers have to write 5 times the normal story length (1 path) and everyone reading the book would only see the length of 1 path. Unless re-read of course.
     

Share This Page