Gamebook Adventures 8: Infinite Universe - (by Tin Man Games) [Universal]

[thevagrant]

Hey Tin Man,

Can I ask how you are doing with Infinite Universe so far? Any chance of a follow-up in the same universe or with the same kind of approach? Is the IPA approach paying off?

Just after finishing it, I decided to get bak to GA7 and even got to the last fight (but didn't win, despite many tries) and I must say I was quite disappointed with it. After the narrative heavy approach of Infinite Universe, I felt that Spider God was a pretty barren succession of fitness rolls and fights, with very little meat to it. I'm usually a big fan of Green's work, but didn't click with this one. And it helped me realize that one of the reason I enjoyed GA8 so much is probably because dice rolls are rarely deadly, and paragraphsare quite long compared to usual gamebooks.

Hope that's a direction you'll consider for future games, if not all of them.

[drelbs]

Originally Posted by thevagrant

Just after finishing it, I decided to get bak to GA7 and even got to the last fight (but didn't win, despite many tries) and I must say I was quite disappointed with it. After the narrative heavy approach of Infinite Universe, I felt that Spider God was a pretty barren succession of fitness rolls and fights, with very little meat to it. I'm usually a big fan of Green's work, but didn't click with this one. And it helped me realize that one of the reason I enjoyed GA8 so much is probably because dice rolls are rarely deadly, and paragraphsare quite long compared to usual gamebooks.

Did almost the same thing. Travel by boat sucks, eh?

GA8 seemed very easy compared to the other gamebooks, which isn't necessarily that bad of a thing. I was perfectly happy with more narrative, my only criticism was the 'humor' which mostly goes away towards the end of the book. The established universe is great, not so sure if I'm interested in more Joe Bloggs specifically though.

One other request - it would be great, for re-plays, if you included a double-finger swipe-left to jumo to the last (or 2nd to last if there's that many choices) page so you don't have to swipe so much, as some of the sections are quite long.

[TheTinMan]

Originally Posted by thevagrant

Can I ask how you are doing with Infinite Universe so far? Any chance of a follow-up in the same universe or with the same kind of approach? Is the IPA approach paying off?

Infinite Universe is doing okay. It's certainly not been a massive release for us (relative to what we would expect) but we went in a few new directions all at once, so that's not to be totally unexpected. Not sure at this stage if there will be a follow-up, but we'll let you know as soon we have decided. As for the IAP success, again it's hard to say at this stage on how successful it has been.

Originally Posted by thevagrant

After the narrative heavy approach of Infinite Universe, I felt that Spider God was a pretty barren succession of fitness rolls and fights, with very little meat to it. I'm usually a big fan of Green's work, but didn't click with this one. And it helped me realize that one of the reason I enjoyed GA8 so much is probably because dice rolls are rarely deadly, and paragraphsare quite long compared to usual gamebooks.

The most amazing thing for us is the differing opinions of our readers - which is a good thing by the way! Some feedback we've had is that GA8 wasn't interactive enough and that they preferred the quick and varied progression of Spider God, while others, like yourself have really loved the heavier narrative in GA8. Ultimately it comes down to the writer and their approach to both writing and gamebook design. Variety is certainly a good thing in our opinion.

Originally Posted by drelbs

GA8 seemed very easy compared to the other gamebooks, which isn't necessarily that bad of a thing. I was perfectly happy with more narrative, my only criticism was the 'humor' which mostly goes away towards the end of the book. The established universe is great, not so sure if I'm interested in more Joe Bloggs specifically though.

We've had a lot of comments regarding the 'humour' in GA8 both positive and negative. Again, this comes down to the writing style of the author, but it is something we'll keep a closer eye on in the future.

Originally Posted by drelbs

One other request - it would be great, for re-plays, if you included a double-finger swipe-left to jumo to the last (or 2nd to last if there's that many choices) page so you don't have to swipe so much, as some of the sections are quite long.

This is a great idea! Added to our wishlist.

Thanks for your support guys.

[mindw0rk]

One more direction I would love to see from Tin Man Group - expansive text MMO. Like MUDs, but with heavier focus on narrative, adventures and gamebook elements. There are no good MMOs on iOS, and with GA quality and F2P model it could be big success.

[Dahak]

I have had really mixed feelings about the whole thing. I downloaded and played the "demo". I liked it quite a bit, but I didn't like it more than I disliked the IAP model. So, I didn't get the rest. It didn't even trigger the collector in me, because hey after all the icon is right there with the other seven.

Gameloft ended up with two apps when they tried the same experiment: a demo+IAP version, and a direct purchase version. I'm not holding my breath, but I still have a sliver of hope that you might take that road instead.

Concerning the demo, I liked the humour, and what little I could gather of the setting. I didn't like playing someone specific though. The hero should always be "YOU". I'd love to see more in this setting, provided it returns to the direct purchase model.

[drelbs]

Originally Posted by mindw0rk

One more direction I would love to see from Tin Man Group - expansive text MMO. Like MUDs, but with heavier focus on narrative, adventures and gamebook elements. There are no good MMOs on iOS, and with GA quality and F2P model it could be big success.

Sounds like a multiplayer version of Fabled Lands! Sell house deeds for $2, ships titles for $1 and varying amounts of gold for whatever and it might work. You might have to scale battles up a bit to withstand parties, and decide how to handle PvP (if allowed.)

[mindw0rk]

Originally Posted by drelbs

Sounds like a multiplayer version of Fabled Lands! Sell house deeds for $2, ships titles for $1 and varying amounts of gold for whatever and it might work. You might have to scale battles up a bit to withstand parties, and decide how to handle PvP (if allowed.)

More like Sryth. Big challenge would be to make skill based and fun combat in txt format. Imagine fighting bosses with other players for rare loot! So many possibilities. But such game would require too much effort to split betwen other GA titles, im afraid

[iPadisGreat]

Just finished Infinite Universe. It had a great plot, though the writing is a bit rough compared to Slaves of Rema. Looking forward to more Sci-Fi Gamebook Adventures, though hopefully as full releases and not IAP unlocks.

Spoiler
•••Spoiler:  Actually only episodes four to six are needed for the story, so those punters who want to buy individual episodes can splurge on just those three, or buy the full unlock for cheaper.

Was the random number generator tweaked for this game? Combat seems easier than that of Slaves of Rema, which is a good thing.

Do I need to keep Infinite Universe installed? Will the savegame be needed for future games under the Gamebook Adventures system? Or can I safely delete it to reclaim space?