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

[psj3809]

I prefer the dice used in the books, granted it could be updated but with something like this for a lot of us theres the huge nostalgia factor from our youth when you uses dice for battles or creating player stats. Love the way this is still in these games

[Validuser]

I don't mind if they change the dice element tbh.....would prefer something skill-based instead of just luck. But either way, I like this new book. Glad they're moving onto different genres like sci-fi, etc.

[LostLegend]

It's an interesting book, I beta tested. You guys should ask Brewin' how much work went into the book before criticising the typos/worse quality writing (which isn't really THAT noticeable)!

If you're wondering, the story gets pretty good, particularly near the end.

[drelbs]

Originally Posted by benbritten

EDIT TO ADD: I replied too soon! Neil is already on it! Expect PMs etc..

Oops, maybe I bought it too soon... (How could I wait? )

Anyhow, here's my thoughts so far:

I'm enjoying the setting, but I'm not sure if I enjoy the comedic bits - they are more than just the occasional guffaw for fun, but the book doesn't read entirely like a space comedy. Example: all the "I've seen this before in a movie" comments in part one were way too numerous, even though a couple of them were appropriate (and the "that's like rules to a game or something" after being told about stats was a better example of a funny off-hand self-referential comment done right.)

I'm hoping that things get more serious, I'd rather have more straight-up sci-fi than something that keeps flip-flopping between comedy and not.

Back to the UI:

Can we get volume sliders for the music/effects? I like having some music on, but the loop is too loud/short so I end up just turning it off.

I know they fit, but am not thrilled with the futuristic dice. I'd love an option to have traditional dice (feel free to keep the color schemes though)

The giant achievement popups are jarring and break up the flow of the story, but that's minor. Perhaps a smaller popup at the top of the screen that goes away (like the iOS5 Notification Center) or an option to disable these popups.

Text:

I don't have the reference handy, but one of the skills (Dodge I think) has the description split between two pages, could probably be fixed.

[writingsama]

Originally Posted by mindw0rk

So, here are my thoughts after taking a first look.

-The writing quality here is the worst among GA series. When Ive read "Assasins of Orlandes" or "Temple of Spider God" I was fully immersed in adventure, and couldnt wait to see what's next. Here reading bores me to death, from loss of memory cliche to silly dialogues and repeating questions: "will you follow him? you sure? didnt you change your mind? cmon man, I give you one last chance!"... cheez.
Ive read that author tried to reanimate Space Quest feel. In SQ you see brilliant humor everywhere, here I saw maybe few attempts to be funny. Also most paragraphs are too long.

-Music was just bad. This is the first GA book where I put sound off after 5 minutes of playing, because it just ruined experience for me (not too exciting experience I must tell). In sci-fi book I'd like to hear tracks similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Q2ICWhiVA

-I much more preferred scroll type of background of Orlandes series. Let us choose between old and new.

-On the positive side it was smart idea to let people download first part for free and if liked, buy the rest. Imo you should make all the next GA chapters same way.

Also, Neil, think about changing combat system with dices to something new. I know, its classic and close to the roots, but we are not in 80s anymore. This dice system where you just pray for luck is getting old. We need something more involving, where player skill is tested (as an example take a look at Mass Effect 2 hacking mini games). iPAD interactive possibilites let you bring so much more to the table

Ahh OMG! Not Mass Effect 2 minigames! NOOO! Deus Ex Human Revolution hacking is a MUCH better example for minigames!

[Validuser]

Originally Posted by writingsama

Ahh OMG! Not Mass Effect 2 minigames! NOOO! Deus Ex Human Revolution hacking is a MUCH better example for minigames!

Haha, I agree! The 'Mass Effect' ones were a pain.

[LostLegend]

I don't think gamebooks that are supposed to be based on the classic ones of old will have minigames... :P

[Juuicetin]

I am a bit curious to see how successful their new price modeling was compared to their old upfront flat cost. I am sure they got a lot more downloads since it was free, but I wonder how many of those people actually took the plunge and whether Tin Man is going to stick with this price model in the future.

[thevagrant]

I finally got to the end of the book, so I’ll share impressions.

Keeping in mind that I am not a native English, I had no problem with the quality of the writing, even if I was not at all times convinced by the jokes. But it was a pleasant reading overall. What’s more, I particularly enjoyed the fact that paragraphs were quite long, with lots of story between the interactive bits. I really liked that balance, but I think it may be too much on the interactive novel side that on the gamebook one for some.

I found the story quite entertaining, going back and forth between the different timelines was fun, the main character amusing in his “averageness”, and the general cast of characters nicely done. All in all, very positive experience. But I was put off by the smart remarks about how some specific points of the plot were sci-fi staples. I know it was meant to be witty and smart, and this kind of narrative distance can be a powerful tool, but I think it mainly stresses the fact that the general plot is not really original, and disrupt the reading flow by forcing you to think about the fact that hey… that’s a pretty bland sci-fi story overall. Anyway, I had a lot of fun becoming the chosen, and I really appreciated the fact that the story was considerably more complex than going to the boss’s chamber by the left or right pathway.

I like that the general interface has been reskinned to the scifi theme, and the paper style grew on me (must admit I hated it at first). However, the main menu is kinda bland and cramped in his list appearance. Music is a huge letdown: in itself it is rather good, but it sounds like it loops after 5 seconds and becomes really irritating extremely fast. I know you guys have limited budget, but if the composer could not come up with a one minute loop, that sucks.

Random rolls: hated their very existence at first, but in the end I think they are nicely implemented. Those rolls happen at different points of the story (and rather often), and change the course of the events, with outcomes ranging from good to extremely bad. At first I thought it was a pretty unfair way to make you suffer on aspects you had no control over, but in the end most of the outcomes are not deadly, and add a spicy touch of uncertainty to very simple things (as far as time/dimension travel can be simple…).

Price model: I just want Tin Man to succeed and keep on bringing great gamebooks to ios, so I cannot complain about the fact that they are trying to widen their audience. Two remarks though: first of all, I think the buy by chapter model makes no sense. You are either convinced the whole book is worth it and buy it all, or you don’t like it and thai’s it. Who would be happy enough with the first chapter to by the second one just to try further and, in the end, pay more by chapters than with the whole book? Secondly: TinMan cannot go out of business, ever, in case my backup fails me.

Little problems for the tin Man to fix:
- There should ba a “back” or “main menu” button on every page of the Blogopedia
- Just after getting the ultimate ending in book worm mode I started a game in Classic mode and got the Ultimate ending in classic mode achievement right away! Now I can get through classic mode in full cheat mode lol, but you may want to fix that…

I hope this first foray in sience fiction won’t be the last and thanks again Tin Man for the great experience.

[benbritten]

Originally Posted by thevagrant

Little problems for the tin Man to fix:
- There should ba a “back” or “main menu” button on every page of the Blogopedia
- Just after getting the ultimate ending in book worm mode I started a game in Classic mode and got the Ultimate ending in classic mode achievement right away! Now I can get through classic mode in full cheat mode lol, but you may want to fix that…

Thanks Vagrant for such a great chunk of feedback!

I just wanted to jump in and comment on the technical things at the end. In the bloggopedia you can always bring up the widgets by swiping up and get the main menu from there. However that said, you are right and we should add in the back options to the pages as well.

As for the classic win achievement bug: Oops! Yeah we are fixing that :-) Was it you who first alerted us about that one? I don't recall. Anyway thanks again!

Cheers!
-Ben