"The modern master of the gamebook format" (Rob Sanders)... "Can do dark very well" (Jonathan Oliver)... "Green gets mileage out of his monsters" (SFX Magazine)... "It takes a firm editorial hand and a keen understanding of the tone of each piece to make a collection this diverse work, and Green makes it look effortless" (Starburst Magazine)... "A charming blend of camp creatures, humour, and genuine horror" (Set the Tape)
Store your stats and equipment in the easy to use and convenient layout. There are dice, a handy Combat screen, and buttons to test all your abilities as you play. Navigation is easy using left and right swipes on each screen.
To find out more, and download the app yourself for only £1.99, simply follow this link.
Amongst the traders and guests attending the event are Arion Games, publishers of Advanced Fighting Fantasy Second Edition, and Inkle Studios, who are in the process of converting Steve Jackson's Sorcery! books for the iPad.
Inkle will be demoing their latest apps, while Arion will be running games of AFF during the day for attendees to sign up for and take part in.
Yesterday, Steve Jackson's Sorcery! was released for the iPad by Inkle Studios. As you will soon see if you watch the video below, this is not simply a re-rendering of the original gamebook experience. It is, in fact, something quite different...
An epic adventure through a land of monsters, traps and magic.
* Plot your own journey across a hand-drawn 3D world map
* Fully interactive story, with 1000s of choices
* The story is rewritten on the fly based on how you play
* Unique touch-based sword-duelling, with procedurally-generated descriptions of the action
* Outwit monsters by learning their weaknesses and tells
* 48 magic spells to master, with weird and wonderful effects that change the story
From legendary designer Steve Jackson and inkle, the studio behind the award-winning, App Store featured Frankenstein, Sorcery! is an interactive adventure like never before.
The app uses inklewriter technology to tell your journey in real-time, shaping the story around your choices. The text itself changes based on how you play and what you do, and in combat, the action is description on the fly based on how you play.
Featuring original illustrations by John Blanche, new character art by Eddie Sharam (DC Comics), an interactive map by Mike Schley (Wizards of the Coast) and music by David Wise (Donkey Kong Country).
If you've yet to purchase The Night Before Twistmas for the Moshi Monsters fan in your life, have you considered getting it on the iPad? If that sounds like your sort of thing, follow this link.
So now it's up to you to go and vote! You can do so very simply by following this link or clicking on the button in the right-hand side bar. So over to you again...
Okay, so as you'll see when you read the full review yourself, Mr Edwin McRae isn't anybody's rabid fan boy, but it made for such a great post title I just couldn't resist.
However, quotes like, "If Temple of the Spider God doesn’t get your book allergic teen reading, then I’m struggling to see what will" and "On the narrative structure front (the ‘make or break’ ingredient of interactive game books) I was really impressed to see three almost completely independent pathways for our hero" have made me one happy chappy this morning.
148Apps are running their Best App Ever Awards for 2011, and Temple of the Spider God is up this year in the following categories: Best Dice Game, Best RPG Game and Best E-reader App. If you enjoyed Temple of the Spider God then please follow this link to nominate it.
Tin Man Games are also going to be at the UK Games Expo next year in Birmingham (May 25th-27th). You can find out more about this here.
And lastly, since it's Christmas (well, almost) all of Tin Man Games’ Gamebook Adventures titles are currently on sale for $2.99 each.
The story is just fantastic, the writing is very appropriate, without being pedantic nor sloppy, provides with plenty of descriptions clear enough to help create a good visual reference in your mind of where you are and what’s happening. And it is a lot deeper than you expect too. It was only after the first time I rushed to the end, and the book begun to ask me if I had items I should have collected in the way, that I realised how much more to it there was. And I had to start again. With pleasure.
Temple of the Spider God (my first digital gamebook from Tin Man Games) has been out for less than two weeks but in that short time the arachnid deity has already made its presence felt!
It's been a tough time for the guys at Tin Man Games who've had various trials and tribulations to deal with surrounding the release of this much anticipated game (which you can read about here) but the good has - in my opinion at least - far outweighed the bad. And here's why...
First off, TOTSG has already received its first glowing review (4 out of 5 stars from Digitally Downloaded) which you can read for yourself here. The part I liked, for obvious reasons, is this bit:
Now, the text of a Gamebook adventure is pretty important. You could say it’s even critical, so having Jonathan Green on board does immediately up the ante for the series. Where previous Gamebook Adventure titles were still well written, if a bit generic, the penmanship of Green makes for an adventure that is far more interesting to read though, which does mean it’s far more interesting to play through multiple times.
Secondly, Spider God has been racing up the rankings. I still find it incredible that it's been available everywhere and has been making an impact all around the globe. Here are the stats for all you stats fans out there:
#1 iPhone Dice Game in 5 countries including the UK
Made the Top #10 iPhone RPG Games chart in 8 countries including US and UK
Made the Top #5 iPad Dice Games chart in 31 countries including ten #1 spots
Made the Top #10 iPad RPG Games chart in 16 countries including US, UK, Canada and Australia
Got very close to breaking the Top 100 Games chart on both iPhone and iPad in the US and UK (This is amazing for a niche title!)
Temple of the Spider God reached British shores at midnight and, less than twelve hours later, is already causing something of a storm.
Here's what eager purchasers have been saying so far about my first digital gamebook and the seventh Gamebook Adventures title from Tin Man Games.
Just picked up Temple and am loving it so far. I am a sucker for this kind of setting and love the style of the artwork. Great work Tin Man!
The new Gamebook just got released in my region. Can't wait for it to finish downloading!
My Friday night tonight is so completely "book"ed!
In case you've been hiding under a stone for the last... oh I don't know how many months, here's what all the fuss is about:
Cesaro Cortez, a famed explorer-conquistador, set out three years ago on his last great expedition. His ships never returned to an Orlandrian port and he was feared lost until a mysterious cargo appeared recently in Miramar. The nature of this cargo will put Orlandes in jeopardy, sending you on an epic journey to find Cortez, save the country and face your darkest fear!
To celebrate the release of Temple of the Spider God, Tin Man Games' other Gamebook Adventures are available for less than £1.50 each! So, if you own an iPhone, iPod or iPad, what are you waiting for? If you're yet to discover the delights of Gamebook Adventures, you could own all seven for less than the price of a hardback book!
You can read the official press release from the Tin Man here.
As you will already know if you've been following this blog for a while, TOTSG (as we call it round these part) was originally slated for release this summer. However, the reasons for the delays are all good - basically it means that we're going to have the best product we can possibly make out there for all your gamebook aficionados.
And the end of the post comes with its very own spoiler, which I'm hoping will please some of you. It certainly pleases me.
So today, having first spoken eighteen months or so ago, I finally got to meet up with the Tin Man's flesh interface, otherwise known as Neil Rennison. He very kindly made the journey to deepest rural Wiltshire to talk all things Tin Man Games and Gamebook Adventures - Temple of the Spider God in particular.
With our Vitality scores dwindling, we then headed off to the Tale of Spice in nearby Pewsey to continue our various conversations over a middle of the day curry. Business lunches don't get better than this!
Just one wafer thin mint to go...
Temple of the Spider God is on course for an August release. For more news watch this space or check out the Tin Man's own website here.
The Net's been all a buzz with news of my forthcoming Temple of the Spider God from Tin Man Games, as you can see both here and here.
Well the other day I came across this interesting National Geographic clip. It's dated 2008 but I didn't see it until a year after completing Temple of the Spider God*.
Of course when you check out the video clips below of Peruvian and Amazonian spiders**, you can understand just why the primitive peoples of these lands imbued them with god-like powers.
* Yes, it really has been that long in the making.
** Which are really not for the arachnaphobics among you.
The news is out there - Temple of the Spider God, Tin Man Games' seventh Gamebook Adventure, is headed for a summer release. And in case you haven't already seen it elsewhere around the 'Net, here's the fantastic cover by Dan Maxwell.
The internal illustrations are by Josh Wright and, for the first time in a GA, they're full colour! Here's one of a stunning sea serpent, which makes me hungry to see more of Josh's finished work - as I hope it does you.
It's only a matter of months now until my Gamebook Adventure Temple of the Spider God is released for your iDevice of choice, but all the attention at the moment is on GA5: Catacombs of the Undercity and GA6: The Wizard from Tarnath Tor - and quite rightly so, as both are garnering great reviews.
In fact you can read one here at GeekDad concerning Wizard, and one here at Digitally Downloaded for Catacombs.
Tin Man Games' sixth Gamebook Adventures app is available now for your favourite iDevice. And just to whet your appetite, here's a trailer for the new app...
Tin Man Games haven't been around long, but in a relatively short space of time they've made a big impression of interactive fiction and the world of adventure gamebooks, bringing original works to the masses via the wonders of the iPhone, iPod and iPad.
I first became aware of the company with their first release An Assassin in Orlandes and I'm delighted to be writing their seventh Gamebooks Adventures title.
It's called Temple of the Spider God and is being edited as I type (probably). I've already seen some preliminary sketches and roughs for the cover as well and can feel the excitement mounting as Spider God is due for release this July. (Perfect excuse to go out and buy an iPad 2, I'd say.)
You can read more via the press release Tin Man Games have put out here, and Neil Rennison himself (head honcho of Tin Man Games) bigged me up when he was interviewed at PAX East a month or so ago.
There are now only 7 days left in which to buy your tickets for Fighting Fantasy Fest 2014...
An epic adventure through a land of monsters, traps and magic. 
From legendary designer Steve Jackson and inkle, the studio behind the award-winning, App Store featured Frankenstein, Sorcery! is an interactive adventure like never before.
Thanks to everyone who nominated Temple of the Spider God for the 2011 Best App Ever Awards. Thanks to your sterling efforts, my first digital gamebook has been shortlisted in the Best Dice Game category.
Okay, so as you'll see when you read the full review yourself, Mr Edwin McRae isn't anybody's rabid fan boy, but it made for such a great post title I just couldn't resist.
So news now from the Tin Man...
Temple of the Spider God has been reviewed by G*M*S Magazine (who interviewed Neil Rennison and me at Dragonmeet at the end of November). And you know what? I think they like it.
Temple of the Spider God (my first digital gamebook from Tin Man Games) has been out for less than two weeks but in that short time the arachnid deity has already made its presence felt!
Now, the text of a Gamebook adventure is pretty important. You could say it’s even critical, so having Jonathan Green on board does immediately up the ante for the series. Where previous Gamebook Adventure titles were still well written, if a bit generic, the penmanship of Green makes for an adventure that is far more interesting to read though, which does mean it’s far more interesting to play through multiple times. 
