Coming soon from Tin Man Games...

Reminder of the Spider God

Just a quick reminder to say don't forget to vote for Temple of the Spider God in the 2011 Best App Ever Awards.

Just in case you didn't know, my first ever digital gamebook has been shortlisted in the Best Dice Game category.

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.

You have until the end of play on 25 January to register your vote.

Even more love for the Spider God

The Suicide Girls love Temple of the Spider God - and Tin Man Games' other Gamebook Adventures.

I was introduced to these when the newest game in the city, Temple of the Spider God came out and the entire catalog of Gamebook Adventures went on sale. I snatched up three immediately under the assumption that if I loved playing Dungeons and Dragons I would enjoy these. I was right!

You can check out the rest of the review here.

And while we're on the subject of Gamebook Adventures, the Tin Man himself was recently interviewed by Cubed Gamers, and during the course of the interview I got a name check.

Happy. With. That.

Vote for Temple of the Spider God

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.

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...

Rabid Fan Boy of the Spider God

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.

You can read the full review of Temple of the Spider God over on The Fiction Engine here. In the mean time, you can also buy Temple of the Spider God for your loved ones this festive season here at a knockdown price!

Nomination of the Spider God

So news now from the Tin Man...

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.

Fans of the Spider God

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.

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.

You can read the whole review here.

Neil and the other Tin Man, Ben Britten Smith, also appear in the latest GamePron interview here, during which I get a mention along side Judge Dredd!

Love for the Spider God

Temple of the Spider God is still going down a storm all over the globe. The latest review to hit the Web over at Appa Snap even gives it 9 out of 10!

You can read the full review for yourself here.

You can buy the Temple of the Spider God app here.

Review of the Spider God

Temple of the Spider God has been out for two weeks now and the glowing reviews continue to roll in. In case you own an iPad, iPod or iPhone and you haven't bought it yet (it's only £1.99) then you might want to read these.

First up there's this from Pocket Gamer:

The latest in Tin Man Games' series of interactive text adventures is written by Fighting Fantasy author Jonathan Green – and it shows. Its well-written narrative is pacy, exciting, and weaves a compelling yarn, whichever path you take...

It’s a great modern equivalent to the books many of us loved as youngsters, with the same kind of attention to detail and thrilling fantastical touches that made these adventures so enjoyable.

So Temple of the Spider God might be more book than game, but you knew that. If a Gamebook Adventure is what you're after, you'd be hard-pressed to do better than this.

Then there's this from Dial-a-phone:

The success of written fantasy role-playing games comes down to the quality of writing, and as you’d expect from an experienced writer, it’s absolutely excellent. Green’s words paint a detailed picture, but never tip over the edge to where your imagination isn’t needed – absolutely imperative in a book like this – and the beautifully drawn pictures accompanying the text (the best yet in a Gamebook Adventure) work together to pull you into the story. The overall effect, if you’re willing to invest the time, is an engrossing gaming experience that’s both exciting and compelling.

If the chance to revisit childhood memories attracts you to the Gamebook Adventures, you won’t be disappointed, and neither will the newcomer to the genre. Temple of the Spider God is well-crafted, thrilling and intelligent, with more than enough content and alternative choices to keep you occupied for weeks, and the obvious amount of care and attention invested in its creation makes it an essential purchase for the lone adventurer.

You can find out more about Temple of the Spider God (as well as buy it) by following this link.

Trials of the Spider God

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 is here!

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.

Temple of the Spider God hits New Zealand!

That's right, my first digital Gamebook Adventure is now available in New Zealand!

It should be reaching the rest of the world within the next 24 hours!

Not long to go now...

The Spider God Cometh...

Temple of the Spider God is only a few short days away from release so the Tin Man thought it was about time the world learnt a little more of the forthcoming seventh Gamebook Adventure...

Temple of the Spider God - coming sooner than you think...

That's right - Temple of the Spider God has finally been submitted to Apple! This pleases me. To read more on this story, click here.

Temple of the Spider God - an update

Those of you eagerly anticipating the release of Temple of the Spider God - the Gamebook Adventure I've written for Tin Man Games - would do well to read this blog post by the Tin Man himself.

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.

Until next time...

The Spider God Cometh...

... via our house, or so it seems. Its minions are everywhere. Small daughter captured a juicy one with her bug hunting kit yesterday, our wardrobe's full of webs(!), and I was bitten by one in bed - I kid you not!

I've been working on fine-tuning the text and gameplay for Temple of the Spider God this week and have been getting excited all over again about this project (which I first commenced on sixteen months ago.

Spider God now has its own theme tune, background track and battles music, it's got thirty full colour illustrations and its own animated title screen*. That, I think everyone is agreed, is pretty damn cool! Have no fear, as soon as I can show you any of the above, I will!

* Arachnophobes be warned - the animation of the spiders (at least ten of them at the last count, and of varying sizes) is very life-like.

More love for the Spider God

Word is spreading about Tin Man Games' forthcoming Gamebook Adventure Temple of the Spider God, and apparently the fact that I've written it is something of a big thing. This is pleasing to me but also a little hard to get used to.

Anyway, you can read what iPhoneFreak has to say about it here and you'll find a piece about Temple of the Spider God here on Gamebook Adventures own website.

JG to write for GA

As I've already passed on, I'm writing Tin Man Games' seventh Gamebook Adventures title - Temple of the Spider God. I've already seen the preliminary sketches for the full colour illustrations that are going to appear in the app and they look awesome.

Here you can read more about the announcement and how it went down at PAX East in America.