Beta testers wanted

[Doomy]

One of my online contacts - Andrew "Brewin" Drage, is one of the authors for TinMan Games, who make gamebook apps for iOS.

He's looking for beta testers to work on a forthcoming gamebook product - if you have an iPhone and are interested in participating, drop me a PM and I'll send further details.

[Beowuuf]

No iPhone, sorry Is there a website for it yet?

You can maybe check with outspaced or Thomas over at Project Aon if you can post this over there too?

[Doomy]

There is a website, but all it does is allow you to register an iOS-based device so you can get access to the current build of the app.

Here's the link to the company website, so you can at least see what they do: tinmangames.com.au/blog/?p=1725

As for PA, Outspaced is already writing for Tinman.

[Doomy]

I've read through Brewin's book, Infinite Universe, and submitted feedback - it's very good, featuring a deep yet tongue-in-cheek plot with lots of sci-fi, film and gaming references, and weighs in at a whopping 900+ sections. My understanding is that it will be broken up and released as a series of instalments though.

It took over a year to write, and the effort shows. Definitely worth picking up whenever it does come out - and don't worry, that's simply an objective recommendation from someone who's read a few gamebooks. I don't get any cut of the proceeds (though I have been promised a credit).

It's due sometime in February. Tinman have also pledged to support Android, so expect it to show up on there at some point.

[Beowuuf]

Cool, bump this as a reminder in February. I have an android phone now, so at worst I can get it through that

[Doomy]

You can start with the earlier books. Assassin in Orlandes is the first one. Dunno if it's already on 'Droid.

[zipp]

Hey, Dooms... what's the battle system in Orlandes?

[Doomy]

Here's a review which lets you see combat actually being carried out. Unfortunately the reviewer hates gamebooks.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5KrM5YpeVU

Equipment gives you offence and defence values, which are the number of six-sided dice you get to roll.

So if you're unarmed and unarmoured you'll get 1 die in offence and defence, but if you get a sword or something you might get to roll 3 dice in offence. If you then get, say, leather armour you might then get to roll 3 dice in defence too.

Attacker rolls all their dice, and the defender must beat the highest single die or take the total roll as damage, which makes combat rather deadly as you'll have less than 50 Vitality points.

You also have Fitness points which can be spent for combat bonuses, but you need these to pass frequent non-combat checks too (bit like LUCK in Fighting Fantasy).

The player has one big advantage: If you shake your iDevice before all the dice settle you can reroll all the dice in a single roll, but it only works once per roll. Sounds like it might make things too easy, but trust me - the books are difficult enough.

One nice touch - each combat has a unique death section, so if you lose you'll get to read about being eaten by gribblies.

[brewin]

I see my work is already done here ...Thanks Doomy!!

There's a decent gameplay trailer here, to give you a feel for what it looks like and how it starts:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRZn2JcOe-s

...Oh and the start is free to download (iOS devices only at the moment) so you can "try before you buy"