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Post by lordomnibok on May 26, 2019 23:05:29 GMT
Spine creases suggest that I gave this book a good read a long time ago, yet I have no recollection of it. Quite odd. Had I completed it, I think I would recall. Anyway, Spectral Stalkers is getting closer and I loved the oddity of that one. Still really enjoying the Six Shotties thread.
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Post by lordomnibok on Apr 2, 2019 21:24:29 GMT
This is a great achievement. Writing a book is on my life bucket list but the sheer amount of work is frightening. how did you plan and write the book? how was testing the sections done? tell us more about the process. Thanks Aggsol. I’m afraid you are correct; it is a frightening amount of work. I started by creating a rough draft of the story’s key points, condensing my idea into a short story format. After that I created a number list from 1 to 450, ticking off the numbers as I went. When it was done, I playtested it countless times. I then blocked off the pages so that I could see only one word at a time, and read it cover to cover. I was told by a proof reader that this was a hard-core and time consuming approach, but I took that as a compliment. I had a gamebook fan and a gamebook novice read it, to get their views, then I started the illustrations, cover art and text layout. After finishing, I realised that I had aged by several years, my beard had grown long and dishevelled and my brain was melting haha. I have a day job, hence the book was created mostly by night. I didn’t get much sleep for a very long time, but the response and feedback has been fantastic, so it was worthwhile.
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Post by lordomnibok on Apr 1, 2019 0:39:50 GMT
Well done on all your hard work Lordomnibok. Is there ever likely to be a digital version of The Demon Sorcerer? Thanks Pete! An article about my book hit gamebooknews.com/2019/03/31/the-demon-sorcerer/ today. I'm really pleased by the response I've had, so the hard work definitely feels worthwhile. I haven't made any plans for a digital version but that's not to say that it won't happen. At the moment though I'm just focusing on the paperbacks, whilst pouring my energy into writing the sequel.
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Post by lordomnibok on Mar 27, 2019 16:37:20 GMT
Hi Mudworm. Have you any more mini gamebooks in the pipeline?
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Post by lordomnibok on Mar 26, 2019 23:14:47 GMT
Hi all. I've set up a page now with some pictures of the book including illustrations. If anyone is interested and hasn't seen it yet, feel free to check it out and like my page if you wish www.facebook.com/dllewisgamebooks/ Have a good week!
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Post by lordomnibok on Mar 15, 2019 14:02:32 GMT
Bought. Hopefully getting printed off and sent to me soon. Thanks for your support Bloodbeasthandler! Feedback suggests an average of six days to reach people in the uk, so you should be slaying foes pretty soon.
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Post by lordomnibok on Mar 12, 2019 20:11:15 GMT
Wow! Thanks Kieran! May your sword be blessed, mighty warrior!
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Post by lordomnibok on Mar 12, 2019 20:05:29 GMT
Hi all. I've written two gamebooks and I put the first one up for sale a few days ago. A few people have already stumbled upon it and bought copies - nine sold! The second book is not yet available as I'm adding some finishing touches, but I've put a discount on the first book to celebrate its release. If you want to check out what I've done, search Lulu.com for The Demon Sorcerer or follow this link www.lulu.com/shop/d-l-lewis/the-demon-sorcerer/paperback/product-23990250.htmlThanks all! Have a great week Wow! Congratulations on sticking it out and not only getting it finished, but getting it out into the marketplace! Inspirational, really. Can I ask how you went about the publishing side of it all? Also, I recall you are a bit of an artist so I assume you self illustrated inside, but is the cover your work as well? Thank you Champskees. I really appreciate your response. The cover and internal illustrations took me a long time to complete. I also did the book layout in Quark. I approached a few publishers and received good responses, but ultimately I decided to self publish using print on demand. I wanted to create some new adventures for the people who still love old-school paperback gamebooks like me, and I wasn't willing to compromise on that mindset. I've been selling copies every day, so far to the USA, Canada, Netherlands and the UK. It's a real honour that people have bought my work. It took years to complete and I've certainly done my best. Thanks again for your comments Champskees.
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Post by lordomnibok on Mar 10, 2019 20:50:29 GMT
Hi all. I've written two gamebooks and I put the first one up for sale a few days ago. A few people have already stumbled upon it and bought copies - nine sold! The second book is not yet available as I'm adding some finishing touches, but I've put a discount on the first book to celebrate its release. If you want to check out what I've done, search Amazon for The Demon Sorcerer Thanks all! Have a great week
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Post by lordomnibok on Feb 15, 2019 17:46:47 GMT
Rightly so, a non FF gamebook should have different fighting rules. I think its okay to be similar, but they should have some unique aspects. Other publishers were interested in my own work some years ago, but they wanted all dice aspects removed. They also wanted to dilute the darker tone of my work, so my thoughts started moving towards self publishing, which has its own challenges for sure. I'll self publish later this month and let you know how it goes.
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Post by lordomnibok on Feb 15, 2019 0:09:34 GMT
I admire your attempt DragonWarrior8. I tried and got the same: "No unsolicited material. Thank you," response. It's a shame, as the way FF used to do it (opening their doors to all the creative minds out there) worked a treat. You suggested a possible reason as to why this is their stance. Maybe you are right. Maybe they just want known authors as they think this will boost sales. If they have synopsis after synopsis in their mail, the material needs to be read and considered. That costs them time and money. Maybe they just don't think it's worth it. But who knows. Its just a different time I guess.
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Post by lordomnibok on Feb 7, 2019 19:10:03 GMT
Gosh I hope not! The only thing I've seen of late in a charity shop was a first print run (I think) of the third Lone Wolf book, in excellent condition. I was tempted to take it but I decided to leave it in the hope some kid might pick it up and have his mind blown.
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Post by lordomnibok on Feb 3, 2019 0:53:01 GMT
Wow. That's unfortunate. As for Scholastic, I've no idea how they are dealing with things like this. I only buy books from them that haven't been released by previous publishers. Shame Wizard made that error, their versions are pretty nice.
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Post by lordomnibok on Feb 2, 2019 21:45:48 GMT
I hope not, I don't know, but you may be right. I only heard that they fixed the game breaking error. COH was so complex. The main error certainly needed fixing, but any little adjustments should have been done with extreme caution.
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Post by lordomnibok on Jan 29, 2019 22:38:55 GMT
do they actually fix the errors in POP in the next print runs or do they stay that way forever? At least an errata would be in order. A fix would be lovely, for us, for Livingstone, for everyone really, though I suspect it will stay the same. It is a shame, as those minor issues could very easily be rectified. It's a question for Scholastic, but thankfully the errors are only mildly bemusing, not game breaking. Hopefully these little things will all be smoothed out in his next creation.
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Post by lordomnibok on Jan 29, 2019 19:54:45 GMT
Fans have been rightly vocal about errors. POP had baffling errors but nothing game breaking,a huge step up from BotZ in that regard. It wouldn't have taken much at all to fix POP's rule anomalies. This play testing post gives me hope that we might see further improvement. I would be gravely disappointed if that wasn't the case, but i am a natural optimist, so I'll shine some good vibes for now and hope that it's been well tested.
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Post by lordomnibok on Dec 30, 2018 19:07:54 GMT
Thrilled as I am that Fighting Fantasy isn't dead, nobody seems especially eager for another of Ian's adventures. More writers attracted to the genre would be better. Although I always loved Ian's style of writing and his encounters, and never really understood how his gamebooks are more linear than most, excluding those which are notably non-linear. As for ff, I'm not sure they are trying to attract new authors at all. Puffin had clear instructions for aspiring writers on how to submit their ideas for consideration. It was great. Scholastic will accept no unsolicited ideas/material regarding ff. I have looked into this, but I'd be quite happy to be wrong, so do correct me if I have missed something.
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Post by lordomnibok on Dec 29, 2018 23:13:47 GMT
Ian Livingstone says he's finished writing a new FF gamebook (on his birthday): ( Link to tweet if not appearing) Oooh. Thanks Mudworm. Have you spotted any info on what it's about, or a potential title at all? I'm guessing not, but let us know if you do. You generally spot these things quicker than me, so I often hear about it first on this forum.
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Post by lordomnibok on Dec 15, 2018 12:51:07 GMT
No. No way McCaig was rejected on the basis of his art. A spell of madness would have descended for that to have happened. I would be curious to see the dismissed work as I love looking at art and all things historically ff related, but I do agree that for the illustrator's sake it should be left alone, unless they themselves ever decide to share their work. I take my hat off to Bulmer for taking on that challenge last minute. Someone had to do it. A deadline for ff artwork should never be that tight.
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Post by lordomnibok on Dec 15, 2018 10:06:58 GMT
Awesome. McCaig is great isn't he! I don't think they rejected McCaig's work though. I think he just had other jobs that meant he couldn't do it, so they got someone else whose contributions were rejected at the last moment. Bulmer was then pulled in to save the day. I 'think' that was the case. Thanks for sharing the McCaig pic. I can never see enough of his art.
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Post by lordomnibok on Dec 14, 2018 23:53:11 GMT
FREEWAY FIGHTER. Its been said many times before i'm sure but the illustrations are the crappiest and least exciting I've ever seen, especially the one with the guy giving you a wee wave through his car window - how thrilling! Still loving this thread, but I shall add a little context to this one. Apparently the illustrations were completed in just nine days after the previous illustrator's work was rejected. (I wonder what those dismissed images looked like?!?) Anyway, doing that many illustrations in a nine day rush is pretty epic so I have some sympathy for the artist. Three a day or something like that? I'm actually quite impressed haha. I'm not sure I would have wanted that job.
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Post by lordomnibok on Dec 14, 2018 23:22:13 GMT
The Wizard Books reissue 'solved' the problem by adding text to every paragraph that redirects you to an earlier book, stating that you've lost all your possessions. Good old Wizard - never a problem they can't solve by introducing a completely new problem. haha 😆
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Post by lordomnibok on Nov 18, 2018 23:07:09 GMT
Yeah, I recall POF being really cool and quite unique. Been a few years since I've walked those paths though.
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Post by lordomnibok on Nov 7, 2018 22:40:07 GMT
I actually think you did pretty well on Crypt for just six shots. Shame you got squished but still, you had a decent stab at it.
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Post by lordomnibok on Oct 31, 2018 17:37:08 GMT
Success - congrats! I loved BNC, (even the farting around before the castle.) Great book
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Post by lordomnibok on Oct 26, 2018 21:12:24 GMT
CREATURE OF HAVOC Although I played this book loads and completed it twice, I reckon, I cant remember at all how to go around the dungeon correctly. I doubt six tries will get me anywhere! Couple of goes the night Have you got the broken version like me? I'm sure you remember the glitch but be mindful if you have the early version.
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Post by lordomnibok on Oct 22, 2018 1:31:07 GMT
SWORD OF THE SAMURAI 1sttry -11/21/9 - Nice stats - I cant remember much of this book. I took the Heroic leaping skill. I do mind that theres an easy route and a harder route but not sure which is which. So I go east. I get into a bit of trouble in a wee village , meet some kappa then get crushed in a wee cave.... 2nd try 8/16/8 -Ok, east seems tricky. I go the other way and try and help people in a village. Sadly I encounter three samurai with similar stats tome, so I die... 3rd try 8/14/12 - I decide to avoid the village this time on account of my crappy stats. However, I then get killed by the undead samurai later on. 4th try 7/9/12 - That is hopeless. I send my useless wee guy into the self proclaimed shoguns castle on a suicide mission and get killed while taking too long to fight a jailer. 5th try - 11/15/8 - Better. I sort of the problems in the village, gain a shifty companion, go to the castle and succeed. I eventually reach the hub. I gain 3 allies. However, they are rubbish so I get killed by a toad. MAX STATS Based on my not toooo distant memories, I expected you to win through on this one. I think you were just unlucky. Next book though... Eek...
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Post by lordomnibok on Oct 9, 2018 23:24:13 GMT
Excellent. I'm glad you're back on this stevendoig. It's interesting.
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Post by lordomnibok on Oct 8, 2018 18:21:57 GMT
...and I'm spent. Every FF book up to 67 has now been added to the Stat Book. So now this forum not only has a solution for every book, but also a percentile guide to help measure its difficulty. My computer has played over 1 billion individual playthroughs of FF in order to complete this task, insane really. I think I am going to take a break from FF for a while. That's the problem with Fighting Fantasy: the fantasy. Sometimes you get so drawn in, the imaginary worlds start to replace the only one that is real. Hopefully, Steve Jackson delivers the goods with his upcoming entry so I can return for book 68! Ciao, Jake Absolutely stunning, Jake. Well done and thank you for your efforts.
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Post by lordomnibok on Sept 27, 2018 18:47:39 GMT
My goodness Hynreck, that was epic! Well done me lad! I have been pleased to write reviews of Greg's past work. I enjoy reading his stories as the effort that goes into them is clear, so the least i can do is share my thoughts. On this occasion though you have been so thorough that all I will say is that I loved Picnicker too. A short gamebook gives instant rewards to the reader and can still be complex and satisfying. Creature of Hangover and his Christmas themed short are still my favourites, but all of his creations are great reads.
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