The Game Book Genre...Where We Were and Where We're Going

 

The Game Book Genre...Where We Were And Where We're Going?

If you're a long-time fan of the gamebook genre, then you know there is a lot of material to sink your teeth into. So much so that it warrants the question, did the genre ever really fade? Is a "Reignition" actually necessary?

The Gamebook genre has been around for decades and was immensely popular in Europe. While some lucky Americans may have been able to experience the genre in its prime, the majority of US youths were exposed to the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) genre. 

Bringing The Genre To Light.

I grew up with CYOA books as I'm sure I mentioned somewhere in the past (here actually). In fact, I was so unaware of the Gamebook genre that I truly thought I had invented the idea. I remember ranting about it at work, at home, and even in my sleep. I'd created a CYOA book that used dice to determine the outcome of the story. 

Then I found this:

*Note the following contains affiliate links. If you choose to use these links and make a purchase, then at no cost to you I may earn a small commission.*

This author, Dale, wrote a book called Slay the Blood Witches. I bought the book, in no small part due to this video.

He markets the book as a CYOA book, however, it's different from any CYOA book that I have read in the past. Having read more of the gamebook genre I realize this was more of a gamebook than it was a CYOA novel.

*It uses a similar system to Dave Morris's Heart of Ice book*

At that time I was excited to find someone else interested in writing what I was calling Solitaire Adventure Books at the time. Dale's book didn't use dice like the one I was planning on writing, but it was something different from the typical CYOA novel. 

I enjoyed the book and still have it on the shelf in my office next to an ever-growing collection of gamebooks.

At the time I still felt like I had something original, something no one had ever thought of or done before. So imagine my surprise when I came across this a few weeks later.

This book blew my mind and shattered my pride at the same time. Someone had beaten me to the punch of creating a CYOA book that used dice. Not only that, but they had done it better than what I had planned on doing...a lot better. 

It wasn't long after I bought this book that I realized I was showing up to the party about 25 years late. But this is a proper gamebook. It's immersive, engaging, it has great artwork, and above all it's fun. 

Now I've read a few gamebooks since then. After expanding my library, I'm able to see a few opportunities within this book, though those could be chalked up to preferences at this point.

For example, one of my personal preferences when playing an RPG, solitaire, or otherwise is that I prefer to play as myself (as close as possible) and imagine how I would react to the world. It's probably not an unfamiliar preference. I"m sure many readers/players do the same. But on the flip side, many readers play RPG's to experience something entirely different than themselves.

The Legion of Shadow in the Destiny Quest franchise does a pretty good job of fulfilling my own personal preferences, but the following books in the franchise veer off. 

I've gone into this a bit here in my post The Gamebooks are coming! The Dice Books are coming!

What I'd like to do is create a series in which I take a second look at the books that not only defined my own books but in some cases the genre. Not all of these may be gamebooks as the world's gamebooks derive their inspiration from generally aren't. 

I've found, (as I'm sure many of you have) that the more I read the better I write. On that note I'll also be looking at books I'm looking forward to reading, and why. 

I plan to do traditional reviews, but also provide of my adventures through the book (in a gamebook's case). 

One book/series that I've recently purchased is The Heroes of Urowen.

So far I've only read through the mechanics and character-building sections (which is different than what I've seen thus far). But one thing that really stood out to me about this franchise or series of books is that the author David Velasco has written traditional novels set within the gamebook world. 

Again, this is an idea I was intending on implementing within my own gamebooks, so it'll be interesting to see how Velasco incorporates his gameworld into his books. 

Thanks for reading! 

*My next post will be a snapshot of my adventures through this Heroes of Urowen gamebook with a review to follow.*