Game Books

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross venture forth to discuss game books, choose your own adventures, and Steve Jackson's Sorcery!

What is game? It's any interactive experience that has both failure states and a success state. By that reasoning, game books are games. Also, it's in the name. This special episode is all about non-video interactive narratives, books with branching paths and mechanics.

We cover the Bantam Choose Your Own Adventure Books, Fighting Fantasy, Lone Wolf, Steve Jackson's Sorcery!, the Goosebumps Choose Your Own Scare, and more. For as nostalgic as this topic is, there's a surprising connection between these books and the current crop of narrative-driven games we play today.

LINKS OF NOTE:

• [You Chose Wrong](youchosewrong.tumblr.com/)
• [Clickventure](www.clickhole.com/clickventure/mys…ow-island-1880#2,)
• [Quest for Glory](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory)
• [Gamebook Archives](www.gamebooks.org/)
• [The Two Jakes](www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWbiQAr8miI)
• [Black Bug Room](marvel.wikia.com/Black_Bug_Room)
• [Lonewolf Online](www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books)
• [Mormon Afterlife](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_glory)
• [All My Circuits](theinfosphere.org/All_My_Circuits)
• [Sexist Xanth books](www.avclub.com/article/revisitin…y-of-xanth-104382)
• [@dril](twitter.com/dril)