Nomination of the Spider God

I just wanted to draw your attention to the fact that the Android version of Temple of the Spider God is eligible for nomination in 6th annual Best App Ever Awards in the 'Brain and Puzzle Game' category.

So go here, enter 'GA7' into the search bar, and please nominate the game. The iOS version achieved a 2nd place ranking when it was released a couple of years ago. Wouldn't it be great if it could achieve 1st place this time around?

Rewards of the Spider God

Good news! If you pledged to receive the SPIDER level reward for YOU ARE THE HERO you should now have received your desktop Gamebook Adventures!

They've been a while coming, but you're going to love how these games look on your desktop, not to mention the fun you'll have playing them. In fact the experience will probably take many of you back about 30 years!

(As is always the way, if any of you have not received Gamebook Adventures 1-7 for your Mac or PC and think you should have done, drop me a line and I'll get it sorted for you. It won't have been Tin Man Games' fault - it will have been a clerical error on my part.)

It just remains for me to say a huge THANK YOU to Neil Rennison and Ben Britten Smith of Tin Man Games who so generously offered this reward in the first place and sent out the codes. And once you've played through GA 1-7 you should really check out their new app versions of a certain gamebook series from the '80s too. ;-)

May you always roll sixes!

YOU ARE THE HERO - Upgrade of the Spider God!

The SPIDER level reward over on the YOU ARE THE HERO Kickstarter has been upgraded, thanks to the generosity of the Tin Man himself!

Now, if you add £10 to your existing pledge and you will receive not only a copy of GAMEBOOK ADVENTURES 7: TEMPLE OF SPIDER GOD, written by Yours Truly, you will also receive Gamebook Adventures 1-6 for either PC or Mac.

So that's...
GA1: An Assassin in Orlandes
GA2: The Siege of the Necromancer
GA3: Slaves of Rema
GA4: Revenant Rising
GA5: Catacombs of the Undercity
GA6: The Wizard from Tarnath Tor
and
GA7: Temple of the Spider God

...and all for just £10!

So don't delay! Pledge today and tell all your friends. There's less than 37 hours to go!

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.

Herald of Oblivion - A Warhammer 40,000 gamebook

Almost a year to the day since I started work on the proposal for what then went under the working title of TERMINATOR, my very first Warhammer 40,000 gamebook is published today!

You are a veteran Space Marine of the Imperial Fists Chapter. Equipped with powerful Terminator armour and armed with the deadliest weapons that the Adeptus Astartes wield, you are a symbol of the Emperor's might. Trapped aboard the space hulk Herald of Oblivion and the only survivor of your squad, you must fight your way through the aliens and heretics that infest the star vessel and find a way to escape the horror and return to your Chapter.

One year from initial outline to publication. That's right, on Thursday 7 July 2011 I started typing up my proposal for TERMINATOR and on 10 July I emailed it to Black Library's range development editor Christian Dunn.

And now, on Friday 6 July 2012, I'm very proud to announce that HERALD OF OBLIVION is available to buy direct from the Black Library.

If you're a fan of the Imperial Fists Space Marines, buy it! If you loathe and detest the Golden Avengers -  buy it! (Why? Just read the book and you'll soon find out.) If you're a fan of Space Marines - buy it! If you're a fan of Orks, Tyranids, Necrons or Dark Eldar - buy it! If you're a fan of the classic GW board game SPACE HULK - buy it! If you're a fan of the Adeptus Mechanicus - buy it! Even if you are a vehement supporter of the Traitor Legions - buy it! There really is something for everyone in this book!


And if that's not enough to sell it to you, it also features the awesome artwork of Mr Karl Richardson, the artist on Dan Abnett's legendary LONE WOLVES.

I don't know if the idea had been mooted at Games Workshop before (after all, the original founders of the company did also create the Fighting Fantasy series of gamebooks) but what I do know is that Marc Gascoigne and I first pitched the idea of a series of Warhammer/Warhammer 40,000 gamebooks to Boxtree back in 1995-96. Obviously nothing came of the idea at the time, but in 2007 Black Library editor Nick Kyme got in touch about the possibility of doing something then. But as things turned out it wasn't until long time FF devotee Christian Dunn was on board (GW having sold the Solaris imprint to Rebellion) that what had been a dream for many (myself included) finally became reality.

HERALD OF OBLIVION may be my first gamebook for the Black Library, but as long-term readers of this blog will know, it's not my first adventure gamebook. It is in fact my fourteenth published adventure in twenty years*. My other gamebook titles include seven Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, two Sonic the Hedgehog adventures, one Doctor Who, one Star Wars The Clone Wars, one Gamebook Adventure app, and the first part in the Warlock's Bounty series.

If you're interested the full list of titles is as follows:

Spellbreaker (Fighting Fantasy)
Knights of Doom (Fighting Fantasy)
Curse of the Mummy (Fighting Fantasy)
Bloodbones (Fighting Fantasy)
Howl of the Werewolf (Fighting Fantasy)
Stormslayer (Fighting Fantasy)
Night of the Necromancer (Fighting Fantasy)
Theme Park Panic (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Stormin' Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog)
The Horror of Howling Hill (Doctor Who)
Crisis on Coruscant (Star Wars The Clone Wars)
Temple of the Spider God (Gamebook Adventures)
Revenge of the Sorcerer (Warlock's Bounty)
HERALD OF OBLIVION (Path to Victory)


If you enjoy HERALD OF OBLIVION and you've not read any of my other gamebooks before, why not check them out? And of course if you enjoy HERALD OF OBLIVION, you'll enjoy my other Warhammer 40,000 book and short stories, including THE ARMAGEDDON OMNIBUS and the novel IRON HANDS.

And lastly, if you do enjoy HERALD OF OBLIVION please post a review on the Black Library website, and drop me a line too, if you like. It's always great to hear from gamebook fans.

* That's right, this summer marks 20 years since my first commission, which just so happens to have been my first gamebook Spellbreaker. And which book is it that's out in time for the 20 year anniversary? HERALD OF OBLIVION - another gamebook! Oh, and my current project is my first Warhammer Path to Victory book SHADOWS OVER SYLVANIA. (What are the chances?)

2012 - The Year of the Gamebook?

The Tin Man over at Tin Man Games, believes that 2012 might well be the year of the Gamebook. Here's why.

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...

Gamebook Adventure on the G*M*S Magazine Podcast

As anybody who's dropped by the blog in the last week will know, last Saturday I attended Dragonmeet with Neil Rennison - the Tin Man's mortal minion - to promote Gamebook Adventures and Temple of the Spider God in particular.

Whilst we were there, we were both interviewed for the G*M*S Magazine Podcast which is now live over here. You can hear Neil and I talking between around 33 and 39 minutes (me for rather longer than I recalled doing so).

It's a great podcast all round and I'll definitely be checking out future editions.

Dragonmeet - Saturday 26 November

I shall be appearing at Dragonmeet tomorrow (Saturday 26 November), as the guest of Tin Man Games.

The event runs from 10.00am, at Kensington Town Hall, and I'm planning to be there for the whole day.

Fighting Fantasy's Warlock is going to be around as will Graham Bottley of Arion Games, publisher of Second Edition Advanced Fighting Fantasy. And Cubicle 7 will be selling my Pax Britannia books.

I'm on the 'Fiction and the Games Industry' panel with my esteemed colleagues Sarah Newton and Iain Lowson, starting at 1.30pm, whilst m'colleague James Wallis will be interviewing Ian Livingstone OBE, from 11.00am - 12.00pm with a Q&A session afterwards.

So, maybe I'll see you there...

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...

Meeting with the Tin Man

So today, having first spoken eighteen months or so ago, I finally got to meet up with the Tin Man's flesh interface, otherwise known as Neil Rennison. He very kindly made the journey to deepest rural Wiltshire to talk all things Tin Man Games and Gamebook Adventures - Temple of the Spider God in particular.

With our Vitality scores dwindling, we then headed off to the Tale of Spice in nearby Pewsey to continue our various conversations over a middle of the day curry. Business lunches don't get better than this!

Just one wafer thin mint...

Temple of the Spider God is on course for an August release. For more news watch this space or check out the Tin Man's own website here.

Temple of the Spider God

I've been sitting on this one for almost a year now (and have had to be somewhat evasive when people have asked me about the possibility online) but I can finally tell the world that I am writing the seventh title in Tin Man Games Gamebook Adventures line.

Temple of the Spider God should be released this July and you can read more via the press release Tin Man Games have put here. I will of course be updating this blog with more news as and well as well. But in the meantime, arachnophobes should do what they can to prepare themselves...

Two weeks in the life of Gamebook Adventures

Tin Man Games have recently posted on their blog about their experiences of producing brand new gamebooks for the iPod generation.

It's certainly an exciting time and these guys are true trailblazers. They're not just re-packaging already published books - every adventure is brand new, especially written with the capabilities of the iDevice in mind.

I'll keep posting news about developments in Gamebook Adventures and you can read more for yourself here.

Gamebook Adventures: Slaves of Rema

Slaves of Rema, the third release from Tin Man Games' Gamebook Adventures range is out now!

Siege of the Necromancer is here!

The long-anticipated second Gamebook Adventure from Tin Man Games is here at last! So pop over to the Apple App Store and search for Siege of the Necromancer now!

To read more about the latest GA release, follow this link.

The Siege of the Necromancer...

... is coming!

An Assassin in Orlandes - is here!

Yes, good news for a Monday morning (for once)! Tim Man Games' first iPod/iPhone Gamebook Adventure - An Assassin in Orlandes - is available to buy now from Apple's App Store. And it only costs £2.99. (That's less than a pint costs round here!)

So what are you waiting for? Get over to the App Store now and get your hands on a brand new gamebook gaming experience!

Set within Orlandes City itself, nobles are being systematically murdered by a ruthless assassin no-one seems able to catch. Finding yourself thrust in the middle of a large conspiracy, you must make decisions that may put yourself and one other most precious to you in great danger. Can you locate the Assassin in Orlandes before it is too late?

An Assassin in Orlandes - on the App store on Monday!

Exciting news... Tin Man Games's first title in their new Gamebook Adventures range for the iPhone/iPod - An Assassin in Orlandes - is going to be available to buy from Monday 8 February.

To find out more about the App, click here.

An Assassin in Orlandes - coming soon!

Exciting news from Tin Man Games in Australia... An Assassin in Orlandes has been submitted to Apple and should be available from next week. To read more about this story, click this link.