I am happy to announce a brand new IF project that, I hope, will interest many IF readers and writers.
Today I finally released my collection of text adventures. It’s called Gamebook, it’s an app available for Android and iOS https://taplink.cc/questgamebook
What text adventure do we have as of today? Well, there are 5:
“Bureaucracy” is a humorous tale of you and fir trees by Roman Vartanov (me) and Sergey Savin
“Jury Duty” is a quest about trying to figure out whether the accused is actually guilty and what’s your role in all that. By Roman Vartanov
“Yet Another Tuesday” is a series of unforeseeable events with many unique endings by Roman Vartanov.
“Interpreter” quest will let you experience one evening in the life of a freelance interpreter who has certain weakness for certain substances. By Roman Vartanov.
“Internship” is a story of one day of you, young psychologist, trying to substitute for an experienced therapist. By Roman Vartanov and Sergey Savin.
I am looking for new authors willing to write for Gamebook now. Please, don’t hesitate to contact me in case you want your text adventure published in Gamebook. Why would you want that? Well, your story will be adopted for iOS and Android and if everything goes well - translated into other languages and, of course, you will be receiving your share of profit.
At the moment the app is very new and I don’t have millions for promoting it, but I am sure it has big potential and I would really really love your help with reviews, glitch finding, sharing and telling your friends about Gamebook.
I hope, you’ll enjoy using Gamebook.
Once again, the link is https://taplink.cc/questgamebook
Your review and comment will be highly appreciated
P.S. The app is 100% ad free, and 3 out of 5 text adventures can be played for free.
I installed this on my iPhone and have to say I really like the format and presentation. I like how descriptions and narration are regular text, and conversations are handled in chat bubbles which feels very natural on a device without having constant quotations marks and “he said” tags. Backgrounds and music are nice touches, and I mostly like the tactile feel of the controls and the click-pop response sound.
My only wish would be some alternate scrolling modes. Currently you need to tap to get the next dialog or story section or choice to appear. I’d like a toggle to change it from scroll to … Having it so a slight swipe up (a “nudge”?) will reveal text, and also possibly to set an “auto click” with variable timer I can set to my reading speed that will keep me from having to cramp my thumb and tapping until a choice is reached.
Is there a special authoring system used to create these games that is available, or do you somehow convert from another language like Twine? Or adapt other games manually?
I didn’t play far into the games, are there variables and world state-tracking possibilities available, or is it all just linear?
Thanks for such a detailed feedback! We experimented with the sound a lot so it’s nice to hear that!)
As for the scrolling mode - noted. I will definetely consider adding an option of changing it to a nudge-like movement. As for the auto click with variable timer - it’s also possible, but since I try do divide phrases by meaning and not by volume it would also have to correspond with the volume, not the meaning. And there are phrases that are short and meaningful which makes auto click kind of wrong because it would skip such phrases quickly.
In order to create our games we developed our own c# desktop editor precisely for the app. Other games would have to be adopted manually, scene by scene.
Each game is different in it’s structure. For example, Yet Another Tuesday is lots of branches with little variables, whereas Jury Duty is a linear story with dozens of variables and conditions.
It’s a very easy to use tool, but so far it can only be used with other software of ours so it’s not a stand-alone editor. I am sure, eventually we will release it for general access and we are already ready to provide access to authors who are interested in publishing in Gamebook.
It has been brought to my attention that our link forwarder was Russian made, which scared some people away. That is completely understandable, so if this was the case with someone here - please, use
I had another idea for this: Currently you have to tap to get every segment of text, which is good, but what if a two-finger tap would advance to the next choice or to the next text element before it clears the screen? (I don’t remember if you cleared the screen or not…) Just to give your thumbs an occasional break!
