Gamebook viewpoint characters: Style and Immersion

Warning: this entry contains some thematic spoilers for Westward Dystopia

There are several different ways to write a gamebook, and readers have their preferences. One vitally important element that often remains untalked about in the gamebook community is the nature of the book's protagonist. Will 'You' remain voiceless and opinion-less in such a way that the reader can project themselves into the character? Or will 'You' have stated opinions, dialogue, and thoughts that may potentially run counter to the thoughts of the reader?

The old school method trends toward the former style, where 'You' remain more or less silent. This works for dungeon crawlers and the simple plot lines of Fighting Fantasy and Choose Your Own Adventure books very well and many gamebook readers prefer it. This method does, however, leave the author more or less trapped in a very basic narrative space with little to no room for growth, personal discovery, or dialogue.

When I began outlining Westward Dystopia, I originally plotted it out in the style of the classic Fighting Fantasy books. 'You' were a blank slate, on the run for unspecified reasons in search of wealth and adventure in the wasteland. Needlessly to say, I ultimately found that this left the story feeling rather lifeless, and so I began adding some minor details to 'Your' back story. Mindful of how some players don't like to be told how they feel or what they would say, I kept the story to a minimum at first and stuck with the lone wanderer trope for the majority of the book. A part of me wanted to throw the concept of 'You' away entirely--to give the character a name and exact thoughts, to have the reader roleplay my character rather than project themselves into the setting, but somehow it just didn't feel right at the time.

Midway through writing the rough draft of initial adventure, I was feeling stuck in a rut and opened up a blank document to brainstorm ideas. Eventually, I came up with this essential bit of dialogue as presented to the player at the climax of the story, which has since formed the crux of the entire series:

"Typically you are presented with a small number of viable options, giving the illusion of free will and choice. It’s how we train the brains of our operatives to accept commands on their early missions. Have you ever felt as though your choices through life have been limited? Almost arbitrarily? Well there is a reason for that. Every eventuality that you survived would lead you to this outcome."

This resulted in a major breakthrough in both theme and narrative for Westward Dystopia: Control and exploration of the nature of gamebooks as a storytelling medium. Suddenly the entire nature of 'You' was thrown into question. If the story was about the reader experiencing and influencing the life of another person, seeing through their eyes as they read, then perhaps the character could have a voice of their own, could have their own thoughts and feelings while still remaining 'You'. Thus the meta-plot of the series was created, where the player is told from the opening pages that they are experiencing the memories of a mysterious 'Traveler' and reconstructing experiences from a fractured psyche. This particular framing device is only visited at the beginning and end of the book, leaving readers to become immersed in the world of the wasteland before the climax and ending pulls them out with a jerk as the readers realize and remember who the real viewpoint character is: themselves.

In order to give this framework more clarity, the opening sequences of Westward Dystopia and Spire Ablaze are written in third person, only shifting to the second person 'You' when the reader is immersed into the mind of our main perspective character and plays through the adventure.

The response from the gamebook community has been overwhelmingly positive thus far, and I hope to keep readers guessing as I further deconstruct gamebook perspective and explore the metaplot of Westward Dystopia through the next several books I have planend in the series!

Westward Dystopia is available now on Amazon and greekwinter.com.

Book 2: Spire Ablaze will be available by mid-October!

Spire Ablaze: Covers and Design

Lo, I have reached the top of the mountain, and from these dizzying heights Spire Ablaze is ready to be unleashed upon the world at large! This past week has been filled with the scramble of formatting, graphic design, and final playtesting. I find this portion of the publication process refreshing in as many ways as it is nerve-racking: It's a different way to vent my creative energies than writing, but it's also very important that everything goes perfectly! Formatting and design give potential readers a first impression, and in a growing pool of gamebook competition, I want my presentation to be top notch!

The eminently talented Tony Hough (Fighting Fantasy, Warhammer) provided me with a gorgeous digital painting to work with for the cover as you'll see below. I decided to go a bit out of my comfort zone on the design, especially on the back cover for this one. My designing tends to trend toward darker things: blacks and grays. Lately, as the Internet gets brighter and brighter, I've found that kicking old habits to the curb and using bright colors can really let the whole thing breathe. Besides, the cover art for book 3 is downright black, so Spire was my chance to let the light shine in!

Preliminary Spire Ablaze jacket

This one went through quite a few revisions, many of which tried to capitalize on the oranges and yellows of the fire, even to the point of setting the title itself ablaze. Over-all it just came out too harsh and garish no matter how it was done, so I decided on a light blue to fit in with Tony's sweeping sky and cloudscape. The mighty mutant king was enlarged and set in the bottom left, the clouds behind his stone throne weaving their way up into a blue-white gradient for the introductory text to rest upon.

I settled on the whipmaster's head for the spine. Something about his aloof and disapproving stare and tattooed head just works perfectly for me. I decided to feature headshots on the spines of all the Road Less Traveled books back on Westward which sported Tony's bright blue mutant staring out at readers from the spine. I also decided to add the Greek Winter logo which was conspicuously absent from Book 1. Ah well, live and learn eh?

Spire Ablaze will be shipping to my Kickstarter backers in October and will be available for purchase on Amazon and greekwinter.com in November! I'm also working on an Android version which should arrive on the Google Play store sometime in November or December as well!

Of Gamebooks and Guns

I've noticed throughout the years that guns of any traditional type are very rarely used in gamebooks. This could have to do with the fact that the majority of these books are spent in fantasy-based environments or sci-fi settings where if guns are used during gameplay they take the form of laser pistols and plasma rifles.

When working on Westward Dystopia I had a vision of the main character: A grizzled vet of many harsh wasteland battles, scouring the sands of the post-apocalyptic environment and duelling mutants, bandits, and gunslingers with a pair of revolvers. I wanted western meets post-apocalyptic and I stayed within those lines for the most part, although I decided to skew sci-fi in the end at what may have been the expense of some western bits. Point is though, I wanted those revolvers. They were key. When I discussed the design of the cover for Westward with illustrator Tony Hough, those crossed revolvers were right out in front. Tony came up with a fantasy twist on a revolver design that I found quite visually appealing and I never thought twice about how such weapons would function in real life.

Then I started writing and I realized that I didn't know the first thing about guns. Although I grew up in the US before immigrating to Canada, I have never owned a gun, although my father has always been a big fan of the old romanticized westerns, so as I grew up I learned about Hollywood's take on the days of the 'Wild West'. I bluffed my way through it and for the most part I think it was a success (at least nobody who purchased the book ever wrote in to correct me on anything!) I've been fortunate that the combat in gamebooks tends to be told through the rolling of the dice rather than exposition and the player only hears what happens after defeat or victory. I kept the revolvers vague, more as an extension of the main character than an object in the inventory: they were important, but their function was left to the player's imagination.

Writing Spire Ablaze changed things a bit. This second book begins in the Technomancer city of Root, where guns are far more common than out in the wastes where technology is a relative unknown. In Spire, the player has an option of three weapons to choose from after the opening sequence. This led to the need to be even more vague in the text afterwards--referring to the weapon as 'your firearm' or 'your weapon'. Due to the necessary generalizing later on, I wanted to offer the player a good look at their companion weapon in the form of text and imagery in the item selection paragraphs. I wrote up descriptions to the best of my knowledge, drew some companion art, and moved on to write the rest of the book.

Midway through the draft I happened upon an episode of Brandon Sanderson's 'Writing Excuses' on Youtube which centered on 'Guns in Fiction'.

It's quite an interesting video if you're a writer or heavy reader (as are most of Brandon's Writing Excuses episodes) and it made me think twice about how I was portraying guns in my gamebooks. While I ultimately decided to keep the descriptions basic and gamebooky, I made sure to take the time to research each type of weapon and catch myself in what would have been some rather glaring errors. I spent an entire afternoon reading up on miniguns for an optional sequence near the end of the book, getting sucked into the history of the forms of weaponry that descended from the original designs of Richard Gatling during the American Civil War. I even added a few tidbits to the sequence based on my research.

Future books in the series will focus more on the protagonist's electrical powers, with Book 3: The Lords of Benaeron falling more into the classification of low-fantasy dystopia than post-apocalyptic western, but guns will still play a part. Their influence is spreading slowly but surely across the wasteland and not even the might of the Technomancers can fit the technological genie back into its bottle now!