Choose 'Toons: Choose Your Own Adventures For Younger Readers, Animated

As a huge fan of interactive fiction thanks to a childhood full of Fighting Fantasy and Choose Your Own Adventure books, it's been a pretty exciting time on the App Store of late. Besides Tin Man Games's steady conquering of all things Fighting Fantasy, the release of Sorcery!, and Visual Baker's Underground Kingdom, things have been kicked up a further notch.

That's thanks to the latest Kickstarter campaign, focused on Choose Your Own Adventure books aimed at younger readers and now known as Choose 'Toons. With the Kickstarter just launched, we took some time to chat to Shannon Gilligan, publisher at Chooseco.

"Choose 'Toons are interactive cartoons, plain and simple. There are very abbreviated amounts of text at the choice points, but that's it. Otherwise, you are watching an animated story, with choices!" explained Shannon.

The first app is based on Your Very Own Robot in which the reader uses their parents' robot lab to put together a robot named Gus, leading to some entertaining mishaps. While Shannon told us that there are some "slight amendments and additions", the app is set to follow the book "pretty faithfully".

"It was interesting to adapt because I actually found that typical cable or Saturday morning cartoons are much more physically violent than what's in our books," Shannon noted. "It has something to do with watching vs. reading I think. And it's nothing new. I watched Roadrunner as a kid and it's quite violent, sometimes to the point of sadism. Our eyes are trained to be entertained which might demand certain kinds of less cerebral plot points."

So, young readers and their parents should have nothing to worry about when it comes to the content of this forthcoming adaptation!

The Kickstarter comes with some fairly typical pledge awards, as well as some rather exciting high-end ones such as being able to pay to have one's voice featured in the app. Most thrilling of all, though, has to be the one-off $10,000 pledge. Unlike anything else I've seen before, it gives the buyer their very own Choose Your Own Adventure for real. Throughout the campaign, backers and followers will be asked two questions each week, which will eventually lead to the adventure of a lifetime. While Shannon explained that Antarctica is out because of costs, pretty much everything else is up for grabs. Adventurous spirit and $10,000 to spare? You know what to do.

On a serious final note, anything that encourages kids and their families to read together has to be a hugely positive step. Even better, for this series, it looks set to combine nostalgia for the parents with new discoveries for the kids. We'll be sure to keep an eye on this Kickstarter's progress. For now, check out the campaign page if you're interested in participating or you fancy a $10,000 adventure of a lifetime. The campaign ends on September 12.