Lately, there seems to be a Kickstarter project for everything imaginable. One new exciting project is Underground Kingdom.

The project aims to adapt the work of author Edward Packard, namely his Choose Your Own Adventure books made popular in the 1970s. These books have proved very important to many in the past, myself included, both encouraging literacy and demonstrating how much fun reading can be.

Much like the work of Tin Man Games, Choose Your Own Adventure books are all about taking part in an interactive story and making decisions that lead to many different inclusions.

Underground Kingdom isn’t quite under way yet, hence the Kickstarter project. While I for one greatly encourage getting involved with backing the project, we thought it only right to check in with co-founder and project director Felipe Mingo and creator of the Choose Your Own Adventure books Edward Packard and see how they feel about things.

We asked Felipe about the motivation behind bringing back this series of books.

“In (our) search for an app idea,” he explained, “we remembered the Choose Your Own Adventure series. We really loved these books as kids, and thought that it would be great to transport the concept of “gamebooks” to digital. When we looked for digital versions, we didn’t find any quality apps that would deliver a great experience. We wanted something different, with contemporary artwork, interaction, a map to guide your path… That’s when we decided to start working on it and contacted Edward, who was really helpful and licensed us some of his books.”

Asking whether the books, starting with Underground Kingdom, will be original conversions or if there will be any adjustments, Felipe explained that “The adaptations of the story are completely original from Edward Packard books. We made some minor changes to the text so it would adapt to today’s technology. The artwork is totally new.” As you can see from the artwork below, it’s pretty glorious to look at and a great re-imagining of the original’s style.

Edward Packard explained to us that he believes the “imaginative color art and animations…greatly enrich the adventurous experience” while also stating that he’s “delighted, and especially so about delivering them in app form,” as well as the “added interactive features [and] sound effects”.

While the project is still in the early stages, Visual Baker provided us with some examples of concept art and how the devs there plan to incorporate the feel of Choose Your Own Adventure books into app form. It’s looking pretty great, so far.

If you’re keen on backing the Kickstarter, check out the Underground Kingdom project page for details of pledge amounts available.

At first glance it’s easy to think that the various Choice of Games on the App Store are just touch-centric choose-your-own-adventure stories. In a way they kind of are, but there’s just enough going on in the background (i.e. character-building choices) to make each playthrough feel special. Now the developer has spread their choice-driven expertise to zombies.

Don’t be fooled by the walls of text, Choice of Zombies is a full-fledged adventure game. Players have a surprising amount of freedom in deciding what to do with their game, be it trying to band together with other survivors for safety or simply going out and slaughtering the undead horde. Various player stats are tracked throughout a session, and it’s completely impossible to experience everything in one (or even several) playthrough. If past games are any indication, this is going to be a fun (albeit bloody) romp through Zombie Town.

Choice of Zombies is available on the App Store right now for $2.99. It might seem a little daunting at first, but remember that with many iOS titles we get what we pay for.

$2.99

Choice of Zombies

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-13 :: Category: Games

Welcome to another edition of iD&D. This month we are switching gears to take a look at a pocket of games that are based on the largely popular pen and paper RPG genre. There is no shortage of games available in the app store that make use of this genre, especially because many credit the original dungeons and dragons as the birth place of role playing games. This month we’re taking a look at the line of Gamebook Adventures available from Tin Man Games.

Currently there are four adventures available in the Gamebook lineup. The four titles are “An Assassin in Orlandes,” “The Siege of the Necromancer,” “Slaves of Rema” and “Revenant Rising.” All four titles use the same background world to build their story base from, which allows for each of the titles to fill in a piece of an overall fantasy world. Each title also offers updated background information on the world itself that helps to deliver an overall flourishing game world.

The Gamebooks are best described as the next iteration in choose your own adventure books. Players (Readers) travel through the story making choices along the way that help to develop the overall direction of the story. At any point one wrong move can bring up an untimely end to the adventure, which only serves to extend the playability of these stories even further.

The true gem, and the reason these are next iteration choose your own adventure books, is the dice component in the overall story. At the beginning of the story players roll dice to determine their Vitality and Fitness scores. These scores are extremely important to the overall interaction of the story because they determine how much health you have, and how agile you are as a player. Additionally, starting equipment is provided that helps to dictate encounters.

As the stories progress players will undoubtedly find themselves needing to fight their way through to the next pages. Encounters are randomized based on the current equipment scores. For example, I started the game with a dagger with a score of 2 and a leather jerkin with a score of 2. A goblin jumps out of the bushes without any armor on and holding a battle axe. The goblins armor score is 1 and his attack score is 4. The scores determine the number of die rolls each combatant gets to make, and then those die rolls are compared against the opponents rolls to determine the results.

Each story, while being based in the same world, is self contained and provides hours of entertainment depending on how many poor choices a player makes. Thankfully there are a number of bookmarks that allow the story to be started from a specific part of the story. Using a bookmark allows the player to begin from a specific point in the story, rather than the beginning.

The following story summaries are taken directly from the iTunes store descriptions from Tin Man Games. While there is no real order requirements, the overall fantasy world story truly develops from game to game, so my recommendation would be to start from Gamebook Adventure 1 and work your way numerically.

Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes

Set within Orlandes City, 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?”

Gamebook Adventures 2: The Siege of the Necromancer

“Set in the coastal town of Myr, you have returned home after a long Summer in the mines of Durath Tor to find your hometown besieged by strange creatures. A dark presence has taken over the town and you are the only one who can rid the stronghold of Erid Buul, the mysterious new Lord and his ghastly cohorts.”

Gamebook Adventures 3: Slaves of Rema

“Cruelly taken from your homeland of Orlandes, you find yourself in a far off land at the mercy of a gladiatorial arena. Somehow trying to find a way to escape overseas, can you also unravel a potentially dangerous mystery that puts two nations on the brink of war?”

Gamebook Adventures 4: Revenant Rising

“The mighty city of Falavia, the military backbone of Orlandes, is under attack from an army led by a man claiming to be a God. How did this come to pass you ask yourself? You’re sure it all started as some innocent adventure in search of treasure but somehow it turned into a nightmare. Also, why are people staring at you strangely? It’s not as if you look like you’ve recently been brought back from the dead or something. Oh yes, that’s right. You remember now… ”

148apps has a limited number of promo codes available for distribution. Leave a comment about Gamebook Adventures and enter yourself for a chance to win a promo code for one of the four adventures.
Thanks for reading the December edition of iD&D. Everyone have a safe and enjoyable holiday season.

$5.99

Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-02-08 :: Category: Games

$5.99

Gamebook Adventures 2: The Siege of the Necromancer

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-06-07 :: Category: Games

$5.99

Gamebook Adventures 3: Slaves of Rema

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-09-13 :: Category: Games

$5.99

Gamebook Adventures 4: Revenant Rising

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2010-12-09 :: Category: Games