Martyn Cruise, Author

 Uploaded a video about writing Monstrous Manor Monstrous manor was my first attempt at an adventure gamebook. I was already thinking about writing one and I discovered some amazing open source illustrations which formed the basis of the layout of the book. I started by sketching a map on note paper, then started working out the layouts of the levels and what encounters, items, and traps the player would discover along the way. I then drew them properly on gridded paper with a tracing paper overlay so I could write the temporary address of each entry on top. I remember driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to map some of the sections because for some reason instead of using codewords I had decided that the player would switch between duplicate entries if they made certain choices. I made things insanely complicated for myself. Which led me to buy a whole set of the Wizard re-releases of fighting fantasy for the next book just so I could learn some of the tricks other author...

 Uploaded a video about why I write gamebooks. So why write adventure gamebooks? To explain that we'll have to take a little dive into history. I'm not sure what was my first gamebook but the first ones I remember were the fighting fantasy series, starting with house of hell. I was around 10 years old and loved horror so the combination of the illustrations coupled with the spooky story was right up my alley. I bought a few more in the fighting fantasy series then started to branch out into other ones. I was really into ninjas so bought a couple of the assassin series which were great and then got hooked on the falcon series, buying all but the last one which I couldn't find anywhere at the time. I had a few other one offs like an Indiana Jones tie in and a choose your own adventure as well as a 2000AD Slaine adventure comic. As I grew older I lost interest and got more into console gaming, leaving the books in a box to be found every now and again for a quick perusal befor...