Writing How to write an Adventure Gamebook

Uploaded a video about writing 'How to write an adventure gamebook'.

Buoyed with confidence after finishing Monstrous Manor, I decided to try to create a useful guide to writing an adventure gamebook. I was and still am clearly no expert in the field but I felt I could gather together lots of useful information into one place to give a useful overview of the process from initial gestation to published book.

I had also developed a short lived but rabid interest in AI and wanted to explore its possibilities. To that end, I used Dreamstudio and other AI image generators to create characters and backgrounds for the cover and internal decoration. I experimented with ChatGPT to try to create a gamebook which I quickly discovered was way beyond its capabilities. Nonetheless I expanded some of the passages it produced to create a small gamebook adventure which I included both to illustrate potential AI capabilities and as a bit of fun for the reader.

Overall I think I managed to give a decent overview of the mechanics behind creating a Gamebook and an insight into the steps required to publish the final manuscript as well as creating a handy reference to the many resources available to the novice and more experienced writer.

Until next time.

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Writing Attack of the Zombie Vampires

Uploaded a video about writing Attack of the Zombie Vampires The original inspiration for attack of the zombie vampires or zompires came years ago when I had an idea for a series of short films. They were a parody of a Van Helsing type character who would disguise himself as a typical victim and after defeating the monster loudly proclaim 'the menace has been defeated'. I can remember wanting to call one of them 'the phantom menace' and having a chuckle about the thought of someone clicking on the video and instead of enjoying a George Lucas epic they would see this strange little movie instead. Yes, I have a pretty weird sense of humour. I never made the films but the idea of the character stuck and after having various discussions about what a vampire / zombie hybrid might be like, I had the seed of what became 'Attack of the zombie vampires'. It was always going to be slightly comedic because it just sounds like some trashy straight to video flick from the 1...

Why write adventure gamebooks?

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...

Monstrous Manor - Now published!

My new book, Monstrous Manor has now been published and is available to buy from most online digital resellers (see links below!) Invited to spend the evening at an old country Manor House, you arrive to find your host is missing. Search for your host in the manor and grounds while facing danger at every turn in this exciting adventure gamebook. No dice or equipment required. Buy the paperback or ebook from Amazon Monstrous Manor at Amazon

Martyn Cruise, Author

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