Dane Barrett's Blog

(Please pardon any spelling or grammatical errors I may have made during this post; not since my video game magazine-writing days 20+ years ago have I written an editorial of this length).

Those gamebook fans out there (along with more than a few board game fans) will have undoubtedly heard of the Kickstarter campaign run by Inside the Box Games called 'ALBA - an Open World Adventure Book'. Now, I'd known about Alba already for some months, following the newsletters and little snippets promising the upcoming crowdfunding campaign, and was dead set on taking part. It wasn't until the campaign actually went live that I noticed a few troubling elements which I'd already encountered all too often in another market; that of the AAA video game industry (which I quit back in 2020 due to certain large AAA game companies who not only preyed upon gamers' addictions with dodgy monetization business practices but also treated their own employees like crap by paying them peanuts, making them work unreasonably and unhealthy hours, covering up sexual abuse allegations, etc.).

Firstly, I'd like to highlight a monetization model commonly used in that industry (as well as the mobile game industry) to significant effect. It is called 'HOOK - HABIT - HOBBY'. The first stage of this is the HOOK, where you initially promote an 'ice-breaker' deal; that is, a no-brainer deal so good you would be crazy to turn it down as a player. Then, once the player has committed actual money (or in the case of Kickstarter, a monetary pledge), they will now be emotionally committed to the game in question. The player's attention will be heightened, and their support for the game will be unwavering, even to the point of abusing those who warn them of the possible repercussions of their so-called 'investment'. So once that wall is broken, and the player is now invested, it's time to move to the next stage.

The ALBA Kickstarter had three pretty good HOOKs which I've seen posted repeatedly on social media. Firstly, it's an 'Open World' gamebook, promising different outcomes each time you play as well as a lack of dead ends and backtracking. Secondly, its the 'biggest gamebook ever written', a catchphrase used on the Kickstarter page, and several sponsored ads and shared posts over social media. Now claiming to be the biggest gamebook ever written again suggests great value, making a HOOK. The third HOOK is the low-value offering of the paperback edition at only 12 pounds sterling before shipping is added. Now, that kind of pledge for the 'biggest ever gamebook ever written' which is also 'open-world' with no dead ends or backtracking definitely seems like an amazing deal, am I right? This engages a part of your analytical brain called a 'hot state' which creates a 'no brainer' scenario where you don't even have to think to make a decision that you could not possibly pass up this deal.

So with the HOOKs in place, it's time to move on to the second stage... HABIT. This is where you want a player to play the game repeatedly in the hopes of exploring the world the book creates and discover opportunities and storylines you might have missed on previous playthroughs. If the writing is solid enough, and the components made sufficiently fun to use in a tangible way that allows readers to believe they are actually pariticipating, and therefore becoming more emotionally invested, then a player is going to want to continue trying again and again to discover more material.
Finally, there is the HOBBY. This is where, once the reader is emotionally invested in the product, you want to monetize it in such a way that you can continue drawing money from their bank accounts. Your big aim here is to hunt down consumers who are referred to as 'whales'; that 2% who are willing to spend big to continue playing for as long as possible. With this in mind, Inside the Box games have designed the following for their Kickstarter campaign:

- A relatively cheap HOOK with the paperback edition.
- A more expensive hardback option at 30 pounds which supposedly includes two 'extra' chapters and 'additional' ending options.
- An even more expensive option at 75 pounds which includes collectable numbered bookplates and also happens to be the only pledge level (except those above it) that is guaranteed to benefit from all 'extras' and stretch goals. THIS is the pledge tier Inside the Box Games WANT you to choose, and therefore will go out of their way with extras and bonuses to encourage you to take it (remember, you've already been emotionally drawn in and hooked by the cheaper offers).

Now let's just quickly look at this offering of 'extra' content in the hardback edition, which also draws an unfortunate comparison to the video game industry. As video gamers are quite aware in this day and age, publishers like to create a finished product, and then strip some parts of that product out (usually levels or smaller elements of the story) so that they can sell these bits at a later date as 'downloadable content'. This way, after each customer has already paid full price for an incomplete game, even more money can be squeezed from them to provide the entire experience. Consumers are encouraged to believe this is 'extra' content, when, in fact, it should have been part of the original package paid for by the customer.

This is the case with the paperback vs hardback versions of Alba. Inside the Box will tell you that the hardback contains 'extra' chapters and ending options. This is not the case. The author will have written this story in its entirety, and then parts have been removed to abridge the paperback edition, therefore making the hardback a much higher value proposition. This should draw enough readers to up their pledges to one of the higher tiers, and if you still haven't reached that desired 75 pound tier yet, there will be further incentives offered during the campaign to sweeten that deal (such as stretch goals which only apply to the 75 pound tier and higher).

There is another more sinister reason for splitting the content so that less is provided in the paperback edition, which brings us to the 'recharge packs'. Alba is a legacy-style game, in which the reader is provided with a map and a checksheet to keep track of their progress through the world. They are also provided sheets with stickers that are to be placed on the map and progress forms. These are NOT reusable stickers. They have been deliberately designed in such a way that when you run out, you are expected to buy more. Inside the Box will claim this is a cost-related decision, a claim which I will address in a moment. So if you have run out of stickers or covered up your tracking sheet and map, you have one of two options to play again:

Option 1: Buy more recharge packs. This is what Inside the Box WANT you to do. This is how they will continue making money from the 'whales', preying upon that emotionally-invested need some people will have to play the game as it was designed to be played.
Option 2: Download the alternative map and checklist which does not require stickers. Note that this map and checklist are not provided as photocopiable options in the book itself; they have been kept separate deliberately to make it easier to damage or lose those extra components. Oh sure, taking a photocopy of something like a map out of a book as thick as Alba would be difficult, but with intelligent use of gutter margins or even a different book trim during design, this was still feasible. The designers didn't want that, though, because they potentially want those who wish to download those files to visit a specific website where more of Inside the Box's products can be upsold to them; perhaps to even get them to subscribe to a newsletter.

Now let's also look at this claim about non-reusable stickers being a design decision influenced by cost. Now, sure, regular stickers cost less to produce than reusable; nobody is disputing that. But Inside the Box have deliberately created two types of sticker packs to support their decision to provide a paperback with less content! For example, if you own the paperback and want to buy a recharge pack, you will purchase the 'standard' recharge pack. If you own the hardback edition, however, you will need to purchase the 'deluxe' recharge pack, because only then will you have the sticker for your so-called 'extra' chapters and ending options! If you mistakenly buy the standard recharge pack, you won't have the stickers necessary to plot those chapters!

So Inside the Box want to claim that their sticker packs are designed not to be reusable as they would be cost-prohibitive otherwise, and yet they go ahead and create two different types of recharge packs! Why not just make one single recharge pack with all the chapters included and reusable stickers? BECAUSE THEY WANT YOU TO SPEND MORE MONEY. They don't want you having everything you'll ever need at your fingertips; they want an ongoing stream of income from as many readers as possible!

The sad thing about all this is that this whale-hunting business practice will set a precedent, and the Kickstarter supporters will be okay with it, because they are already emotionally invested thanks to the HOOK, and will shoot down, challenge and bully anybody who attempts to point out otherwise (I speak from experience, on those counts).
"But wait!" I hear you say. "Perhaps people will see through what Inside the Box are attempting and refuse to support it!" Well, there's a reason I waited until after the Kickstarter campaign was over; so that my concerns of a precedent being set are reinforced by simple mathematics. Alba gained 10,301 backers along with a total of £272,794 pledged for their single crowdfunding campaign. These amounts (of backers or money) are unprecedented in gamebook Kickstarters. Even Zachary Weiner's 4,011 backers for less than £95,000 doesn't come close, and most other gamebook campaigns garnered far lower numbers (even Dave Morris only received 250 backers for the re-redesign and re-release of the rare Walls of Spyte).
So a precedent has been set, whether I like it or not, and it's a disappointing one. The irreparable damage this could do to future independent gamebook crowdfunding campaigns from people and companies unable (or unwilling) to match the offerings and business practices of Inside the Box can probably kiss any chance of success goodbye. And people will just let it happen, as they did with the video game industry, while people like myself who point out these predatory practices will be forever ridiculed and shunned for being 'jealous' or 'envious' of somebody else's success.

I can only assure you that I will never stoop so low as an author or a business, though, in the long run, that promise will mean about as much as any other independent writer who will be bypassed by those larger, AAA companies who seek the most from your wallets.

I think I might need to find a local book printer. I'm waiting on two proofs; one from Amazon which was ordered on 19 December and one from Lulu which was ordered Jan 14. Its now Jan 31 and neither are close to being delivered even though I over-paid for faster shipping options. While I understand the world postage is being buggered by Covid, its just impossible for an indie author to work consistently with overseas self publishing companies under these conditions. Most of the printers in NZ appear to have minimum print run requirements (usually 50 copies), so I might have to try and save some money up, get a print run done the old fashioned way to have some books to sell locally. I don't know, much will depend on how much it all costs and, of course, whether I think I can actually shift the books. Most of my newer books haven't even crossed 30 sales yet, so a run of 50 might be excessive.

I've recently seen a few posts about the good and the bad of Kickstarter crowdfunded projects and decided to go back through a few I supported to see how things panned out. Note that these days I can't really afford to support Kickstarter projects, but back when I was working I used to support quite a few.

>>>THE GOOD<<<

Myrrk Book One, Ram Skull Games: The book almost made me high from its lovely ink smell. Top quality product with lovely art that took me back to C64 ZX Spectrum days.
Graphic Novel Adventures (all the sets in different Kickstarters), A.J. Porfirio: Hassle free crowdfunding, and the books themselves are lovely.
Blood Sword 5, Dave Morris: I'm as much stoked that I helped bring this book back from obscurity than the fact that I actually own a hardcover copy. I was so happy to help Dave bring back the last book of this series to stick one in the eye of the Ebay scalpers.
Mark Lain's gamebooks: I didn't back Zero to Hero 0 because it was crowdfunded just before I got back into the hobby, but I backed the next two, and provided some proofing and playtesting for good measure. Because of that, I am still yet to read one, because I'm trying to forget the paths and secrets!
Tang Garden, Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi: I hoped to play this stunning-looking game with my mother due to her love of gardens, especially orientally-themed ones, but she died before we could try it out. It came with alot of stuff due to several smashed stretchgoals, so now I have a pile of shrinkwrapped boxes sitting in a corner ready to be put in storage of a game that'll never be played.
Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night, Koji Igarashi: A bit like the Shenmue project with a Castlevania creator wanting to make a 2D castlevania-esque game but needing crowdfunding because Konami only wanted to make Pachinko machines. The end product was stellar, with so much care and love clearly poured into it. And unlike Shenmue, this dev didn't sell out.

>>>THE BAD<<<

Wanderer Gamebook + System 1 and 2, Jacob DC Ross: My own fault this one. I didn't read the pledge entries properly, otherwise I would have known they were only supplying discounts for the physical version of their books, not the book itself. Eventually I checked the discount code they gave me, and it discount a whole $2 of an item that costs almost ten times that, so to claim it I'd have to spend as much money again to what I already gave them in funding. Again, my own fault, but it wasn't a nice trap for them to set anyway, so I won't support them again.
Nemesis of the Nin Witch, Dave Sharrock: I'm only listing this under the bad because I feel bad for Dave. Things went a bit wrong for him and he had to cancel this, and he refunded everybody even though a few of us wanted him to hold onto the funds. The book will still be released by a publisher in the near future.
Startropolis, Sandy Peterson: Don't even get me started on this fustercluck. Most people will complain how none of the pieces fit properly making the game fiddly and annoying to play. I can't join in that chorus, however, as I never received the game at all, and when I contacted the project owner they wanted more money from me to ship it. They also never sent one of those survey emails either. Shoddy project, shoddy product. They're now trying to reengineer the pieces so that they fit better and have promised to send out replacement packs to backers... what are the odds they send me one of those when they never actually sent me the game? Muppets.
Bitten Survive the Dead, Grim Games: The project owner took the $16,234 raised by this Kickstarter and bolted, never to be heard from again. He probably went to France to party with Megara's former owner.
Shemue 3, Ys Net: This started as a wonderful project by the original Shenmue creator who wanted to get funding for the game because no studio wanted to fund it. He raised $6.3million dollars, and then, keeping that money, sold out by signing the game to the publisher Deep Silver. When it came time to give out the download codes, I told them to go f*** themselves.
Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium: I got sick of Chris Roberts turning this project into the 'oh, look how much money we're making, let's try to break records!' and then running crowdfunder after crowdfunder for this project. The amount of money being made became more important than the project itself, and at the end of the day I just gave up on it. I'm sure Mr Roberts is still patting himself on the back about it, though.
OUYA console: Well, at least I can look back on this and laugh about it. I still have the console sitting next to the TV. My cat uses it as a step to get up behind the telly.
Transcendent: I was an executive producer for this film, but ironically never even received a copy. Last I heard the director had put it up somewhere on the internet for free.

>>>The LIMBO (but still on the way)<<<

Cthulhu Parlour's Hotel Lovecraft, Oliver McNeil: This has shipped, but I believe its fallen victim to the same shipping hell as so many Ebay orders do now. I'm sure it'll reach me eventually, but for now nobody knows where it is.
Dracula, Curse of the Vampire, Jonathan Green: Most of us know of the sad loss of the main artist which stalled this project. With a new artist now on board, we're just waiting on the book to be finished, which will probably be a fair while yet. Updates are regular.
Choose Cthulhu 2, Edward T Riker: Still being written.
Steam Highwayman III, Martin Noutch: Still being made, and the updates are regular.
There's a bunch of others before these ones, but they are so old now I can barely remember them.

Though some of the bigger traditional interactive fiction brands such as Scholastic (Fighting Fantasy), Chooseco (Choose Your Own Adventure), YouChoose and Fabled Lands are still doing quite well for themselves, I think its fair to say that Indie gamebook authors have been the lifeblood of what brought the interactive fiction industry back from its doldrums. That's not to say such a thing is profitable (far from it) but there are plenty of indie authors out there having a crack and making their books interactive so as to appeal to a very specific niche in the industry.

Books are an industry which has stayed mostly free of the kind of abusive nonsense that has taken over the video game industry, which is now filled with worker mistreatment, crunch, sexual harassment as well as exploitation of addiction. Sadly, I've noticed something that exists through several forms of social media which has made me cautious about who to interact with.

Its fairly safe to say now that there is an 'inner circle' of gamebook authors based out of the UK which are looking to cement their control over as much of the indie gamebook scene as possible. The individuals who make up this group see themselves as the entitled 'elite', mostly just because they know somebody who worked for Games Workshop in the 1980s who had their fingers in gamebook production when it was at its height. This group, and those disciples who belong to them, will do anything they can to keep down and smear other writers of interactive fiction if they look like they are bordering on any kind of success. Groups like this have existed before, of course, throughout history, though quite why the industry of interactive fiction has one is beyond me. I personally have fallen victim repeatedly to the abusive nature and controlling hand of this inner circle, so much so that in the future I will likely be using a pen name to write future books, and will undoubtedly stay away from social media to promote them in the hopes I am no longer a target.

Its a sad case of affairs, but this is the nature of the World and the human race, it would seem. Many dictators have fallen throughout history, but there'll always be another to take up the flag of tyranny, no matter how niche the industry it targets. So be warned, fellow writers; should you wish to partake in the art that is interactive fiction, just be careful who you make as bed fellows... not all of them will have your best interests at heart!

If people aren't yet aware, all of my paperback interactive adventure books are eventually going to be made free as PDFs through DriveThruRPG once their KDP digital exclusivity has ended. So far, four titles are available as free PDFs:

The Mystery of Dracula
Voyage Across the Galaxy
The Ballad of Lonely Scar
and River of Dread.

The upcoming dates for the others to join them are (these dates are only estimates as the DriveThruRPG approval process can take a few days):

Children of the Painted Apple - January 13, 2021
The Defenders of Dusk - February 18, 2021
Cheese Dreams - February 19, 2021

All of the PDFs are complete versions of the books, except some will be missing commissioned artwork due to contractual reasons. All the puzzles images will be intact, however. If people download the books and enjoy them enough to want to buy a paperback version of the book, then this will go a long way to helping me write more. Otherwise, its fine if people don't. Treat these PDFs like share/freeware software.

Just checked how well my books are performing in the Children's Interactive Fiction category on Amazon vs the two upcoming Fighting Fantasy titles which aren't due out until October. The following list is current rankings, not historical, so doesn't reflect total sales of which mine would be substantially lower than Scholastic's.
#70 Crystal of Storms by Rhianna Pratchett
#314 The Mystery of Dracula by Dane Barrett
#318 Voyage Across the Galaxy by Dane Barrett
#319 The Defenders of Dusk by Dane Barrett
#391 Return to Firetop Mountain by Ian Livingstone
#808 The Ballad of Lonely Scar by Dane Barrett
#1350 Children of the Painted Apple by Dane Barrett
Hey, at least most are around that Return to Firetop Mountain level (though I know that'll change once it is actually released!). 🙂

Ignoring such things as "Where's Wally/Waldo" and the like, the top ranking book that would be identified as a gamebook or interactive fiction by most gamebook readers is currently, 'Can You Survive the Titanic? (You Choose: Survival)' by Allison Lassieur at #14. Go get 'em, You Choose! 🙂
Sadly we are all still lagging well behind such uncredited children's books as, 'Where's the Dinosaur Poo?'

I'm currently contemplating popular concepts again. This time I decided to make a leaderboard table of which of my books are most popular, not just by sales alone but also by pages read in Kindle Unlimited. Now, keep in mind none of these titles have sold more than 105 copies in their lifetimes (only one ever cracked the Century mark), so they aren't really representative of actual success in any way, shape or form, but is more of an analysis of the genres and styles I've attempted thus far and how those have panned out. Their positioning is also taken from their most popular period since their release, which is usually right after they come out, to try and get around the fact that some have been available for way longer than others. So here's the table:

1 The Mystery of Dracula
2 The Defenders of Dusk
3 Children of the Painted Apple
4 Voyage Across the Galaxy
5 The Ballad of Lonely Scar

No great surprise, I suppose! A book based on a literary classic followed by a Fantasy adventure. Sci-Fi then dominates the middle to lower table while poetry (based in a Fantasy universe) brings up the rear. If this was a party of adventurers walking in formation in a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, the group would be led by a Vampire (or vampire hunter) with a stealthy thief right behind, a party member with a super power in the middle followed directly by an incredibly useful jack-of-all-trades. At the back is the poor bard, who'll probably be eaten by a monster and nobody would even notice (anybody who has played D&D will know how accurate this is!) :D

Anyhoo, fun over, I need to get back to my daily writing quota! :P

From the back of the book:

One year ago, the border city of Dusk became the target of a well-organised attack by hostile forces from the eastern city of Dactyl whose government wished to seize control of the border so that they could own the main trade route. Thanks to the determination of the Dusk Town Guard along with some timely help from members of their Thieve's Guild, each attack the Dactyl armies made was eventually repelled. This included throwing back assaults by lizard riders on the northern wall, driving out a hidden force located inside Eastwood ridge to the south or taking it to the beastly minions led by an undead captain who attempted to control the border bridge. There are even tall tales of a dragon and a powerful magician attacking the city, though such stories might just be the creation of overzealous bards.

Speaking of which, a small caravan of three families of Dusk soldiers who have been gifted lands for their part in defending the city are being accompanied by such a minstrel, who is making his way to Dusk to seek regular work. This bard's name is Elrey, and this is the story of how he came to sing a somewhat lengthy song to the children of those families at the fireside during one night in which the group had camped under the shadow of a place named Lonely Scar.

Told mostly in rhyming song (or poetry if you prefer to read it that way) this is a tale within a tale; a song, performed by Elrey, telling the story of a young peasant girl named Annabelle and her trials when something goes terribly wrong in her village located on the terraces of the mountain. In this work of interactive fiction, it is the reader (you!) who makes the choices as to which direction this tale will go, which may lead Annabelle to successfully escape the mountain alive, perish in a most dreadful way, or perhaps she may even save the village entirely. What happens next is up to you!

Hate my puzzles? Wish you could just bypass them entirely in my gamebooks so that you can just get on with the adventure unhindered? Well, now you can download puzzle solutions files for Children of the Painted Apple, The Mystery of Dracula and even my newest book Voyage Across the Galaxy. All can be downloaded from their respective RPG geek (free to join) website pages (links to those pages can be found by scrolling down to the files section of https://danebarrett.wixsite.com/daneb... )

Lone Wolf: The Fall of Blood Mountain - #26 Collector's Edition has been released by Magnamund. While this book has little to nothing to do with me as an author, gamebook fans who want this book need to be careful of people selling the book on ebay for exorbitant amounts of money when the book is available new for much less from Magnamund themselves. Please don't let your gamebook friends be caught out by those swindlers on Ebay!

https://magnamund.com/collections/boo...