[games_access] Are there already interactive novels/books?

[Barrie Ellis]

Great answer, John. 

Some of the fledgling accessibility switch work I did in the mid 90's was based around interactive "Fighting Fantasy" books (see a bit here: http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/1/gamebooks.htm).

I wrote a switch accessible dice programme, and Yes/No selection system to enable some physically and learning disabled adults I worked for to take part in interactive stories I read out loud. Sometimes we themed these in our sensory room, with appropriate lighting, music and sound effects. Great fun.

I know Ian Livingstone has just written a new Fighting Fantasy book for the 30th anniversary of his first co-written book, Warlock of Firetop Mountain in 1982. There's some interesting stuff on 1970's text adventures, and MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) - the first ever multi-player on-line RPG - which was started in Essex University (my home county): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD  

Yes, I'm a massive geek!

Barrie
 

--------------------------------------------------
From: "John Porter" <jrporter at uw.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 5:11 PM
To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" <games_access at igda.org>
Subject: Re: [games_access] Are there already interactive novels/books?

> Choose Your Own Adventure books, or "gamebooks," have been around for
> decades, though admittedly they fell out of popularity in the 1990s. These
> were second- or third-person branching narratives where the reader was faced
> with decisions at key points. Depending on the choices they make, they would
> turn to the appropriate page to read the outcome. I'm not sure how
> successful the attempts have been, but I know several publishers have been
> trying to reignite interest in the genre within the last couple years by
> releasing CYOAs as iOS apps.
> 
> Also, in many ways, the text adventure can be thought of as the spiritual
> successor of these books. The medium is obviously very different (a computer
> program instead of a paper book) and there is a much higher degree of
> interactivity (i.e. free-form wayfinding, item management, environment
> interaction etc.) than just making "A or B" decisions. That said, the
> fundamental nature of the experience is very much in line with what the
> early CYOAs were going for.
> 
> -John
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org]
> On Behalf Of Sandra Uhling
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 8:54 AM
> To: 'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'
> Subject: [games_access] Are there already interactive novels/books?
> 
> Hello,
> 
> are there already interactive novels/books?
> For example interactive audio drama?
> 
> Best regards,
> Sandra
> 
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