For those who want it, I've placed my game book creation tool online at http://www.softcon.com/gamebooks/ It's nothing special, just an xml-based system that allows you to make rooms, link them together, and allow the user to select where to go next. There's samples there of both a multiple choice quiz (proving gamebook type systems are good for other things too) and a game found on arborell.com converted to the gameworld format. The adventure is only 30 rooms, and took about an hour or so to convert. The multiple choice quiz is only 3 questions, but it displays the ability to jump anywhere you like in the book, changing the selection options, and (again) proves that a game book type system isn't hard to make. It's released under a pick your own license scheme, mostly because I don't think it's worth the time it would take me to enforce anything at all, so although I ecommend the mit license, you're free to choose any license you like for your version of the system once you've gotten ahold of it. Use it, do what you like with it, and feel free to give me feedback or not, it's all up to you. I use it for myself, mostly because a lot of the books on the gamebook sites I've run across are in pdf format, which is nice for portability, but really sucks for scrolling through to find the required sections. So, I built this sytem that allows you to cut and paste your game book adventure into a simple xml template, and then play the game without having to worry about finding the appropriate section. It works for me, and I make no excuses for the code. It's written in php, (mostly because php has built-in xml handling functions) and it only works on a local machine. It's easy enough to port to the web if desired, (the readme.txt file explains briefly what's necessary for this to happen), it's mainly a matter of creating forms to support the post variables to identify which room to display, and adding links or buttons to make the selections. That's pretty much it. If you want to check it out, go ahead. You'll need a copy of php installed on your machine to make it work, but otherwise, there's no requirements whatsoever for this system to work for you. If you can use it, go right ahead. If you can't, that's ok too, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Have fun. You'll find it at the url: http://www.softcon.com/gamebooks/ hth. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
