Wings of Lightning Update, and My Next Project

If you frequent the boardgamegeek.com design forums, this is probably old news, but my gamebook, Wings of Lightning, did quite well in the 2012 Solitaire Print and Play Contest.  Out of the 48 completed entries, Wings of Lightning placed 8th overall.  Not too shabby.

In addition, it won first prize in the Best Paragraph Game and Best Large Game categories, and second place in the Best Sci Fi/Fantasy Game category.  Pretty good for my first completed gamebook.

The prize isn't spectacular--just a pile of "GeekGold" that can be used on the boardgamegeek website to purchase certain perks, like new microbadges to place under my avatar.  Still, it's a nice confidence-boost in my writing and design abilities.

Subsequently, I'm working on another gamebook, Traitors' Path.  This one is heavily influenced by space opera like Star Trek and David Weber's Honor Harrington series.  I think it will be a much better game than WoL in terms of balance and replayability.  It's much lighter on combat, which I think actually makes it faster-paced than WoL; the combat systems in both games is fun and unique from other gamebooks, but it can get repetitive.

Traitors' Path is about Seventh Fleet patrolling the edge of human expansion for fear of the return of an alien threat.  It turns out that the real threat to humanity, however, is itself, as the Interplanetary Socialist Initiative brutally and illegally takes power.  The ISI takes control of the military and seizes most human-occupied systems within a matter of days.

As a young commander in Seventh Fleet, you vow your loyalty to Admiral Vonn and swear to help her and Seventh Fleet free humanity from the tyrannical Izzies.  Check it out!  The first three missions are playable right now.  When the gamebook is complete, it will probably be the longest work I have ever completed.

And if you're interested in gamebooks, please check out this year's Windhammer contest.  There are some really intriguing entries, and I'm a little disappointed that I didn't find time to complete a submission of my own.  Next year, I suppose.  Anyway, the winner and two other "merit award" entries will get the chance to be published as an app by Tin Man Games, so be sure to vote!