It seems that CYOA and similar technologies are enjoying a bit of a new Renaissance and interest these days. It seems only logical to me, with the explosion of mobile devices, ebook readers and web technologies such as HTLM5, text based fiction would be a natural fit.
anyway, just got Sorcery! for Android. Too early to comment, but at least presentation is a lot more polished than Ian Livingston’s The Forest of Doom, the only other gamebook conversion I’ve played on mobile so far…
A lot of inklewriter games find their way into the TextAdventures website. The vast majority is quite bad - the tool is so good and easy to use, it attracts many people who proceed to publish what never should have seen the light of day.
(You’ll have noticed I ran out of patience.)
But this one stands well above the rest. It’s not a whooper of a story, it’s not overly dramatic, it’s not the end-all of Inklewriter games, but it’s the best I’ve seen outside Ingold’s own work (and outside Future Voices). Well written, well told. Over too soon. I recommend it.
It’s been a long time since I read Island of the Blue Dolphins, so my memories are hazy, but I’d guess that the game has just taken most of its text directly from the book. I think it does a fairly good job of adding interaction to the start of the book, though. Nothing really surprising, but reasonable, subtle choices that don’t disrupt the flow of the story.
(That means you don’t have to wait for the game to be finished to find out what happens next! The book is by Scott O’Dell; it’s a classic children’s novel based on a true story.)
