Steve Jackson's Sorcery! Gamebook Evolving On iPhone And iPad
Interactive adventure where every choice is a life and death struggle, coming this May.
Long before video games saw the likes of polygons, fluid animation and detailed storylines, people turned to the Fighting Fantasy books to get their role-playing fix. First appearing in 1982, these detailed gamebooks cast readers as heroes, where each choice helped determine the story's outcome.
As it turns out, Fighting Fantasy will see a resurrection this May on iPhone and iPad in developer inkle's promising title, Steve Jackson's Sorcery! Similar to the products that have come before it, the gamebook is a choose your own adventure that writes itself as you play. It casts you as a hero on a dangerous quest to track down the Crown of Kings through the Shamutanti Hills. As you get past (or fall victim to) the various traps and enemies, the game will adapt to provide a unique experience.
"We wanted to make something that brought the strange and wonderful world of Sorcery! to life, so we created a game that's always in flux. There are scores of locations to explore, and thousands of choices to make, and everything you do has the potential to change what happens next, right down to the words of the text. Even the combat sequences are written on the fly as you play," says Jon Ingold, inkle's creative director. "Sorcery! was a gamebook when we started, but now it's something entirely new. I don't think anyone's ever made a game like this before."
In addition to visually striking artwork, Sorcery! Features a hand-drawn 3D map, multiple routes to explore and a sword fighting system adapted to touchscreen devices.
"Sorcery! was by far the most ambitious Fighting Fantasy adventure I ever wrote. At the time, I got completely carried away in my ambition for the series," says author Steve Jackson. "Playing through this iOS version, it's obvious that inkle have been equally ambitious -- perhaps even more so. What they have created is nothing short of a whole new genre of interactive fiction. And I applaud them for it."
Looks cool so far. That said, we'll have more on this promising effort in the weeks ahead.
