Has HG / CoG ever considered publishing gamebooks (ala DestinyQuest)? I saw DestinyQuest Book 1 had an online version, but it’s quite clunky compared to the HG app and I don’t think a version was made for the sequels.
I’d love to play these types of games (DestinyQuest, Lone Wolf, etc.) on my phone and the HG app, particularly UX, is far superior to Kindle since it can track stats for you without having to write down lots of notes, roll dice in a separate app, etc. Seems like it could be a pretty mutually beneficial relationship (though I don’t know enough about ChoiceScript coding to know if it would be too much work to code a port).
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You would have to get permission, and in the case of lone wolf, at least, it would have to be free, From what I remember of the Project Aon license
Yes, I’m not saying I would just do it. I’m asking if the company has considered a partnership with those authors. Considering the Lone Wolf guy gives away the first 5 books for free, obviously he wouldn’t be demanding a huge share of sales, and the company could either hire someone to code his games into ChoiceScript, with % of sales or a flat fee.
To make it clearer:
- I would pay for these games on the HG app. More than they cost on Kindle, and I would pay even over getting them for free in a very clunky online interface (destinyQuest, Aon) where you need to take notes and roll dice.
- Seems like it could be workable financially for the company, given the books are already written, and the only thing necessary would be to pay a share of sales to the author and pay somebody to code.
- Have they considered it?
A lot more than that – aren’t they all up for free at Aon? I played through the whole series there a few years back. I agree that it could be done better in HG, without any need for pencil/paper/dice.
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Except that real-world dice are prettier. 
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True, but I can’t really roll them while I’m on the bus or taking a break at work, lol
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The thing with Lonewolf, as I mentioned above, is that if COG were to republish them via COG or hosted, I’m almost positive it would have to be for free and I’m not sure if they would go for that. i’d have to read the AON license to be sure
Only if they published via the AON license. If they got a different license and agreement with the creator they could charge whatever they wanted.
I don’t know if that sort of thing is on the cards for CoG specifically, but if you’re interested in gamebook conversions, Fabled Lands is playable on Steam and the Switch these days, and the Sorcery! series by inkle is excellent.
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Yeah I’ve already played them. The genesis of this idea was replaying Sorcery!
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I think a project like that would have to come from the author doing the port. They would have to reach out to the creator of Lonewolf to work out an alternative license. I don’t think this would interest CoG. Though this is only my opinion.
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