As such, I read one a week or so ago after hearing the topic of Choose Your Own Adventure style stories on a podcast. One of the panelists said Choose Your own Adventure #71: Space Vampire, was the single greatest entry into the market ever made for those type of books.
So I purchased. I read. I reviewed (Read that review by clicking here).
I won't rehash, I went back and checked every option in the 118 pages of story and figured out that there were 25 possible endings to the story.
Of those, I counted 10 endings where the Vampire(s) was defeated.
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| "I vant to suck your Space Blood!" |
12 where the hero (YOU) died, some of which overlapped with the Vampire's death.
And a smattering of no confrontation with the vampire(s), but instead a court-martial, or banishment or even accidentally loosing a vampire on earth.
All in all, it was great fun. I can see why those were so popular when they were new.
LITTLE DID I KNOW before a few weeks ago that there was a kickstarter campaign, a successful one, that was to take Shakespeare's Hamlet and turn it into one of these tales.
Did I mention it was successful? Like, of an initial goal of $20k, they managed to squeak by with $580,000 dollars! Yeah, that happened.
It ended a long time ago, but the actual video was so amazing that I had to share. Yes, it is a choose our own path story for adults!
It did sort of bum me out that after raising nearly $600k, that the the price point for the kindle edition is still $9.99... maybe has something to do with not owning the copyright and he needs that price point to make something he feels is reasonable per sale. Anyway, it's too much for me to make as an impulse buy, but I'll be watching for possible sales in the future.
12 comments:
I used to teach high school English, and my students had never heard of Choose Your Own Adventure novels (sad), so I went to the library and brought in a few for them to read. None of them was Space Vampire, though. I'm definitely going to have to track that one down.
They actually did a Kickstarter for that? People will pay to see anything happen.
I remember checking out the first Choose Your Own Adventure just to see what it was all about (think that was the one about time travel) but was way too old for the books and never read any others.
Isn't it funny people won't give money for things like healthcare but will come out in droves for choose your own adventure Shakespeare? Wait it's more sad than funny really.
I love kickstarter. Seriously. And I miss those Choose Your Own Adventure books. Ah, memories.
Hamlet?! Seriously? That's hilarious.
I agree with what Grumpy said.
I never really cared for the actual Choose Your Own Adventure books (my son has a bunch, though). There was a different series, though, that I'm not remembering the name of that I did like. It was done D&D style, and you had to actually do the combats (on the honor system) with dice and keep an inventory of what items you were keeping and stuff. It was cool, because some item that you hadn't needed in three or four books could pop up as something that could be used, and, if you'd gotten rid of it...
Oh! I think it was the Lone Wolf series. I'll have to check.
Sounds like fun, but I have no idea how to create such a book. I'll have ot get it for research.
I only just found this post and the one below it now -- thanks for the support!
I knew about the Hamlet Choose your own thing a while back; I read 'Dinosaur Comics' regularly and it's by the same guy. (He also does "Adventure Time" and I watch that. I'm a huge fan of his, apparently.)
What would be neat to do is a real adult choose your own adventure -- like a thriller, maybe, with an intricate plot. You'd have to write about 4-5 different stories, at least, all with similar jumping off points.
I could mash that up with my "Constitutional Killer" thriller series -- a serial killer who kills people in the order of, and in the manner of, the Constitutional Amendments!
"The Bill Of Rights Just Got WRONG."
This thing will sell itself.
That looks like the coolest thing I will never buy. $9.99 for a kindle file? Come on. $580,000 wasn't enough to help "cover the costs"?
I grew up on those books! Man, those were awesome. Every book fair, I'd by at least a couple.
When I had my first computer (an Apple IIc), I learned how to do a little programming and even made my own choose your own adventure game program. It sucked because I'd lose track of where the heck I was going!
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