Novel about the death of Adventure Games

[Hakujin]

Hey guys,

I don't have a game ready for release yet (been working on one for a while, but got bogged down in it and then school sucked the life out of me - you can see some screenshots here and here.) I was hoping to get back to it this summer, but instead decided to self-publish my novel about the hostile takeover of the world's larget computer game company/creator of the 3Dadventure game. Sound familiar? 

I finished the thing like 2 years ago, long before I even knew about AGS, and have been having trouble finding a publisher. Mostly I get the impression that publishers don't think gamers are literate. I know (particularly amongst adventure gamers) this is NOT true. I got sick of sitting on a finished project, that I'm really proud of and wanted to get it out there. Anyway, before publishing it this Fall, I'm going to be serializing a large chunk of it, one chapter every Friday, online at www.gamequestnovel.com

I don't have a game ready yet for release, but I do have a novel (which isn't anything to sneeze at either) so I thought I'd share that in the meantime. I hope you guys enjoy it.

P.S. I hope this isn't considered spam. I apologize if it is. I just wanted to share some adventure game related material I made with other fans. I wouldn't have posted if I didn't think anyone might be genuinely interested.

Thanks!

[LGM]

Sounds rather interesting. Keep us posted.

Also, if you can't find a publisher... You can always self-publish it. There are companies out there that make this very easy to do.

I reccomend doing the internet approach. If you get enough PR, you could probably get a publisher interested, write some bonus chapters or something, and get it out in hard copy form.

Your first chapter is excellent, but like I said I doubt a publisher would readily pick it up as the market for it is nothing short of a cult status.

Have you every MADE an IF game? You'd be great at it.

[auhsor]

Hey I really enjoyed that first chapter. Reminded me of those days back when I was a young chap. I shall be looking foreward to the rest of the chapters to read what you have to say. Good stuff

[Hakujin]

Hey guys, thanks so much for the comments. I really, really appreciate it. It's always hard to get feedback on unpublished writing.

I am actually planning to actually self-publish this novel (in actual book form) sometime this Fall. I have  taken publishing courses and have strong graphic design experience. Eventually I just woke up and said ‘I know I can do a better job on this myself than any publisher at this point' so I decided to go for it. Self-promoting is hard, because I actually LOATH hype. There's a fine line between telling people who might be interested about your stuff and spamming...I'm very wary of spam myself, so it's a bit nerve wracking...

lgm, I checked out your site. Thanks for the post to my novel. I really loved your Firefox posts. Totally  agree with you. I think you'll enjoy the sentiment of Game Quest as it gets a little further… I'm working on a links section on the www.gamequestnovel.com page - I'll have a link to AGS, of course - and I'll put yours up there too. I'm a fond believer in the link. The links page is not dead!

BTW, What's an IF game? Is that like a choose your own adventure? (Googling it…) Hmm, seems like it is. I'll have to try one out.

[nihilyst]

Self-publishing is a way to get a novel published, but it's very expensive. If you can afford it, go for it. I really enjoyed the first chapter, still waiting for more to come.

Keep it up!

cheers
nihilyst

[LGM]

lol. IF game is Interactive Fiction, a text adventure I thought you'd know that. (Unless you were being sarcastic)

[Hakujin]

Thanks!

Yeah it is expensive. With recent technology changes you can print small runs of short books fairly cheaply and even have a good chance of breaking even on it. But with longer books, (which Game Quest definitely is!) it gets expensive. My goal (and it's a lofty one!) is to break even on this. I haven't looked into costs yet, but I figure it'll cost around $2000 (Cdn) for 500 copies of a book this size. To break even I'd have to sell 100-150 books at $15-$20. That may not sound like much, but as a writer with no industry backing (most bookstores won't even _look_ at a DIY book) and no outlets beyond my website, book fairs and the interest I can drum up online, that's a LOT of books. Unless this thing generates LOADS of interest, I don't think selling ~75 copies is unreasonable in which case I'd only lose ~$1000.

Self publishing is much more gratifying, though, and because you eliminate the middle man (publisher) all the profits go to you. A DIY book that sells 2000 copies can make an author RICH while an author published through a publishing house, aside from the paltry payment for rights, will make about $200 and probably never have a book picked up again for the poor sales! I like the fact that with DIY you can direct your writing to people you know will like it, communicate with the people actually interested in your work. It's much more personal, which is what I think literature needs. Also doing this myself - small time - really, really goes with the themes of Game Quest, so it's very appropriate for that reason as well. It's like all the games on this site - made by people because they care and enjoy it - not to become filthy rich.

I think this book needed to be written and I'm happy to get it out there (especially before some big list author gets an idea to do a trendy book on video games and does a crappy, superficial job of it). The money doesn't matter (although it'll help me continue publishing!)

lgm - Yeah, I remember playing those games WAY back... Fun. But i'd never heard the term IF used before...

[Hakujin]

Hello fellow adventure game creators.

It's Friday (yay!) and, for anyone who's interested, Chapter 2: Women & Other Questionable Material in Computer Games is now up at www.gamequestnovel.com. Click here to go directly to the chapter

Things switch up a bit this time around. In Chapter 2 you'll meet Art, creator of the world's first adult (ie, dirty) adventure game series, Will, Madre CEO, and Bill, assistant dirty-game-maker.

Also, if you get to the end, maybe the plot will thicken JUUUSSSSTTTT a little bit.

Thanks, guys! I hope it pleases you as much as the first one!

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Out of curiosity - is each chapter a story in itself, as has been happening till now? And is the book 16 such stories?

[Hakujin]

That's an interesting idea, although I'm not sure it would hold the audience's interest for too long, as they'd have to keep getting back into the story each time. But Game Quest is a BIG book, so there are a lot of chapters, characters, events to set up, so the first few chapters may feel like that. But really only chapters 1, 2 and 5 feel like totally new 'stories'... (There's more than 19 chapters...) Chapter 3 ties things back to chapter 1 again.

I do like to write my chapters as mini-stories, though, so that they feel like they each come to some sort of conclusion.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I added a links section this time around. I linked to here, of course, but you might want to check that out too, since I came across some fairly interesting stuff. For example, Did you know that Ken Williams wrote a book? That Ron Gilbert has a blog?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Yes. Thanks for sharing, though.

[Hakujin]

LOL! I figured quite a few of you might. The links are more for people who don't know much about adventure games (or follow this community) to learn more. The trick now is getting them to believe that a book about adventure games will interest them! (I think it will, but it's really hard to convince anybody to read anything these days...)

Well, I may be a bit out of the loop, but I can write a mean story!

[Hakujin]

The new chapter (Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...) is now up, if anyone is interested. It should tie a lot of chapter 1 and chapter 2 together for you...get the novel rolling.

I think it's a fun chapter. I hope you'll like it. At least, I hope it doesn't 'deface your gilded childhood memories' like it did, apparently, for the person who commented on chapter 2!

It's up a bit early because I actually have to drive across the country tomorrow! (I mean, I leave tomorrow...it'll take more than one day...) I'm typing this on the carpet right now...

I hope you who are reading enjoy it and have a great weekend. (I mean, i hope everyone has a good weekend, not just the ones who are reading...  )

[auhsor]

Hey great! I'll read it soon. I enjoyed last weeks read.

Just a story about DIY publishing. Theres a writer in Autralia called Matthew Reily, writes great action kinda books. Well he first started out with a book that he self published and tried to bring it to all the book publishers but they all regected it. Eventually he got noticed by someone from a publisher and now he's one of Australias biggest writers. Kinda nice how it turned out. So I gues I'm saying that there is hope somewhere.

[Eggie]

This is the nichiest of niche-market type  things EVER!

[Hakujin]

Auhsor: Yeah, I came across a list somewhere of all the authors who had started off self-publishing and it was pretty impressive. Don't remember them all, but James Joyce, Hemmingway, John Grisham all started off putting out their own work. I'm probably more Grisham than Hemmingway, LOL. But it's certainly encouraging.

There's a lot of snobbery in the lit community, particularly against self-publishing. It's taken me a while to get over that, but I'm not one to sit around and jump through hoops. I feel good about my novel. I'd like to get it out there and let readers decide what's good and what's not.

Eggie: Yeah, I'm writing about a subset of computer games now extinct for some 15 years! It's niche even in the gaming world! But I wrote Game Quest to be enjoyed by everybody. I don't think you need to know or even like games to enjoy the book. At least, my hope is that people will be open minded enough to give it a try.

Anyway, Chapter 4: the big meeting is now up, for those of you interested in reading it. If you've been kind of uncertain where the story is headed, this part should really tie things together and send 'em off. I hope you enjoy!

[Hakujin]

Ok, Game Quest chapter 5 (breast quest) is now up at www.gamequestnovel.com. It introduces the biggest subplot of the story and should be pretty fun. The game Heather is playing is similar to a real game you may know... see if you can guess... 

Also, there is some fairly, er, offensive language at the end of the chapter. It fits within the context of the story, (otherwise I wouldn't put it there!) but I thought I should give a warning.

I hope you enjoy!

[hedgefield]

This stuff is pretty good. looking forward to the next chapters.

[Hakujin]

Cool. Thanks! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying, largopredator. The next chapter will be up this Friday.

For those of you who've been following and wondering what the hell Che's Coffee Revolution has to do with anything...all shall be revealed in chapter 6...

<edited b/c of a weird wordwrap problem...>

[Hakujin]

If you've been wondering what "Che's Coffee Revolution" has to do with anything in my novel, Chapter 6: mocha latte freedom fighter, is now up and should answer most of your burning questions. I really hope you enjoy.

Also, in exactly one week from now I will be leaving for a trip to Japan and India and will be gone for about 7 weeks. I've got a friend who will be updating Game Quest every friday for me, and I'll still be replying to emails & comments whenever I can get to an internet cafe. However, if you want to be notified when new chapters are up, i suggest you get on my mail list (you can remove yourself any time) because the new chapters won't be announced here until I return in September.

I'll probably have time to announce it here next week, but that'll be the last time for a while.

Thanks fellow adventurers!