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Hi all!

So there is now a Game Quest eBook! I don't know why I didn't think of doing this a long time ago, since so many people followed the chapters when I was serializing them online, but I finally put one together! Yayness.

Game Quest has been selling pretty well, which is nice, but I was never comfortable with how much is cost to buy, because of the cost of printing and shipping such a massive book. Anyway, I figured what better candidate for an ebook is there than a novel about Adventure Games!?

As usual, it's all over at www.gamequestnovel.com. Also, I'm giving out the ebook for free with all paper copies of the book sold. So if you've bought the book in the past and would like the ebook copy too, just send me an email (or pm me here) and I'll let you know where you can get it.

Thanks and game on!

Yikes, that's a new low in sleaze. even for pop-ups!

I'd recommend Firefox. It's very few and far between that a pop-up manages to make its way through. And overall it's a much more useful browser.

Well, I took an illustration program in college, and there's a real sort of 'home market' for this stuff. You can make a few bucks from it if you're an artist who really likes 'technical' drawing. IE, drawing super realistic pictures from photos. Yes, it sounds boring, but some people really like doings this sort of stuff. It's like the math of art.

Anyway, it's more for people who want pictures of their family, etc... Like all those portraits victorian families paid for to have of themselves, etc... It's kind of cheese.

The photo specifications are kinda specious, but make sense. I mean, if he gets a lot I'm sure he doesn't want to have to deal with wonky formats. And you try drawing a protrait from a 50dpi 2"x2" photo scan! But yeah, it's not of interest to anyone but the people who submit. If I had that guys job I'd have to kill myself.

Frankly, I never really liked Sam & Max all that much. I never really found their characters that entertaining and, honestly, am surprised the dorky little cartoon in the LucasArts magazine actually turned into a game, then a cartoon and now a game again. I was looking forward to the LucasArts sequel, cause it looked fun and was excited about the chance to play another LA adventure game. But so much for that.

This one looks like it could be good, but yeah, the voice acting is a little subpar. There's absolutely no gameplay shown, so you really can't tell.

You don't have to argue with me about the value of Lucasarts. They didn't do, overall, as much for the adventure game as Sierra did, but really took it to its peak (non-linear storylines, not-dying, multiple dialogue options, subversive humour, excellent command interface). They were really the only company to up Sierra at its own game and, in the long run, the two will be remembered as the 'creators' of the adventure game.

But, the article was only so long, so I had to keep it short and simple. Also, Sierra really created the game as it was and still is, for the most part, today. If you're going to talk about the ethic, as I see it, I really think that was due to Sierra, more than Lucasarts. The adventure games from LucasArts more embody the thinking of their creators (Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, etc...) more than the company.

But, I've been invited to write another article, so maybe I'll be able to cover something along those lines next time!

I wrote an article about something I call the 'Adventure Game Ethic' over at adventure classic gaming. It's mostly about the sort of DIY/independent meme that adventure games plant into the heads of players, and sort of explains why there's this huge groundswell of independently made games. Plus, it also talks a bit about the 'death' of the adventure game and all that other goodness.

I think it would interest most people here, so check, check, check it out. And if doesn't interest you click 'back'. 

No, they're not here. We put them in that corner over there.

This is highly irregular. Did you fill out a moving order Form 256-c?

I'll be doing a book reading for Game Quest (www.gamequestnovel.com if you don't know anything about it) on Saturday May the 20th at 4:30 at McNally Robinson bookstore in Winnipeg, Manitoba (portage place location). If anybody is interested (and doesn't have anything better to do with their May long weekend!) it'd be great to see you there. You know, generate some interest within the adventure gaming community. There's no charge or anything, and I won't guilt you into buying the book!

I'll also be teaching two panels at the sci-fi/fantasy contest that weekend on self-publishing (or independent publishing, as I prefer to call it) and web-publishing (like how I serialized Game Quest). If anyone is interested in that, they should come too. I'll put the exact dates and times here when I know. Not sure what it costs to get into the keycon, but I'll try and put that here too when I know. I don't get paid for teaching and I'll probably lose money on the reading (yes, you have to foot half the bill for readings - this is news to me too), other than whoring my name and book around, so it would be cool to have actual adventure gamers show up.

Anyway, thanks!

Yeah, trying to please everyone is the quick route to producing crap! In the end, you always just gotta go with what you feel is best.

Steve: Haha. Is that the fad du jour? So, am I to assume this is one of your pet peeves?

I actually wrote all those chapters about 4 years ago, so maybe I was cutting edge! Actually, I wasn't trying to impress anyone. Maybe they were hooks â€" but probably more in the sense of keeping myself interested in writing than worrying the reader was gonna go away. I like to make my chapters like mini-stories in themselves. Sometimes you run into a chapter which has a lot of lead up which isn't interesting, to an ending that is pretty good, but the reader will get bored of all the build-up unless you let them know it's going somewhere. Giving a bit of the ending away helps them forgive all the boring lead up you've got to do. Just like I look at the entire novel and ask myself ‘what's the best way to tell this story', I also try to look at each chapter that way.

If you limit yourself to linearity, I think you cheat yourself of the best story, sometimes. Sometimes the most interesting and entertaining narrative flow is nonlinear. Of course, if everyone is doing it, or you use it over and over, or use it because you can't be bothered to find another way of telling the story then, yeah, it's gimmicky. Part of the problem with making mini-stories out of my chapters is bloat so maybe I use tricks to make the bloat seem less...er...bloaty?

Yeah, I was going to say I think I tend to go overboard in description of character thoughts. I really enjoy getting inside their heads and spending time there. Sometimes too much time. I worked a lot on weeding out repetition and cutting these ‘thoughts' down to the bare minimum. I think I did a pretty good job, seeing as I knocked about 20,000 words out from my first draft! The thing is, every time I pick up the book, I can see room for improvement. But eventually you've just got to let it go. No novel is perfect and I'm pretty confident I got it in the best shape I could. Maybe in a couple years, in the highly unlikely circumstance that the book will be reprinted, I'll go over it with fresh eyes and tighten it up some more. But right now I'm pretty happy with the book and glad that it's being received well. I know I don't have an AGS game (yet!!), but I consider this book ‘my adventure game baby.' ; )

The results are in folks! Game Quest! More addictive than Oblivion! Thanks for the compliments, Steve. I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

Auhsor, no problem with the laziness. I envy you, actually. Ever since I started this friggin project my life has been devoid of free time. Enjoy it while you can! Glad to hear you enjoyed the novel. Personally, I hate novels that have no or crappy endings. I avoid that in all my work. I think it turned out quite well in Game Quest. Originally that epilogue was about twice as long, if you can believe that! I spent months just whittling away at it, trying to get it down. As it stands now it's 25 pages, which is still way long. I was worried one of the biggest criticisms of the book was gonna be that the 'ending is boring or too long' but so far I've had great reviews for that part.

In fact, the only criticism I've received is that I could have described the characters in more detail. Probably I could have, but one of my pet peeves is when you're reading a book and you get a picture in your head of a character, and then you turn the page and suddenly they have a moustache. That always drives me nuts. Am I the only one like this? One of the advantages of a book is that you get to let the reader use their imagination, so I try to do that every now and then. I'd be curious to hear what people's reading pet peeves are, actually. As both a writer and a fellow reader.

Anyway, a zine out of texas had a really good review for my book. You can read it here: http://www.musea.us/review60.html Also a bookstore here in Edmonton picked it up, as well as a bookstore in Chicago. So that's pretty cool.

Of course, auhsor, if you get to a point where you don't feel lazy, posting your thoughts about my book here or anywhere would be super helpful. But no pressure. You bought and enjoyed my book. There's nothing better than that.

I went to French immersion for two years and then had to switch to normal school becuase my grade 2 teacher insisted I was 'retarded'. I'm not sure what the term for retarded is in french, but, you know, it was OK to use that term then.

Then I worked in Ottawa for a while and had to answer the phones in french. Yes, retarded me answering french phonecalls. All I can say is, Zut alors! It was terrible! (you can't hear it, but I said terrible in the French way.) I'd probably be more hurt than help.

The Inquisitive Stranger just wrote an AWESOME review of my book on her website!! You should check it out cause it's a pretty cool blog and her latest game is pretty cool too, if you haven't checked it out either.

I don't have a TV so I'll check out youtube. But I'm sure I've seen episodes of this somewhere...where I had access to cable or something...it's really vague in my memory... I was in a room...and it was dark...and there was this screen...and I think at some point I watched one or two episodes. It's really creepy how I can't place where I was. I can't THINK of anywhere that I can access cable TV... Maybe it was on my 'puter.

Anyway, I recall finding it amusing. South Park actually irritates me. It doesn't so much have social commentary as it just tries to make fun of anything and everything. I suppose they've got commentary in there, but it's not really clever. Not that I'm against the show, but it seems to float everyone elses boat a hell of a sight more than mine.

Yeah, I've heard about this. Still, you think any company would fear for its reputation associating with companies like this. The people it really hurts are those who legitimately by the games - and in the long run, the companies that produce it. I think.

Feh! I was all excited today because I thought someone bought one of my books off amazon.com, but then it turned out that one of the books was listed as 'unsellable' because it got damaged in the mail. Which is weird because it was packed better than Amazon packs its own books and the other 3 books arrived fine.

Oh well. :'(

Wow! Holy crap! That is fast! Especially since I just came online to tell you that the post office said it would take 6-8 weeks!! I think this is the first time Canada Post ever exceeded my expectations.  :o

Thanks for the update on how the book survived. I'd like to find a better way of packing it. Maybe I can get ahold of some carboard to protect it a bit better. Or maybe some bubble wrap. But it sounds like it arrived mostly in tact.

Yes, I'd love to hear your (and anybody else who has ordered it) thoughts. If you've got a moment or two, a quickie 'I liked this book' (assuming you like it! ) on Amazon.com (search for Leopold McGinnis - only way to find my book) would really help me out. I understand about Uni, though. I don't think I read anything 'fun' for my entire university education...

So glad you got the book. Really weird. Friends in the US haven't even received it yet...

I love the little racket they've got going on there. Download spyware, remove spyware, download spyware, remove spyware. FREE FREE FREEEEE! GET IT NOW WHILE IT'S TOO HOT 2 LAST!

Lgm: Hey, that band's pretty cool. I dig the 60s spy-like stuff and horns and geetar are on of the best musical combinations, IMO. I wish they had more samples on their website, rather than just a 30second clip of one song. Hard to get into, though it sounded good. Great pictures though! No wonder people pay you.

Geoffkhan: Hey, cool. I'm really glad people are liking it. This self-publishing thing is nerve-wracking. Anyway, I'll probably leave the existing 39 chapters up for another week or so, and then pare them back down to 19 or so, just to make it more manageable and give people incentive to buy the book. Just a warning! I hope you like the other chapters.

Mugs: I know what you mean. I barely have any cash either...particularly cause I droped $4500 on printing these books. Anyway, if any AGS member wants a copy of the book in the future, after the price goes up, just send me an email with your screenname and you can still get the 'launch' price.

Thanks guys, your comments mean a lot!

Lgm: Band Photography!? Sounds pretty cool to me! What kind of band? Thanks for the comments! Looking forward to your order. If it takes a little while longer to get the cash together (ie, longer than the launch sale lasts) just let me know, so you can still get the launch sale price.

The Inquisitive Stranger: Yeah, I hate reading on the screen too. That's why I found it really positive that so many people actually did follow it online every week. I find it hard to read online too. Feels really nice to have an actual book out now, too.

Auhsor: Thanks for the order! Let me know how when it gets there. I'm curious how long it takes to get to the other side of the world. I hope it arrives in good condition! In the near future, I'm hoping to put together a little 'Game Quest World Domination' page, where I'll track all the places it's been shipped to! Could be kinda fun to see where the books end up and how they're doing. I'm swamped with book stuff, but in the near future I want to add links to a bunch of the 'best of' AGS made games on the www.gamequestnovel.com site, so readers who aren't familiar with AGS and Adventure Games can try some out and get introduced. So I might run an informal little survey in the future asking for votes on the best AGS games.

Anyway, I got two more orders last night, so I'm gonna fill those now. So exciting! Thanks everyone for their interest and support! Adventure Games 4ever!!!

Ok, it was almost a year ago that I started posting chapters of my novel, Game Quest, online every week, but now the book is finally available!!! I ended up putting a lot more chapters online than I planned, but it has been a fun and interesting (and sometimes frustrating) experience. People seemed to really like it, so I'm happy about that, and it's good to have people reading my stuff. As a writer you spend a lot of time in the dark, writing for yourself. Also, I get to have the rare distinction of being the first person to write a fictional novel about Adventure Games! How cool is that?!  8) Pretty cool, I say.

Anyway, if you guys want to check it out, www.gamequestnovel.com now points to the book informational pages where you can buy the book, read a synopsis, look at a bunch of pictures of the book, download wallpapers and more... I hope you'll check it out! I've shipped about 10 books already, and it should appear on Amazon in a few days. (although, it's a lot cheaper to order through me than Amazon, cause they take %55 of the price - which means I make, like twentyfive cents a book!)

Also, I'd really like to thank everyone on this board who was following the novel, posted comments, gave advice, told friends about the book, etc... It's been really encouraging and helpful and I'm pretty sure this book would have never been written or published if it wasn't for these boards and the adventure game community in general! Thanks everyone, you know who you are!