Novel about the death of Adventure Games

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hakujinmusume
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Novel about the death of Adventure Games

#1 Post by hakujinmusume » Sat Jun 11, 2005 4:51 pm

Hello everyone, I hope this doesn't go against the spam rules... I think it should be of actual interest to this board...

I'm somewhat of a lurker here. I was part of the beta team for KQII when this place was still called Tierra. Never have been much of a poster, but I AM out there...

Anyway, I'm a writer and Adventure Game fan (& part time game creator, though I have yet to release a game!). At the time I was helping with the AGDI KQ2 beta I was working on a novel about the death of the adventure game - specifically the hostile takeover of the world's largest game company and creator of the 3D Adventure game. Sound familiar?  ;)

Anyway, despite my attempts to convince publishers for 2 years that yes, people who play computer games (particularly adventure game fans) ARE literate, I think they had the same mindset as most current game companies: adventure games aren't big enough to generate money. Gamers don't buy or read books.

Well, after a couple of years banging my head up against this wall, I've decided to self-publish the book this Fall. I'm not concerned about the money - I'm pretty sure it's going to lose money. But I wouldn't have written it if I didn't think a lot of people would be interested in it and also if there weren't a lot of great things to say about current art forms like computer games and their role in the world. I imagine its the same reason the AGDI folk make their games - out of love for the art form.

Anyway, before it's published, I'm going to be serializing the first third of it, a new chapter every Friday, at www.gamequestnovel.com. The first chapter is up now.

The book, aside from the main storyline mentioned above covers a lot of interesting (I think) phenomena such as women-gamers, female game designers and the corporatization of game making. It's mostly a character driven novel and you get to meet Art Loel, creator of the world's adult rated adventure game, a Cool Hunter, video game characters come to life, and a lot more. It's a pretty crazy novel. I didnt hold myself back and I had fun with it.

Anyway, I wouldn't post this here if I didn't think AGDI fans would be interested. It's a book for Adventure game fans like you and me. Like AGDI I'm just trying to fill a gap of interest that the game companies and publish refuse to fill. If you don't like what other people are doing then do it yourself, right? I don't intend this post to be spam, but apologize if it is considered that.

Thanks!
Leopold

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#2 Post by Charlemagne » Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:19 pm

The first chapter is excellent! I'm looking forward to the rest.

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#3 Post by Broomie » Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:31 pm

Excellent! I was so impressed I even made a news post about it at IA.

Keep up the good work.

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#4 Post by hakujinmusume » Sat Jun 11, 2005 9:03 pm

Hey! Thanks so much, you guys! You totally made my week! I hope you like the next chapter as well, coming this Friday, of course.

Thanks a lot for the link, Bromios. I haven't been to the IA site in a while. I don't think I looked at the Quest for Infamy link before, but that's a BRILLIANT idea! I can't wait for that one to come out. I always liked to be the bad guy. Also, KQ3 is one of my all-time favourites. Man, was walking up that cliff to Mananan's place a HEARBREAKER! It was just save restore save restore all the way up that thing before I found the magic map. I can't believe I had the patience...

I'm hoping to get links up on the gamequestnovel.com site pretty soon. I want to link to adventure game sites like AGDI, women gamer sites (anything that sort of crops up in the novel, anyway). I'll definately put IA in there as well.

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#5 Post by Klytos » Sun Jun 12, 2005 3:16 am

Cheers for the IA plug. We love what we do! Awesome first chapter, I'm very impressed. Well done and I can't wait to see the rest.

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#6 Post by hakujinmusume » Sun Jun 12, 2005 4:50 pm

I hope to have the links section up with this Friday's update. Thanks for the comments. Feedback has been great so far. Really makes the countless hours and stress I put into this worth it!

Are you a huge doctor who fan? I think I am perhaps the hugest. I've seen every episode ever made. Somebody should make a Dr. Who adventure game, if there isn't one already...

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#7 Post by Klytos » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:50 am

hakujinmusume wrote:Are you a huge doctor who fan? I think I am perhaps the hugest. I've seen every episode ever made. Somebody should make a Dr. Who adventure game, if there isn't one already...
No, I would honestly be the hugest Dr Who fan ever! Well probably not, but I do love the show. I've also seen pretty much everything (except for some missing episodes for obvious reasons, though I have seen reconstructions of them all...) I'm a total adict of the new series too! Love the episode shown in England a couple of nights ago "Bad Wolf" totally brilliant!

There was a Dr Who game a few years ago called Destiny of the Doctors which was a total load of crap, even though I bought it the day it was released.

(Being a Doctor Who fan you might even understand my avatar, which I've been asked about a few times...  :lol ) Hint : Hum the tune...

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#8 Post by ThreeHeadedMonkey » Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:48 am

This is great stuff! Very nice read, keep it up.  :D

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#9 Post by Blackthorne519 » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:29 pm

My friend is the Hugest Dr. Who fan.  He weighs 700 lbs (like 300+kg.  I suck at Metric conversion.  In fact, he's just huge.  He could sink a swamp.)  He is the hugest.


Great story, by the way, can't wait to read more good sir!


Bt

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#10 Post by hakujinmusume » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:40 pm

I'm really glad to hear you guys are enjoying the first chapter. I hope my second chapter can live up to the response so far!

It appears I was a bit arrogant. I have some pretty stiff competition for Hugest Dr. Who fan ever. Perhaps I'm just a fairly massive dr. who fan.

I like the new series too. To bad about Billy & Christopher leaving the show. I find the Russel T Davies scripts a bit too campy. Farting aliens? Com'n, you can do better than that... The only thing that makes them bearable is Rose's interactions with her family. The WW2 one was great, IMO - it got the creepiness just right.

Nice avatar, BTW. All it needs is the cool psychadelic dr. who waves in the background - like from the John Pertwee intros.

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Chapter 2 now up

#11 Post by hakujinmusume » Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:34 pm

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

You'll meet Art, creator of the world's first adult (ie, dirty) adventure game series, Will, Madre CEO, and Bill, assistant to dirty-game-making-genius Art.

Also, the plot will thicken JUUUSSSSTTTT a little bit.

Thanks, guys!

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#12 Post by hakujinmusume » Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:45 pm

oh yeah, and I added a links page, as promised, with links to here, Infamous Adventures and a bunch of other Adventure/gaming related sites. The links pages is actually worth a check too, b/c I found some pretty neat stuff.

For example, did you know that Ken Williams wrote a book? Did you know that Ron Gilbert (creator of Monkey Island) has a blog?

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#13 Post by hakujinmusume » Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:54 am

If anybody is still following, part 3 of Game Quest - Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch... is now up at www.gamequestnovel.com. It ties up some of the loose ends and questions raised in the first 2 chapters.

Plus it has the phrase 'Bang Hubby's Head on Desk Until he Listens!' which is good enough for a click, I think!

Also, apparently chapter 2 really teed someone off because they left a rather agressive comment that I had 'defaced the gilded memories of their childhood'. Yikes! Kind of sucks getting a comment like that, but I'll just assume they were having a bad day... I hope the rest of you don't feel like that...

Leopold

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#14 Post by hakujinmusume » Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:57 pm

Game Quest chapter 4 - the big meeting is now online.

If you've been wondering where the story is going, it should tie things together nicely and send the novel on its way.

I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!

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#15 Post by Klytos » Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:31 am

Thanks for these I'm enjoying the reads.

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#16 Post by hakujinmusume » Sun Jul 03, 2005 4:52 am

Thanks. I'm really happy to hear it! I was starting to think I was posting to an empty crowd...  :cry

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#17 Post by Quest For Glory Fan » Sun Jul 03, 2005 7:13 am

usually small threads have around 10 views per post. This thread almost doubles that.

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#18 Post by hakujinmusume » Sun Jul 03, 2005 3:48 pm

Whoa. Cool. Thanks for the info. I didn't know that.

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#19 Post by hakujinmusume » Fri Jul 08, 2005 4:15 pm

Chapter 5 of Game Quest is now online.

It introduces the largest sub-plot of the novel and should be quite fun. I couldn't figure out why chapter 5 kept getting all these hits on my site stats when it wasn't even online yet...and uploading it last night I just realized it was because of the chapter title! (breast quest)

Well, I hope you enjoy. I should warn you now that there is a bit of pretty strong language at the end... It's not gratuitous - it fits with the story - but I thought people might like some warning.

Thanks

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mocha latte freedom fighter

#20 Post by hakujinmusume » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:03 pm

Hello Adventure game fans!

If any of you have been wondering what "Che's Coffee Revolution" has to do with anything in Game Quest, 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 today I will be leaving for a trip to Japan and India and will be gone for about 7 weeks. A friend of mine 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.

Anyway, I'll be around next week to announce chapter 7 (plus a preview of the book layout), but that'll be the last time for a while.

Hope everyone has an ADVENTUROUS summer!

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Sneak Preview

#21 Post by hakujinmusume » Thu Jul 21, 2005 4:50 pm

If anybody is interested in seeing what Game Quest will look like when it's published, i've uploaded a sneak preview pdf of chapters 1 to 7 along with this week's update (the almost-as-big-meeting). It's also good for printing out the first 7 chapters if you don't like reading online.

Everything I said in my last post still applies. Anyway, I hope you all stick around for the subsequent chapters while I'm gone (they'll still be going up every Friday!) and I hope you have a great summer.

Thanks for your interest.

P.S. I know there's a couple Adventure Game projects slated for release this Fall, so I'm really looking forward to getting back!

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#22 Post by hakujinmusume » Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:59 pm

Wha?!! I'm back and still no Quest for Glory 2? I went on vacation just so I'd have something to keep me from tearing my hair out in anticipation!

But that's ok, I guess. I'd rather play a perfect game that the creators feel good about releasing rather than a rushed-to-release game. I guess that's the advantage of doing things 'underground', you can focus more on the art than the money. I'm sure when it's released (Christmas? Spring?) it'll be worth the wait. What will really suck then is waiting for the NEXT project (shoud there be one...)

Anyway, in the meantime, ifn you like reading, I'm still updating my novel every Friday. I'm hoping to get the thing designed and to the printer so I can have a book released for Christmas! But that's slowly appearing unlikely. But not impossible, so I can always keep my fingers crossed. Like AGDI, I'd rather release a perfect product I'm proud of.

Anyway, the latest chapter, Butt Zits Never Die, is up. I hope it may entertain you in the haitus. It's keeping me busy, at least.

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