Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks Are Still Going Strong

Ian Livingstone is the cofounder of Games Workshop, the legendary UK game company behind Warhammer 40,000. In his new book Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop, Livingstone recounts the company’s humble beginnings.

“It’s really in many ways a personal memoir rather than a business book,” Livingstone says in Episode 547 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “It’s all about the trials and tribulations of that early journey, and how we might have failed several times.”

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Ian Livingstone on writing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks:

I have 400 numbers ready to allocate as I design on the fly, so I have a basic story arc in mind and some protagonists and monsters in mind, and then set off with number 1, and then it splits out to “If you want to go one way, go to 22. If you want to go the other way, go to 104.” And cross those off the master list, and keep a record of the branching on a flowchart, and make notations of all the encounter points and what you might find where, and make sure there are no cul-de-sacs and that the economy is balanced, and it’s not too difficult. Also going back and [forth] along the multiple paths, so if you need a key to open a locked door, you have to go back and put the key in a room where you might find it.