Fighting Fantasy Message Board

Now that developer Big Blue Bubble's iOS Fighting Fantasy games are no more, it's time for developer Tin Man Games to take charge of the choose-your-own-adventure series. The studio's first Fighting Fantasy project, Fighting Fantasy: Blood of the Zombies, is now available on iOS and Android.

Blood of the Zombies was written by series co-creator (and "life president" of Eidos), Ian Livingstone, in celebration of Fighting Fantasy's 30th anniversary. You can pick up Blood of the Zombies now for $6 on either iTunes or Google Play.

Choose-your-own adventure fans have another crucial decision to make today, as games based on Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy book series are being pulled from the iOS marketplace tomorrow.

On August 14, licenses held by developer Big Blue Bubble will expire, requiring the games be removed from sale on all iOS devices. The choose-your-own adventure/RPG titles affected by the expiration date are: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon, Citadel of Chaos, and City of Thieves.

Speaking with Eurogamer last week, Big Blue Bubble said the original agreement made was for a specific amount of time and time has run out. "I am not aware of the apps being picked up or ported by anyone else," the dev said.

Gamebook Adventures dev Tin Man Games will handle the franchise going forward and will launch Fighting Fantasy: Blood of the Zombies later this month. It's unclear if this situation would have been remedied had Big Blue decided to turn to Page 27.

Having recently optioned rights to the Fighting Fantasy series of books from Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, Epic Games is putting an interesting spin on its Make Something Unreal Live contest.

Here's how it works: four different start-up studios will each select one book from the fantasy series and make a game for Epic, to be released on the App Store sometime this spring. The winning team walks away with a free commercial Unreal Engine 3 license for iOS.

The books chosen are The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Citadel of Chaos, Deathtrap Dungeon and Armies of Death. Each title will premiere at Gadget Show Live 2012, which takes place from April 10 through April 15 in Birmingham, UK.

A portion of a Dtoid review… The old school charm quickly wears off and gives way to a game that simply does not want you to have fun. It’s absolutely tragic, because I was just starting to really get into it before the game basically slammed the door in my face and said “f@#$ off”. Full review [...]

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is based on a fantasy gamebook of the same name -- essentially Dungeons & Dragons crossed with Choose Your Own Adventure. In my case, the story I managed to weave for myself is the epic tale of an adventurer who wanders into a cave and is swiftly murdered by dwarves.

Battle with dwarves and demons alike.

How deep do you want your gameplay to be?