Tinman Games. "Warlock of Firetop Mountain"

Greetings Watchers

For all fellow Fighting Fantasy, gamebook and interactive fiction fans, just thought I'd provide a link to TinMan Games' "Warlock of Firetop Mountain" project in case people haven't seen it yet.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/warlockks/fighting-fantasy-the-warlock-of-firetop-mountain

As many fans may already know, quite a few of their game versions of Fighting Fantasy books (Forest of Doom, Caverns of the Snow Witch, Starship Travellers) are available on Steam.

Whilst they've already reached their goal of $15,000 with 21 days to go, there's a couple of neat stretch goals as well. For instance one goal which has been met is that the original illustrator, Russ Nicholson is providing some more artwork, which is excellent news.

This particular gamebook was probably the main essential book which really set alight my romance for fantasy and introduced me into role-playing in general. I can still vividly recall in school in early 1989, taking home a library copy of "Warlock of Firetop Mountain", together with a friend and reading it obsessively that night, before returning the next day in excited chatter with my mate. It was almost as if I'd discovered a portal to another world.

Thanks for the heads-up! I've enjoyed their other conversions (particularly Forest of Doom) so I'm happy to back this. It looks like a bit of a departure for them though - the previous titles have been faithful to the source books as far as I remember, whereas the tiers on the kickstarter include designing NPCs and rooms, so they must be planning to add new material. I don't remember the source book particularly well so that's fine by me.
Although I'd rather they were kickstarting the Grail Quest books - they promised those years back but it has gone very quiet recently….

this looks very, very good. They seem to be really strapped for stretch goals though.

Mission successful! They managed to raise $54,676 and to meet four stretch goals. Given they're a local business and that I'm a crazy FF fan, I put up $100 to support their cause. (The Iron Cyclops encounter is embedded in my unconscious.)

Really looking forward to seeing how they go about re-imagining this classic story. Hopefully I'll get lost in the Maze of Zagor all over again.

I'm playing their Caverns of the Snow Witch release on Steam and it is proving to be quite challenging; it's just as hard as I remember reading it as a kid.

I also picked up a couple more Tinman Games gamebook releases cheaply via Steam sale recently. Happy to hear that they'll be offering House of Hell to backers in 2016 - that's another ol' favorite.

@ Pongo
I agree wholeheartedly on GrailQuest. Whilst I never completed all of them - I've good memories reading the first few. The off-beat sense of humor is probably what I remember most about them.

Hello Watcher Gamebook fans

As a backer for this project, I've since managed to obtain some spare steam keys for the following Tinman Fighting Fantasy releases:

Update: Two left!

Forest of Doom (GONE)
Caverns of the Snow Witch
Starship Traveler

If anyone would like one of the keys (and to have a merry Fighting Fantasy Christmas…) feel free to PM. First in, first served.

Very nice of you =]

Got the key, thanks a lot I'll be sure to try it!

You're very welcome Galaad. May the rolls go your way whilst inside Darkwood! Say hi to Yaztromo for me.

Just repeating for everyone, two more Tinman Games steam keys remain on offer.

Cheers

Another PM sent

All gone now. Enjoy the adventures chaps!

I might update the thread if anything news-worthy occurs on topic of Tinman Games and other general game-book goodness. Revisiting their edition of House of Hell should be interesting; that was a memorable read as a kid.

Good going with the keys Pessimeister, nice gesture!
I've been playing House of Hell recently - it's a great read, recommended, but blimey it's hard. I consistently cheated at these books when I was a kid, it's much more difficult doing it properly! So many dead ends....
I did, finally, manage to beat Forest of Doom though (on about the 30th attempt! ) That was satisfying. It actually made sense in terms of the path, ie after a couple of playthroughs you could work out roughly where north, east and west would take you. It was like slowly solving a puzzle.
Not played the others yet.

You're absolutely right on House of Hell Pongo - lots of red herring rooms and stamina sapping areas. It's also very easy to die of fear if you've got a low score.

Once you've found the Kris knife however, things should start to feel easier. Getting to the final crazy seance scene toward the end without it can be frustrating, which happened to me many times reading it as a kid.

Amusingly, I read the book one summer at my nana's who used to own this spacious double-story house. The whole experience added a dimension of creepiness to my already over-stimulated imagination!

Good job on beating Forest of Doom. I must admit that I semi-cheated by using my ol' maps from childhood for that one. It was still very fun though and satisfying to reminisce on the encounters.