A blog about writing gamebooks. My musings on how to write a gamebook and what makes a good gamebook. Create your story here!
Hello all! Image by Pat ONeill Voting is now open for the 2026 Lindenbaum Prize. Voting is open until 5pm GMT on the 27th August 2026. Voting The Lindenbaum prizes are awarded based on reader votes and judge decisions. The readers and the judges have a 50% split of the weighting. This prize relies on votes provided by readers who have read enough of the entries to make a considered choice as to…
Hello all! Submissions have now closed for the 2026 Lindenbaum competition. We have had slightly more than 10 entries this year, so entries will be available late May/early June once we have checked that each entry is functional and fits the criteria Votes need to be sent to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com . Each voter must submit 3 books. If they submit less than 3, their votes won't count. If they…
Entries are now being accepted for the 2026 Lindenbaum competition. This year, 50% of the weighting for the results will be due to judges and 50% of the weighting for the results will be due to popular vote. I also won't be hyperlinking any books this year. Entries are to be sent to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com . The closing date is 5pm GMT on the 15th May 2026. Full rules to be found at: Lloyd of…
Good news, everyone! Andrew Greene has joined the judge team this year for the Lindenbaum competition. The line up is now: Hieronymous J. Doom - presenter of the awesome Fantastic Fights podcast and writer of many gamebooks that you can get if you become his Patreon. Ashton MacSaylor - 3 time merit award winner of Windhammer, writer of The Good, The Bad and the Undead and other gamebooks (see his…
Hello gamebookers! The times, they are a changin'. I mean, they are changing too fast for anyone to keep up with these days. Now that Lindenbaum '26 is around the corner, the judges and I had a little think about AI. The catalyst for this was last year's winner, Pádraic Henrysson-MacOireachtaigh, who wrote An Island who wrote in his acknoweldgements that he used ChatGPT and Gemini to playtest his…
Hello gamebookers!!!!! We have 5 judges for this year's Lindenbaum competition. They are the same 5 judges as last year. Here is who they are: Hieronymous J. Doom - presenter of the awesome Fantastic Fights podcast and writer of many gamebooks that you can get if you become his patreon. Ashton MacSaylor - 3 time merit award winner of Windhammer, writer of The Good, The Bad and the Undead and other…
Dear gamebookers, I hope you are all well. You might have noticed that I would have announced Lindenbaum by now and that I haven't. I apologise for this. Adulting is getting in the way of gamebooks at the moment. However, the Lindenbaum Prize is going to happen - just not at the same time of year as before. The main reason is that myself and most of the judges have jobs in education and so the…
Hello gamebookers. I don't normally do reviews here, but my lovely tutor group bought me this book, so I thought I would review it. The Roll on Adventure series is written by Phillip Harvey who has written four books in the series. I got book 1, Immortal Reckoning. I had a great time with this gamebook. It is definitely more game than book as you are an adventurer who decides to explore a dungeon.…
Title cover for my book by Tony Hough Hello gamebookers! Just a quick one to say that I have the privilege of becoming part of Troy Anthony Schermer's Savage Realms series! The gamebook I have written - The Ice Wastes of Madness - is on Kickstarter now - and it is already fully funded! I have already written all the text - the funding is for illustrations from the Legendary Fighting Fantasy…
Logo by Pat ONeill I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum Prize for short gamebook fiction is An Island by Pádraic Henrysson-MacOireachtaigh. Merit awards go to Jason Romein for Working Ogre-Time and Lewis Amerson for Mochilla. Commendation awards go to Jonathan Ritter for Nineteen Ninety Nine, Steffen Hagen for The Fall of the Infinite King, Sean Loftiss for Noesis…
Logo by Pat ONeill Hello all! Voting has now closed for the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum competition. If you would like to leave feedback to any of the entrants, you may do so by emailing lindenbaumprize@gmail.com. The winners will be announced on the 10th June.
Hello all! Image by Pat ONeill Voting is now open for the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum Prize. Voting is open until 5pm GMT on the 31st May 2025. Voting The Lindenbaum prize is awarded to the entrant who receives the greatest number of reader votes. This prize relies on votes provided by readers who have read enough of the entries to make a considered choice as to the relative merits of the gamebooks…
EDIT: Sorry, I can't count - we have 17 19 entries! Hello all! Submissions have now closed for the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum competition. I am excited to say that we have 19 17 16 entries for this year's competition. The entries will be made available on the 10th March when voting opens. Votes need to be sent to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com . Each voter must submit 3 books. If they submit less than 3,…
I am glad to announce that Operation "Dead Dawn" by Tom Perrett is awarded the Sponsor's Award for the 2023/2024 Lindenbaum Competition. You can download this gamebook in PDF format here I came up with the idea about this award, because I felt it was very unfair that such a great gamebook didn't win any of the first three places in the competition. My personal analysis for this phenomenon is that…
Entries are now being accepted for the 2024/2025 Lindenbaum competition. This year, 50% of the weighting for the results will be due to judges and 50% of the weighting for the results will be due to popular vote. I also won't be hyperlinking any books this year. Entries are to be sent to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com . The closing date is 5pm GMT on the 25th February 2025. Full rules to be found at:…
What Makes a Memorable Villain in Gamebooks? In the world of gamebooks, a great villain isn’t just a plot device; they’re the linchpin that turns a good adventure into an unforgettable one. But what makes a villain memorable? Let’s explore the key ingredients that elevate a gamebook antagonist from a generic adversary to someone who lingers in the reader’s mind long after the final page. 1. A…
The Lindenbaum Prize is sponsored by Peter Agapov, contributor to Lloyd of Gamebooks and owner of Augmented Reality Adventure Games who is very generously providing the first prize. The Lindenbaum Prize is also sponsored by Crumbly Head Games who is providing free licenses to The Gamebook Authoring Tool as prizes and also has a free version of the Gamebook Authoring Tool that goes up to 100…
Hello all! I first published the reading list back in 2017, but then realised that some people have written articles since then, so I will repost this reading list with updates every year. Here is the 2024 version. Whassup! Here is the fruits of my labours on a little project I was working on. I wanted to collect a definitive list of gamebook analysis that anyone who wants to write a gamebook has…
Dear all, Christopher Bünte, who entered this year's Windhammer contest with his excellent entry, Curse of the Snake Queen, will be doing a Kickstarter for Curse of the Snake Queen on the 29th August. Here is the Kickstarter page: The Curse of the Snake Queen – A Solo Fantasy Gamebook by Christopher Bünte — Kickstarter You can play the entry here Keep your eyes peeled!
Hello all! I hope you are well! I am planning on doing another Lindenbaum competition this year. IT will be announced in November. If you would like to enter it, then I thought that I would write down some lesson's learnt from this year's excellent batch of entries. The lessons below are present as they were recurring themes from the judges' and players' feedback. They are something to take on…
I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2023/2024 Lindenbaum Prize for short gamebook fiction is Andrew Wright with Are you the Hero? Merit awards go to Heart of Keros by David Donachie, A Slope of Pines by Per Jorner and What Lies Beyond the Standing Stone by Jeremy Johnson. I would like to thank everybody who participated, the authors and those dedicated readers who took the time to…
Hello all! Happy May! The beginning of this new month means that voting is now closed for the Lindenbaum competition. The voting and feedback will be collated and the winners will be announced on May 10th. Feedback can still be sent to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com . Here is a link to each individual entry, in a random order: Knighthood by Elie Merle The Lost Treasures of Cap'n Blouchard by Sean…
Hello everyone! Here is a reminder that voting is still going on for the Lindenbaum competition. Voting closes on the 30th April at 5pm BST (GMT? Whatever time it is in the UK). Votes need to be sent to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com . Each voter must submit 3 books. If they submit less than 3, their votes won't count. If they submit more than 3, the first 3 will count. Here is a link to each…
Hello everyone! Edit - there is an entry I missed, so there are 9 entries this year! Voting has now opened for the Lindenbaum competition. Here is a link to each individual entry, in a random order: Operation Dead Dawn by Tom Perrett Heart of Keros by David Donachie The Curse of the Snake Queen by Christopher Bunte Knighthood by Elie Merle Are you the Hero by Andrew Wright A Slope of Pines by Per…
Hello all! Submissions have now closed for the 2023/2024 Lindenbaum competition. I am excited to say that we have 8 entries for this year's competition. The entries will be made available on the 1st March when voting opens. Votes need to be sent to lindenbaumprize@gmail.com . Each voter must submit 3 books. If they submit less than 3, their votes won't count. If they submit more than 3, the first…