NEWS ANALYSIS: THE RETURN OF FIGHTING FANTASY WRITTEN IN BLOOD
This week’s most notable game release doesn’t come on disc and isn’t a download – it’s the 30th Anniversary Fighting Fantasy book from Ian Livingstone. He spoke to Michael French about how the series has kept relevant in the age of Twitter and iOS
BEFORE he was a trusted source for government chancellors, before he was the leader of an educational revolution, and before he was even the ‘godfather of Lara Croft’, Ian Livingstone was king of the geeks. Not content with co- founding Games Workshop or introducing Dungeons & Dragonsto Britain, he co- created an early form of ‘handheld’ gaming: the Fighting Fantasybooks.
A GAME OF THROWN DICE Published in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the interactive fiction series was a permanent fixture on book shop or library shelves and, along with a pencil and dice needed to play, could be found in the schoolbags of a certain kind of kid. This week sees the
release of a brand new book in the series, Blood of the Zombies, written by Livingstone to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
In a dry summer for video game releases, it’s actually the only notable ‘game’ release this week. “Not only was the
anniversary looming, but I was meeting so many people who were into the books as kids, in the games industry in particular, who said that one of the reasons they got into video games and the industry was because of Fighting Fantasy,” Livingstone told us. MCVfittingly met with Livingstone at the Foyles bookshop’s cafe – downstairs, in the children’s department, a few of the reprinted FF’s sit next to the likes of Twilightand Harry Potter. Although Livingstone
8 August 3rd 2012 “
Many people in the industry have told me that one of the reasons they got into games was
Fighting Fantasy. Ian Livingstone
downplays the legacy: “This certainly wasn’t something I did for commercial motivations as Fighting Fantasyhad had its day.” He’s being a bit modest. Fighting Fantasy’s influence at least on video games and developers of a certain age shouldn’t be underestimated. The series would have taught many a child the principles of games, via what Livingstone calls ‘pencil and
paper programming’: “Problem solving, branching narrative with a game system locked on, choice and consequence… it really was the early days of those ideas.” Gamers today might be spoon-fed luscious graphics and voice acting in the likes of Skyrim, but some of the underlying RPG structure hasn’t much changed since FFoffered it through a novel chopped
into 400 segments. Likewise new book Blood of the Zombies, set in the modern day, could be an adaptation of something like Resident Evil. “Having worked in the industry for 20 years, I was aware of zombies’ lasting appeal,” Livingstone said.
DIGITAL GENERATION Like any games publisher, Livingstone faced quandaries about the potential market