for the new Fighting Fantasy. “Should I write it for the ten year old of today or the ten year old of 1982? Hopefully it will appeal to both.” Book signings planned for Forbidden Planet this weekend and then during Edinburgh Interactive next week will provide the answer. Livingstone predicts “a line of 38-year-olds masquerading as 10-year-olds, or claiming ‘It’s not for me, it’s for my son.’” Twitter has helped shape some of the book’s direction, however. “Using social media has been really interesting. I couldn’t decide between Blood of the Zombiesor Escape from Zombie Castleas the name – on Twitter I had 1,000 replies in less than 24 hours choosing the former. That was very encouraging and humbling – it still resonated with the people who read them back in the Eighties.” Livingstone has also given cameos
to Twitter followers, both competition- winning civilians, and some famous friends including video games loving Labour MP Tom Watson.
FIGHT OF FANCY Fighting Fantasyisn’t staying just old school with its a paper book. On August 27th, 30 years to the day since the publication of the first book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, an iOS and Android game adaptation of Zombieswill launch.
“In a digital age we have to create a digital option,” explained Livingstone. “But it’s not a straight port of the book. The developer, Tin Man Games, has incorporated what are effectively ‘cheats’ to go back to save points.” The books themselves are filled with pitfalls and sudden deaths, but readers
could just flick back – the app will accommodate that, and add in a heap of extra Easter eggs. For Livingstone, who has worked in the video games industry for over two decades and with games in general for much longer, the actual fact of kids playing games hasn’t changed much but the devices they use has. “The only difference I think is that back in the day I used to see kids on the tube with their five-finger bookmark lodged inside Deathtrap Dungeon,” said Livingstone. “Now books are being replaced by a tablet device.”
Livingstone, who helped spur a rethink of the National Curriculum with another tome, the Next-Gen Skills report authored with Alex Hope, heralds this shift.
“Learning should be fun and in the context of kids’ lives. Trying to shoehorn an education system from the 19th Century into the digital age hasn’t worked.”
He certainly knows first-hand how making things like reading more interactive can engage and excite kids. The Fighting Fantasybooks are testament to that.
“I had no idea that what we did all that time ago had such a big impact on young children’s minds and what they wanted to do in later life.”
As our chat winds up, Livingstone nods to a couple nearby, both reading global bestselling summer smut novel 50 Shades of Grey.
“I doubt I’ll be able to shift as many copes as that, though.”
He may be right. But the legacy of
the Fighting Fantasyseries, however, will at least last much longer.