Learn how to write an epic solo adventure gamebook for readers of all ages
This course will teach you how to present readers with meaningful, memorable choices
Choice Design in Solo Adventure Gamebooks is a comprehensive five-lesson course that examines gamebooks through the lens of game design rather than narrative design or creative writing more broadly.
Specifically, this course draws on the extensive academic and popular literature about player choice in games and distills the most relevant concepts into plainer language that's accessible to those with little or no game design background. This course also shares insights gleaned from instructor Sersa Victory's own experience as a game designer, gamebook author, and genre enthusiast.
Considering the gamebook as a game and the reader as a player of games, the lessons in this course are oriented toward giving you a vocabulary for designing choices in your own gamebooks with intention in order to create scenarios that your readers will find engaging, challenging, and dramatic.
Gamebooks continue to appeal to readers of all ages and there's ample room for innovating on or telling new kinds of stories with the format. This course aims to give you the tools and confidence necessary to leave your own mark on the gamebook industry.
What is a solo gamebook?
Gamebooks are fiction books where, instead of reading them cover to cover, the reader is presented with choices at the end of each passage. Depending on what choice the reader makes, she'll be instructed to turn to a different page and keep reading from there.
Some choices move the reader further along in the story, introducing new settings, characters, or plot details until she reaches the conclusion. Other choices, however, can lead to a story's unhappy or premature end — often with an inducement to the reader to try again. Gamebooks tend to emphasize adventure stories, with fantasy, science fiction, superheroes, and horror being popular genres. Younger readers have historically been the audience for gamebooks, though several gamebooks for teens and adults are available as well.
Some choices move the reader further along in the story, introducing new settings, characters, or plot details until she reaches the conclusion. Other choices, however, can lead to a story's unhappy or premature end — often with an inducement to the reader to try again. Gamebooks tend to emphasize adventure stories, with fantasy, science fiction, superheroes, and horror being popular genres. Younger readers have historically been the audience for gamebooks, though several gamebooks for teens and adults are available as well.
This is a self-paced, activity-based course
Here's a brief overview of the curriculum:
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Welcome to Choice Design in Solo Adventure Gamebooks!
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About the Instructor
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Get to Know the Storytelling Collective
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Course Downloads
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Lesson 1. Why Choosing is Fun
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Lesson 1. Exercise
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Lesson 2. Engaging Choice Types
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Lesson 2. Exercise
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Lesson 3. Choice Types to Avoid
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Lesson 3. Exercise
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Lesson 4. Communicating and Informing Reader Choice
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Lesson 4. Exercise
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About this course
- $35.00
- 15 lessons
- 0 hours of video content
Plus, your registration includes:
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Downloadable handout and worksheets
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Free digital copy of Tomb of the Everstar Sisterhood
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Help and support from your instructor
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Access to a private Discord channel
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Indefinite access to the course and any future course updates
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Support, encouragement, and accountability from the StoCo community
About the Instructor
Sersa Victory
Sersa Victory is a game designer, writer, and programmer specializing in tournament deathtrap dungeons for TTRPGs. He has published a number of top-selling adventure modules, including the ENnie Award-winning Shrine of the Jaguar Princess. His other recent work includes the Kobold Press adventure Crater of the Flaying Star and Troll Lord Games’s Shadowdark conversion of Gary Gygax’s The Hermit. His fiction has been published by Scribemind Books, Savage Realms Monthly, DMR Books, and others.
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