Project Funding: Dice Men

Memoirs of the creators of Games Workshop

   Recently, I have been working on a personal coding project to test my knowledge/skills of the C language.  To summarize, I am attempting to translate The Port of Peril into a text adventure program. The Port of Peril is one of the more recent installments of the Fighting Fantasy franchise of gamebooks that were really popular during the 80s and 90s. As a child, I was completely hooked after a classmate introduced them to me from our school library when I was in the 1st grade. I can still remember poring over The Forest of Doom and The City of Thieves while my mother did her sewing in the spare room. 

an iconic symbol of my childhood

    I can also remember the first copy I claimed as my own, Night Dragon, which I purchased from our school book fair later that year. I used to bring it with me on all the car rides, short and long, to the point where I had to take the cover back in place. I'd beg my parents to let me purchase more novels from the SmithBooks in the mall, to which they'd occasionally acquiesce, but as an immigrant family, it was a luxury they couldn't afford regularly. And so, I found most of my collection from used book stores, book sales, and garage sales, sometimes for only a quarter. 

 

    Needless to say, the names Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson had a profound impact on my life growing up (not to mention the artists they employed like John Blanche (Sorcery!) & Russ Nicholson). They were the ones that introduced me to the fantasy genre, and would eventually lead me to Dungeons & Dragons (I would read the 2ed Monster Manuals and Monster Compendiums cover to cover, learning about monster ecology and habitat), then to Warhammer (yet another expensive hobby I could not afford). So I was incredulous to stumble, quite accidentally, on their crowdfunding project on Unbound. They had decided to write about their early years leading to the creation of Games Workshop. There was no doubt in my mind that I would be supporting this; but what I couldn't believe was how affordable a signed hardcover copy would be - 40GBP! There were so many other tempting offers, like lunch with them, or the leather-bound version, but I restrained myself from spending beyond my means. I'm really happy to be able to jump in on this project from the beginning and get a signed copy from some of my childhood heroes (I really regret missing the opportunity when Brom did his kick starters for his art books ages ago). If you're interested, you can follow this link: https://unbound.com/books/games-workshop/