PAGE TURNERS: Games Unfurl Their Majestic Pages

Have you picked up a good book lately? Perhaps you've struggled to find inspirational reading material

- Andrew Brassleay

It could be that tabletop gaming proves to be a good source of page-turning engagement instead. Several designers and game publishers have taken a narrative approach to their games, allowing players to journey through them via the facade of a book.

Curious? Then, find out by reading on...

Cantaloop: Book 1 - Breaking Into Prison

A book that both tells its reader off while ordering them around might not be to everyone's taste, but retro point-and-click adventure fans will be familiar with the concept. Friedemann Findeisen has adapted the video game genre into the Choose Your Own Adventure book-based format.

Upon opening, gamers are presented with three packs of cards, which act as playable items, along with a few other code-breaking materials and an easy-to-navigate tutorial. These set up the tale of exiled petty criminal not-such-a-mastermind, Hook, and his gang of ne'er-do-wells.

The writing keeps to the 1980s LucasArts style tropes of groan-inducing jokes and ridiculous plotlines, and the puzzles contain enough logic to ensure that they never feel solved at random. The premise, in itself, is an intriguing one, and Kerstin Buzelan and Johannes Lott's cartoonish artwork acts essentially as multiple boards that players interact with, using object cards to crack clues and progress the game. It's best played as a solo adventure, but it can also work in collaborative mode with gamers taking on different characters.

It all never feels as frustrating as it did trying to get from place to place to yet another place in the classic video game Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. And, if book-based SCUMM-engine-style adventures are your thing, Cantaloop has spawned two sequels. The latest, Against All Odds, was released earlier this year.