Hello. My name is Felipe, and I’m currently working a book on Computer RPGs. After organizing the RPG Codex’s Top 70 list, I decided to expand that into a full blown book.
The book will feature in-depth reviews of over 250 great cRPGs in chronological order, from Akalabeth to Might & Magic X, plus interesting articles on the genre and interviews with developers. All that written by cRPG fans from all over the world, compiled into a beautiful book with big, colored screenshots. Part chronological guide, part critical analysis and part love letter to the genre, this is a book showing what the RPG genre has best, and how people enjoy it.
A book that after reading each review you’ll want to play the game described. Here’s a small WIP preview:
The entire project is fan-made and non-profit, with everything from the writing to the cover art and proof-reading done by volunteers, so the final e-book will be freely available for download, under Creative Commons and all that. And if everything goes well, I intend to make a printed version also available (via CreateSpace or IngramSpark), fully colored and in high-quality print, for those who want a nice coffee-table book. Non-profit as well, of course, sold at cost price.
The support from the community has been fantastic so far. Various great developers like Tim Cain, Chris Avellone, Ian S. Frazier, Colin McComb and Josh Sawyer has joined and will write about their favorite RPGs. I’ve also got full support and access to the content of specialized forums like the RPG Codex and RPG Watch, indie developers such as Iron Tower Studios, Sinister Design and Rampant Games, as well as various bloggers, websites, youtube reviewers and modders.
My “call for papers”
After weeks of work and (heated) debate, I’ve compiled the following list of games to be reviewed.
I’m now looking for fans willing to help the project and write a review for one or two of their favorite games that are still unassigned. The reviews will be either 1-page long (up to 400 words) or 2-page long (up to 700 words), and the deadline is very flexible, up to 2-3 months.
If you’re willing to write a review, an article, or has any suggestion to make (like games we should add), please send an e-mail to crpgbook at gmail.com.
Thanks all for your time and hope to see everyone soon, either writing or reading the book.
At The Geeky Press, we’re in the business of promoting amazing writing projects. When Felipe approached us with his idea to crowdsource a book about computer role-playing games, we immediately offered to help. If you have a writing project that we should know about, let us know.
felipepepe it’s really the coolest project I’ve seen in a long, long time. I’m happy to help you in all the ways we can.
I’m in, sounds like a great idea. So not focusing on any console RPGs at all, eh? I’d love to see those as well, but I can understand it’d be a scope explosion (in particular, I’d love to see the MegaTen series).
noodlefrenzy I would encourage you to click on one of the first two links, and talk with Felipe directly. I know as the authors of Dungeons & Dreamers, we’re going to be contributing something to the project. It’s just such a great idea.
noodlefrenzy The focus here is PC. The list is already almost 300 games long, if we included console games as well it would be a insane task of more than 600 games. Let’s leave those for a next time. 😉