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juushikaNew hobby, motivated by playing Tunic as discussed in the first review above: reading video game manuals/fictional video game manuals/bestiaries. Great fun! Very creative & evocative. I hope to talk about game manuals specifically at some future time, but here are a batch of PWYW/free bestiaries.
Title: Apple Quest Monsters DX
Author: Samanthuel Louise Gillson
Published: 2018
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 110
Total Page Count: 389,825
Text Number: 1461
Read Because: played Tunic (see below); DX version is in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, original version is PWYW
Review: A mostly-bestiary with a touch of game manual for a video game that doesn't exist. It's a phenomenal premise, so captivating and imaginative. This is a light and breezy take on it, lots of self-aware humor and a dash of gotcha-style plot in the final entries. I'd've preferred something more serious—more gameplay elements, a better understanding of how the player moves through the biomes, and less humor although that last is definitely a me-problem. So, no, this didn't fill the hole in my life left by Tunic, which is what's gotten me into reading fictional and retro game manuals. But light and breezy is its own delight, and this has a good length and a fun style—the bestiary is in the "game"'s pixel art, and there are adorable, lively clay figure macros on the cover and endpages.
Title: Bynine Bestiary
Author: Taylor "Bynine" McMaster
Published: 2019
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 115
Total Page Count: 389,940
Text Number: 1462
Read Because: more manuals/bestiaries; ebook PWYW on itch.io
Review: Cute! Spooky! A bestiary for a fictional land, grouping monsters by biome and so moving from a cozy starting area-esque forest to a busy city and then deeper into increasingly wild and dangerous terrain. This isn't detailed or convincing enough for speculative evolution or a monster manual; the bestiary's user has annotated the text, which is a great conceit but not especially robust in execution. The puns also don't land for me, but I always complain about humor in books so, again, that's a me-problem. But the vibes—so quirky, inventive, thoughtful, sweet but deliciously spooky—get me so, so good, and the setting feels like a real, dynamic, magical world. I'm less enamored of the art. The monster designs are great but the finishing, particularly the font choices and color work, feel very digital in a way that kills some of the immersion. So not perfect, but a pleasure, and especially worth a PWYW price!
Title: Mud Maze Zug
Author: Jordan Speer aka beefstrong
Published: 2018
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 390,725
Text Number: 1466
Read Because: more bestiaries; PDF version is free
Review: A field guide (more of a bestiary, really) for the dangerous, twice-forgotten dungeons of Zug. I'm not in love with the playdoh-y CG art style, although I admire its consistency and its sideways-retro effect. It makes this feel distinct from other bestiaries I've read lately, some sort of midpoint between DnD and retro game with heavy emphasis on the dungeon crawl. Fun! Does a bestiary's job of evoking the sense of a larger world. But not a favorite—not as whimsical or distinctive as I like.
Title: Apple Quest Monsters DX
Author: Samanthuel Louise Gillson
Published: 2018
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 110
Total Page Count: 389,825
Text Number: 1461
Read Because: played Tunic (see below); DX version is in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, original version is PWYW
Review: A mostly-bestiary with a touch of game manual for a video game that doesn't exist. It's a phenomenal premise, so captivating and imaginative. This is a light and breezy take on it, lots of self-aware humor and a dash of gotcha-style plot in the final entries. I'd've preferred something more serious—more gameplay elements, a better understanding of how the player moves through the biomes, and less humor although that last is definitely a me-problem. So, no, this didn't fill the hole in my life left by Tunic, which is what's gotten me into reading fictional and retro game manuals. But light and breezy is its own delight, and this has a good length and a fun style—the bestiary is in the "game"'s pixel art, and there are adorable, lively clay figure macros on the cover and endpages.
Title: Bynine Bestiary
Author: Taylor "Bynine" McMaster
Published: 2019
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 115
Total Page Count: 389,940
Text Number: 1462
Read Because: more manuals/bestiaries; ebook PWYW on itch.io
Review: Cute! Spooky! A bestiary for a fictional land, grouping monsters by biome and so moving from a cozy starting area-esque forest to a busy city and then deeper into increasingly wild and dangerous terrain. This isn't detailed or convincing enough for speculative evolution or a monster manual; the bestiary's user has annotated the text, which is a great conceit but not especially robust in execution. The puns also don't land for me, but I always complain about humor in books so, again, that's a me-problem. But the vibes—so quirky, inventive, thoughtful, sweet but deliciously spooky—get me so, so good, and the setting feels like a real, dynamic, magical world. I'm less enamored of the art. The monster designs are great but the finishing, particularly the font choices and color work, feel very digital in a way that kills some of the immersion. So not perfect, but a pleasure, and especially worth a PWYW price!
Title: Mud Maze Zug
Author: Jordan Speer aka beefstrong
Published: 2018
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 30
Total Page Count: 390,725
Text Number: 1466
Read Because: more bestiaries; PDF version is free
Review: A field guide (more of a bestiary, really) for the dangerous, twice-forgotten dungeons of Zug. I'm not in love with the playdoh-y CG art style, although I admire its consistency and its sideways-retro effect. It makes this feel distinct from other bestiaries I've read lately, some sort of midpoint between DnD and retro game with heavy emphasis on the dungeon crawl. Fun! Does a bestiary's job of evoking the sense of a larger world. But not a favorite—not as whimsical or distinctive as I like.
