I’ve been working hard on a secret thing this past month. Something that blurs the line between indie game development, self-publishing authorship, and, well…weird creative book/game hybrid experiments.

Today, I’m excited to roll out the official pre-order and playable demo of my latest crazy project, This Book Is A Dungeon [This Dungeon Is A Book].

Whether you’re into games, into self-publishing, into game development, into interactive fiction, or into ALL OF IT, I hope you’ll take a second to check out this neat experiment, and consider supporting it with a pre-order! It has a little something for everyone in those assorted camps.

***So what IS this weird book, game, errrr… thing?***

In a nutshell, it’s:

1) A dark, horror-tinged Twine game dungeon crawler (think interactive fiction or choose your own adventure but with cool pixel art)…

2) …that’s being distributed inside a paid Kindle book on Amazon…

3) …which documents the entire game development and design process as well as the inner workings of this entire strange self-publishing / indie game hybrid experiment from start-to-finish. Whew!

It’s a game. It’s a bookumentary. And it’s a self-publishing experiment that blends the two together. Wheee!

Launch Date and Pre-Order Discount!

The project will officially be launching on July 12th for $9.99 on Amazon’s Kindle storefront, and will include the book and a link to download the game itself within the back of the book. The game itself will be playable on PC and Mac via a web browser (you can play it offline).

If you want to support this weird experiment and save a few bucks, early adopters can pre-order the book right now for $6.99 and get a 30 percent discount! I appreciate your support.

Play the DEMO

I think the book aspect of this project is going to be super interesting, and it’s really coming along like a rocket at 23,000+ words and counting. It documents the day-to-day aspects of designing and building this game as well as the creative process. I also spend plenty of time talking about the writing and self-publishing aspect of the project too, so it’ll be a neat read regardless of what camp your in, creative-wise.

But I’m equally excited the game itself, and you can playtest the first core area of the dungeon RIGHT NOW by downloading the DEMO right here! Do you like Dungeons & Dragons? Dark fantasy horror? Weird stuff? Choose your own adventure games? All of the above?

You’ll dig this. At least I hope so.

I’d love to hear what you think and get any feedback, so free free to ping me on Twitter or email. Also. Warning: this game is dark, grisly, and a bit gory. It’s not for little kids. Just sayin’

And Please Help Spread the Word!

The self-publishing experiment itself is a huge, and frankly risky, piece of this project’s complex puzzle. I’m essentially designing and building a game, writing a book about the entire process, and launching it all from start-to-finish in under two months.

That’s CRAY-CRAY!

But it’s also part of the fun and the experiment.

If you enjoy the demo, or are interested in the project, I definitely appreciate your support via pre-order. If you’re a member of the press (or a podcaster or a blogger) and would like to chat about the project, about indie game dev stuff, or self-publishing, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m always up for interviews.

And if you’re just a regular human on the Internet who feels like sharing news of this thing with your peeps, that’s also super cool.

Thanks again! Buckle up. It’s going to be a wild ride through July, and this is only one of several big things I’m working on.