Автори на книги-игри на международната сцена

Само преди месец Никола Райков представи страната ни и жанра на Еврокон със своята приказка-игра в категория "детско фентъзи и фантастика" и макар да не спечели накара почитателите на книгите-игри да се гордеят!

Сега авторите на "Призвание герой" също получиха международно внимание. На тазгодишния панаир на книгата във Франкфурт Ал Торо ("Зомбокалипсис" и поредицата за Котарака) и Сикамор Брайт ("Падението на Мрак", "Прах и Сол", "Щурмберг") намериха място в каталога със съвременни български автори.

Така познайниците Ви от книгите-игри се наредиха сред големи български писатели като Алек Попов, Богдан Русев, Деян Енев, Димо Райков, Емилия Дворянова, Георги Господинов, Ицхак Финци, Калин Терзийски, Леа Коен, Михаил Вешим, Милен Русков и Стефан Цанев.

Скромното присъствие сред такива имена на международно събитие е огромно признание за интерактивния жанр у нас и нямаше да е възможно без помощта на приятелите ни от БГ Книга, които предложиха автори ни на вниманието на организаторите от българска страна.

Ето и самите текстове:

Alex Torofiev, born in Varna in 1983, is a young Bulgarian author of gamebooks and short stories. In 2002 he moves to Sofia to study Electronics in “Technical University of Sofia” and afterwards starts a career as an engineer.

In 2009 he is published for the first time in “New Bulgarian Literature Almanac” and over the next five years many of his short stories find place in almost every volume of that almanac. Most of them focus on social issues and usually contain hidden meaning and plot twists.

In 2011 under the pen name Al Toro he publishes his first gamebook, “The Cat and the Black Narcissus” – a low fantasy interactive novel about a young burglar, shortly followed by “The Cat and the Salvation of Avreya”. The third and most ambitious book of these series so far is expected by the end of 2014, “The Cat and the Ebony Dragon”.

In 2012, together with a little crew of enthusiasts, he is starting an annual contest for gamebooks. The best entries are published in a collection called “Heroic Calling”, currently the third volume is already in production. He is working in his free time as a publisher and editor of gamebooks, he is also one of the authors of the first volume of HC.

Alex Torofiev is also a notable leader of the gamebook revival in Bulgaria, a publicist for several online magazines and a designer of role-playing, board and mobile games. Nowadays he lives in Sofia, recently married and a father to an infant daughter. Currently he is working as a game designer and product manager for a successful game development studio.

The gamebook "Sturmberg" takes place in the beginning of the 20th century. The reader plays as a young medical doctor who resides in the small village Sturmberg up in the mountains. What seems to him as just one more of the usual winter nights in this quiet place, turns out to be the beginning of a dangerous adventure. In the next hours the night will be filled with snow, blood and murder, while the doctor struggles to find out what exactly happens in the village of Sturmberg without getting himself killed.

"The Fall of Darkness" and "Dust and Salt" are low fantasy gamebooks in which the reader is playing on either side of a long-year conflict between the city of Darkness and the Nameless tribe. In the first book the reader takes control over the actions of Mandrake - an ordinary soldier from the city watch of Darkness. The city is besieged by barbarian tribes which, after years under the tyranny of Darkness, have decided to take revenge on its citizens. Their armies are led by Disobedient, chief of the Nameless tribe. While on his duty, Mandrake learns by chance that the rulers of Darkness are planning to surrender and give up the city to the barbarians. Mandrake decides to confront the traitors. In the following adventure the reader has to use all his courage and cunning to save the city not only from the armies of Disobedient but also from its own rulers.

"Dust and Salt" takes the reader to the other side of the conflict and the time before the siege of Darkness. In this book you control the actions of the young Disobedient from the Nameless tribe, who plans to unite the people suffering the rule of Darkness and raise a rebellion against the great city. To succeed, you, in the role of the barbarian chief, have to stay alive in bloody battles, fight backstabbing opponents, lead diplomatic negotiations and even win the heart of a princess... along with her father's fleet.