Fighting Fantasy Fest 6
Updated: Sep 8
Man, what a total total blast.
We just got back from Fighting Fantasy Fest 6 - our first FFF. Seven hours of hardcore extroverting, loads of books sold and a whole day spent chatting to 1,000 grey-bearded 46-year-old men called James*, enthusiastic young'uns and pretty much every kind of gamebook fan in between. But the best bit was simply being surrounded by so many people who love this stuff as much as we do. After years of reading, collecting, playing and now making gamebooks of our own, there was something genuinely special about being part of it all. Still buzzing.
And there is still something slightly surreal about people coming up to our table to buy one of our books - or, even stranger, bringing a copy they already own and asking us to sign it.
It was also great to hear how many people are already excited for our second book, Tentacles of the Void, which will be coming to Kickstarter in October. We’ve been working on this one for a long time, so hearing people tell us they’re looking forward to it was pretty special.
Thanks to everyone who bought a book, supported our Kickstarter, came over to say hi or brought their book along to be signed. We loved meeting every one of you.
We met so many great people over the course of the day. Including Mira, who bought a copy of the book and talked about it on her channel! See the vid, below (it's at the right time :)
There was the lovely Hungarian guy and his wife who swapped us some maps for a book. We met people from Zatu, our new Swedish bezzie from Sound Realms and too many others to name.
And a special mention has to go to 'the Bahrain Fighting Fantasy chapter'. Coming to Fighting Fantasy Fest while you're on honeymoon is clearly the correct way to begin married life. Happy honeymoon, you two!
It was also great to see two of our amazing beta testers, Sam Byford and Mark Lain - both artists and writers in their own right, as well as two of the people who've helped us bash our books into shape. Also awesome to see see Julian Babel17 and of course the inimitable Adam J Pestridge.
We even got interviewed for Fighting Fantasy TV by Jonathan Green himself, talking aboput the current gamebook: art, words and craft.
Then there were some proper Fighting Fantasy fanboy moments.
It was a real treat to meet Malcolm Barter (see main pic), who illustrated The Forest of Doom. Being from Suffolk, he's also from up my neck of the woods - I'm in Norwich - so it was particularly lovely to meet him and have a chat.
It was also amazing to meet Geraldine Cooke, who worked at Puffin and commissioned the original Fighting Fantasy series. Meeting someone who was there right at the beginning of the whole thing was pretty special.
We assumed that Sir Ian hadn't had enough selfies yet, so we had to grab our own.
What a fantastic event. Huge thanks to Jonathan Green and the whole team for putting it together, and to everyone who came over, chatted, bought a book, talked gamebooks, shared stories or just said hello.
We went home absolutely buzzed.
Cannot wait for the next one.
*Not even a joke. Not only are we two Jameses, but I met at least three more.
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