The workshop for gamebooks
Write your own gamebook. In the end you hold it in your hands, printed.
You invent the world, write the sections and decide where every choice leads. Spielbuchschmiede checks that every path works, lets you playtest your book and builds the print files for Amazon KDP.
The editor, the check and the playtest are free. You only buy the book licence for the finished book.
What makes a gamebook
The reader decides. You make sure every path works.
Nobody reads a gamebook from front to back. At the end of every section the reader chooses what happens next and turns to the number given. Sometimes a skill check decides, sometimes a fight, sometimes an item found three sections earlier.
This makes gamebooks so appealing and so hard to write. One wrong reference and the reader ends up nowhere. Spielbuchschmiede keeps an eye on these connections for you.
The bridge over the gorge is old. Two planks are missing, and far below the river roars. Behind you the bailiff's dogs are barking, and they are coming closer.
If you dare to cross the bridge, continue at 243.
If you hide in the bushes on the slope, make a stealth check, target 8. Success: continue at 58. Failure: continue at 301.
From the idea to the printed book
How your gamebook is made
Four steps, all in one place. The screenshots show Spielbuchschmiede as you see it after logging in.
Set up the world
Every book belongs to a series. There you record what it is about, where the story is set and how the texts should sound. You enter characters, places and groups in the series bible. They apply to every volume.
In the rule set you define what the game is played with: health, strength, stealth or entirely your own stats, plus weapons, items, scars and levels.
More about series and rule set
The basics of a series. Genre, tone and narrative perspective apply to all volumes. Write and connect sections
In the editor you see your volume as a map. Every box is a section, every line is a choice. You write the text, draw a line to the next section and decide what happens there: a skill check, a fight, an item, an ending.
You give every section a title that is only for you. Spielbuchschmiede sets the numbers and references in the book itself.
More about sections and choices
The editor with the map of a volume. -
Check and playtest
Before a book goes to print, Spielbuchschmiede checks every path and plays the volume through 2,000 times. After that you play it yourself. You can read more about it right below.
Build the print package
When your volume is finished, you choose the format and the paper. Spielbuchschmiede typesets interior and cover as PDF files, checks both against the print rules of Amazon KDP and packs them into a package together with the check report.
You upload the files with your own KDP account. There you have your gamebook printed and publish it.
More about the print package
The print package after a passed check.
What makes Spielbuchschmiede special
So that no reader gets lost in your book
A section nobody can reach. A reference to a number that does not exist. A key the door requires but that cannot be found anywhere. Such mistakes are hardly noticed while writing and immediately noticed while reading. The check finds them with one click.
- Sections nobody can reach from the start
- Dead ends without an exit and without an ending
- Choices that lead nowhere
- Items and states that are required but never given
- Fights without an opponent or without a section for victory and defeat
2,000 readers before the first real reader arrives
Spielbuchschmiede plays your volume through 2,000 times with random choices. Afterwards you know how many runs end well, badly or fatally and how often a reader reaches the good ending. If the value is very low, your book is probably too hard.
For every fight it calculates how often it can be won with a particular weapon. If an opponent is too strong, it weakens it if you want.
Then you play yourself
In the playtest you read your volume the way your reader will experience it: with choices, skill checks and fights, with health, weapon and level. Spielbuchschmiede draws the random numbers. Your volume does not change while you play.
With Play together you invite friends to play with you, even without an account of their own. This way you learn early where they get stuck.
The check and the playtest are free, as often as you like.
For your readers
A book made of paper, a phone as a companion
Your book needs no dice. Skill checks and fights are decided by a random number from 0 to 9, and the random number table is at the back of the book. The reader closes their eyes, taps the table with a pencil and reads off the digit.
Readers who prefer a phone scan the QR code in the book. There they keep the stats of their character, draw random numbers and read messages you have placed in individual sections. They need no account.
At the end of a volume your reader gets a character code. With it they start the next volume with the same character.
The AI in Spielbuchschmiede
The AI helps if you want it to. The book stays yours.
You can write every word yourself. If you want, the AI suggests a series with characters and places, plans a volume, drafts sections, reads the whole volume for contradictions in an editing pass or draws black and white illustrations and a cover.
Everything the AI delivers is a suggestion. You read it, change it and decide what goes into the book. Every AI function shows its maximum price on the button before you click. If it fails, you pay nothing.
Pricing
Write for free. Pay when the book is finished.
The editor, the check, the playtest and the preview with a watermark are free for as long as you like. For the print-ready files of a volume you buy a book licence once for €29.00. It includes 400 credits for the AI. There is no subscription.
If you need more credits, you buy a pack, from €5.99 for 100 credits.
See all pricesExample: a volume with full AI help
| Have a volume with 60 sections planned | 12 |
|---|---|
| Have texts drafted for all 60 sections | 60 |
| One pass of AI editing | 5 |
| 20 illustrations for the interior | 40 |
| One picture for the cover | 3 |
| One location map | 2 |
| Total, at most | 122 credits |
This fits into the 400 credits of the book licence. If you write yourself, you need even fewer.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to use the AI?
No. You can write every word yourself and bring every picture yourself. The editor, the check, the playtest and the print package work without AI. The AI functions are an offer, not a requirement.
What does a finished book cost me?
For the print-ready files of a volume you buy a book licence once. It includes credits for the AI functions. There is no subscription. Everything you do beforehand, that is writing, checking, playtesting and viewing the preview, is free.
Amazon KDP bills you directly for the printing costs.
Can I sell my book on Amazon?
Spielbuchschmiede builds the interior and the cover the way KDP requires and checks them against the print rules beforehand. You do the upload and the publication with your own KDP account. If your book contains AI pictures or AI texts, mark them there as AI-generated.
Which formats can I print?
Eight formats between 5 × 8 and 8.5 × 11 inches, with 6 × 9 inches as the default. That is about 15.2 by 22.9 centimetres. For the paper you choose between white or cream paper in black and white and white paper in colour.
Do my readers need a phone?
No. The printed book is fully playable without a phone. For random numbers there is a random number table at the back of the book. If they like, readers scan the QR code in the book and keep the stats of their character on the phone, without an account and without logging in.
Can two of us write a book together?
Yes. You invite others to your series by email, as co-author or as editor. A co-author writes along, an editor reads, plays and comments without changing anything. You decide yourself how many credits a co-author may spend on the AI.
Can I write a series with several volumes?
Yes. A series can have several volumes that share the series bible and the rule set. At the end of a volume your reader gets a character code and uses it to start the next volume with the same character.
You will find more answers in the help, for example under Your first book in ten minutes.
Every gamebook begins with section 1.
Create a series, write the first sentences and see where the story takes you. Writing, checking and playtesting are free.