Monday, February 21, 2011

Unseen Sketches from Heart of Ice!

Kyle Boche
By Russ Nicholson

Over on his blog The Gallery, Russ Nicholson has posted up a series of character roughs for Dave Morris' Heart of Ice gamebook. Here we get to see working sketches on some of the memorable personalities of the future Frozen Age, including:
  • Chaim Golgoth, the USI assassin.
  • Kyle Boche, future rogue extraordinaire.
  • Baron Siriasis, Lord of Bezant.
  • One of the Gargan sisters clone-group.
  • Vajra Singh and his mantrumuktas cannon.
  • Plus schematic diagrams for hover droids
  • And the automaton Gilgamesh.
Awesome stuff!
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10 comments:

  1. Stuart LloydFebruary 21, 2011 at 8:50 AM

    Thanks for bringing my attention to this Andy - I've just read Heart of Ice and I enjoyed it immensely. I love the interaction at the end between all of the 'competitors' for the heart.

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  2. fantasygamebookFebruary 22, 2011 at 7:15 AM

    Glad you enjoyed it - it's a great book! The end skirmish is a bit of a classic to be sure. Who did you end up siding with?

    cheers

    Andy

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  3. Russ NicholsonFebruary 22, 2011 at 2:46 PM

    Thanks for the blog link, the comments and also for naming all the characters. Sure Dave will be pleased as well.

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  4. asdasdsdFebruary 22, 2011 at 4:27 PM

    My memories of the book are hazy, Andrew; was Gilgamesh the automaton one of the characters that was trying to find the Heart? Great illo of him btw.

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  5. fantasygamebookFebruary 23, 2011 at 6:22 AM

    Russ: No problem - it's always a pleasure seeing previously unseen artwork from you, whether it be concept sketches or finished pieces!

    Hamza: Gilgamesh was a prototype combat robot you could pick up (I'm not saying where!) to accompany you in your quest for the Heart. BTW if you memories are hazy feel free to click on the Heart of Ice link at the top of this post and download the free eBook version (and endorsed by Dave himself)!

    cheers

    Andy

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  6. Stuart LloydFebruary 25, 2011 at 2:59 PM

    HEART OF ICE SPOILERS!

    I ended up siding with the USI agent as I figured that no one could take him. Of course, none of the endings are purely satisfying, but I guessed I'd rather die in order to make one fewer threat to the universe. Of course, there's no guarantee that humanity will be saved or in fact there's no clear way of knowing that destroying the heart will actually save the world because maybe the explosion will destroy the area you are in, the World or the universe. No gamebook I've read has the guts to have no ending that is completely happy.

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  7. asdasdsdFebruary 25, 2011 at 7:22 PM

    Slloyd14: The "successful ending" of Way of the Tiger #6, Inferno! has the protagonist being swallowed by the Worldworm and trapped in the web of the Black Widow. That's not just the ending to the book, but to the entire series as well!

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  8. fantasygamebookFebruary 25, 2011 at 10:20 PM

    @Stuart: I prefer the ending where you reject the chance for power and instead try to fix the world. It's quite difficult to reach though, from memory.

    @Hamza: Inferno! is great! I think there was actually supposed to be a seventh book, but for some reason or another it never happened.

    cheers

    Andy

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  9. Stuart LloydFebruary 26, 2011 at 4:32 AM

    @Andy: The good thing about having multiple 'best' endings is that you work out what you would prefer for yourself. I wouldn't liek the idea that the heart is still down there if I did that. These multiple endings are a good source of discussion and make the book more interesting than gamebooks with one good ending.

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  10. fantasygamebookFebruary 27, 2011 at 7:14 AM

    True! I think I said somewhere on Dave Morris' blog that if you did Heart of Ice as a film, it may work best with two different character endings - one [doomed] character chooses to become an undying guardian with the stasis bomb and Vajra Singh's mantramuktas cannon, while the other, sickened by the waste of skill and talent, rejects the chance for power and decides to help rebuild the planet instead...

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