Making Gamebooks

Gamebooks, or choose your own adventure books, are a great way to develop your creativity and writing skills. Best of all, they are fun to read and share with others. Today we are going to learn how to make handwritten gamebooks, in a later post, I will explain how to turn your handwritten gamebook into an actual game for your computer or smartphone.



First of all, what is a gamebook? A gamebook is any book or story that has interactive elements that allow the reader to make choices that change the outcome in the story. For instance, in a maze gamebook choosing to go east might lead to the character being eaten alive by a monster, while going west might eventually lead the character out of the maze. At a different point in the game, the character might have to decide between fighting a monster or running away, or they may have to choose between saying something polite or saying something rude to another character in the story.  Each decision has a page number after it, and so the reader makes their decision by turning to the page to read the outcome of their decision.

You can download a PDF of the gamebook worksheets here or save the images below.

For your first mini gamebook, 12 small pages is ideal. This will help you learn how a gamebook works. Afterwards you can make longer gamebooks with bigger pages.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to write a comment below. I will add more pages later on how you can turn your gamebook into a computer game or app.

Finally, here is a classroom poster for any teachers looking to encourage their students:

Game Creation:
Click here to learn to make a 3D game with free software.