I, mistakenly, thought I was creating something that did not exist and thus had to figure out, from scratch, how to add game mechanics on top of the CYOA formula. It wasn't until after I had finished the first draft of my game that I discovered the gamebook genre and could compare notes.
An interview with Joseph Fry, author of Lost in the City, a modern day gamebook, in setting and execution. Latest in series of gamebook interviews.
Disclosure - I'm a DriveThru RPG affiliate.
Chat with Joseph Fry of Lost in the City
Joseph Fry is the author and illustrator of Lost in the City. It's a modern (June 2025) gamebook set in a modern city. Available at Amazon or on DriveThruRPG.
We have how Lost in the City happened, coin-flipping, modern city appeal, writing ups and downs and the next books. Among other questions.
What was your gaming story before writing Lost in the City?
First of all, thank you for the interview!
My gaming story began in the early 2000s. I think the first videogame I ever played was Pac Man World for the original PlayStation.
However, the game franchise that really stole my heart was Bungie's Halo. The first 3 are among my favorite games of all time, and ODST, in particular, became a huge inspiration for Lost in the City's atmosphere.
Another notable franchise that inspired a lot of my design choices for Lost in the City is Pokémon. I grew up playing the DS era games and was immediately enamored with the exploration of its densely-packed routes, regions, and cities.
From these games, I learned that you could make a small area feel massive through clever design. Around this same time, I discovered CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) books in my school library which introduced me to interactive fiction in book form. I think Halo and Pokémon, plus those CYOA books, laid the groundwork for what would become Lost in the City.
How did Lost in the City come to be?
Lost in the City was born from a drawing I had finished several years prior.
I've always enjoyed the thought of getting lost in a big city and slowly exploring its businesses and getting to know its people, and so that concept made its way into my art. I used to pull that drawing out every now and then and just stare down its street and into its several open doorways and wonder what could possibly be found out of view.
Something about this inspired me to start experimenting with interactivity. I thought back to those CYOA books I had read in elementary school and decided to do the same with my drawing.
The original goal of the game was to make some money to take a train back home. It would be a peaceful, simple puzzle. However, this lacked drama, so I added enemies trying to stop you, and from there, the story and world began to take form.
Did the art for the book come before the writing?
Technically, yes.
The art used on page 1 is the same drawing I mentioned in my previous answer. However, the rest of the art in Lost in the City came after the project began.
I had originally planned to illustrate all 140 planned pages, but one, that would have been far too time consuming for me at the time and two, as my game grew in complexity, I needed to divide pages into multiple sections to keep the page count reasonable (and KDP [Kindle Direct Publishing] production costs down).
What made you choose coin-flipping as the mechanic for Lost in the City?
I chose coin-flipping over dice because I figured some players might not have dice at hand and that practically everyone has a coin accessible.
When I used to make board games as a kid, I could never find dice around the house when I needed them, so I chose the coin flip for those who were like me and lost all of their dice
What are your favourite gamebooks?
This is going to sound sacrilegious, but I haven't really played enough gamebooks to have a favorite yet!
I am currently playing Steve Jackson's Sorcery Book 2: Khare – Cityport of Traps and really enjoying its simple rules and dangerous city location.
I do, however, have a massive list of gamebooks to play thanks to the awesome community on r/gamebooks and I am hoping to discover my favorite while participating in your upcoming 100 Endings Book Club!
What was the appeal of using a modern-era setting over fantasy or sci-fi
My original idea for this project was to create a slightly-interactive, randomly generated city that would change every time the player played it.
I have traveled to a few major cities in my lifetime including Tokyo, New York City, San Francisco, and London and I've always wanted to be able to repeat that experience, even in the comfort of my own home.
With this idea guiding the initial stages of the project, most of what happens in the book is grounded in the present (outside of the sprinkling of sci-fi weapons and machines) even if the project moved away from that original concept.
What have been the challenges and highlights of creating Lost in the City?
The most notable challenges for me were finishing the illustrations, settling on the the game's final design language, and designing a gamebook without knowing gamebooks existed outside of CYOA.
I, mistakenly, thought I was creating something that did not exist and thus had to figure out, from scratch, how to add game mechanics on top of the CYOA formula. It wasn't until after I had finished the first draft of my game that I discovered the gamebook genre and could compare notes.
Regarding highlights, there are so many! I think the biggest one being that the process of making Lost in the City was very much an exploration, itself. Getting to know the city's streets, the world, and the people in it was an addicting romp. The project was design through exploration and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Another highlight was when I finally replaced all of the placeholder sketches in my files with my final artwork and first got a taste of what my book was going to actually look like.
A third highlight was when, nearing the end of my project, I decided to add 20 more pages to my book (I had originally capped Lost in the City at 140 pages), thus allowing for 38 more sections. The floodgates had opened! I was able to squeeze in a bunch of extra ideas (like paragliding), a whole new district, secret messages, and some other cool extras.
What are your next big projects that you can talk about?
I am in the rough, chaotic beginning stages of writing Book 2 of Lost in the City.
I have many, many ideas that couldn't make it into the first book and am hoping to get most of them in this one. I am working on improving pretty much every gameplay system from Book 1, and working hard to make it a larger, more story-focused gamebook.
I am also working on a very different gamebook project on the side: a monster battler RPG similar to Pokémon complete with overworld graphics and sprites inspired by Gameboy Color games. This one is a long way off, but I'm happy with the form it is taking so far.
Where can people find you online?
They can find me on Reddit in r/gamebooks.
It's my favorite online community at the moment so I'm pretty active there. My username is u/josephfry4. Feel free to message me there if you want to chat about Lost in the City!
Is there anything else you would like to talk about?
I think your questions covered just about everything. Really, I think all I would like to add is that, for everyone who has played Lost in the City, thank you so much for giving it a shot.
It's still so surreal to me that my little passion project is out there in the world and in people's hands. I hope you are all enjoying it. Please feel free to send me any feedback, be it negative or positive, so that I can write an even better one next time
Finishing Up
If you haven't tried Lost in the City, give it a read.
There are Gamebook and Solo RPG articles on Rand Roll. Plus a Rand Roll Discord where we discuss the 100 Endings Book Club of the month. I also have a monthly random tools Newsletter.
