Choice of Games » Dan Fabulich

Vote for Interactive Fiction in the XYZZY Awards

Dan Fabulich — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:21:26 +0000

The annual XYZZY Awards are here! The XYZZY Awards are given for the best works of interactive fiction released the previous year in a variety of categories (Best Writing, Best Puzzles, and so on). Anyone can vote in the XYZZY awards; in this round, all games released in 2011 are eligible to become finalists. In the next round of voting, starting in February, the winners will be selected from the most popular finalists in each category. This year, there are a number of fantastic ChoiceScript games on the list! (Here they are in alphabetical order.) Dead Already? Dilemma The Land

4 Common Mistakes in Interactive Novels

Dan Fabulich — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:05:18 +0000

Are you writing an interactive novel using ChoiceScript? Don’t make these common mistakes! Not Enough Delayed Branching In “By the Numbers: How to Write a Long Interactive Novel That Doesn’t Suck“, we draw a distinction between choices that branch the story immediately and choices that cause the story to branch in a later chapter. It’s impossible to write a story with lots of choices if all choices branch the story immediately; delayed branching solves that problem nicely. When authors try to write a linear story without delayed branching, the result is a game where the player makes minor choices that

In November, Write an Interactive Novel with ChoiceScript

Dan Fabulich — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:46:20 +0000

Have you ever wanted to write an interactive novel? November is National Novel Writing Month or “NaNoWriMo” for short. This year, thousands of authors will write 50,000 words of fiction between November 1st and November 30th. Of course, most NaNoWriMo authors will write traditional linear novels this year, but we’d like to invite you use ChoiceScript to write an interactive NaNoWriMo novel. ChoiceScript is a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice games (MCGs) like ours. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience. When you’re finished, you can even submit your finished ChoiceScript

Announcing the publication of Heather Albano’s e-book Timepiece

Dan Fabulich — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:09:08 +0000

Choice of Games writer Heather Albano has branched out into non-interactive fiction! Her first novel, Timepiece, is available for download at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and will shortly be available on a variety of other platforms and formats. Timepiece is a steampunk time-travel adventure – the story of girl, a pocket watch, Frankenstein’s monster, the Battle of Waterloo, and giant clockwork robots taking over London. (No, really.) If you like Heather’s games, you’ll love her book… come on over and check it out!

7 Rules for Designing Great Stats

Dan Fabulich — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:19:18 +0000

As we discussed in an earlier article, if you want to write a long interactive novel that doesn’t suck, you’ll need to make to make heavy use of numeric scores or “stats.” Indeed, if you merge branches aggressively as we recommend, the entire game will be about the stats; every decision will update the stats and test earlier stats to make earlier decisions meaningful. In this article, we discuss a few techniques for designing great stats. Rule 1: Don’t Just Use Skills New authors frequently make their stats nothing more than a list of skills that the player (the hero)

By the Numbers: How to Write a Long Interactive Novel That Doesn’t Suck

Dan Fabulich — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:18:54 +0000

Traditional gamebooks tend to be pretty short. The average story in a 110-page Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) book is only six pages long. It’s not hard to see why. If each page of a CYOA book allows the reader to choose between just two options, a seven-page story requires 128 pages of text. If you want eight pages, the author has to deliver twice as much text, 256 pages. And if you want to write a twenty-page short story, you need a book more than a million pages long. You’d never finish writing a “short story” of that magnitude!

Congratulations to IntroComp Winners!

Dan Fabulich — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:56:20 +0000

The IntroComp 2011 winners have been announced. There were thirteen entries this year, all introductions to games not yet finished. Five entries were in ChoiceScript, including two of the top three entries! 1st Place: Choice of Zombies by Heather Albano 2nd Place: Speculative Fiction by Dianne Christoforo and Thomas Mack 3rd Place: Choice of the Petal Throne by Danielle Goudeau Everyone who entered has the chance to win a prize in the Honorable category; the first non-placing entry to complete their game will receive the $25 Honorable prize. Congratulations to the winners and everyone who entered!

Save 50% on Our Kindle Games until July 24th

Dan Fabulich — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:40:08 +0000

Amazon is running a sale on its interactive fiction titles for Kindle, ending July 24th. You can get all of our games (including our newest title, Affairs of the Court, which includes “Choice of Romance” and “Choice of Intrigues“) for 50% off. Share and Enjoy!

“Choice of Intrigues” and “Affairs of the Court” Continue the Romance and Adventure

Dan Fabulich — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:28:29 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, 2011: Have you ever wished to be the heroine of a romance novel? Think you could have run Anne Boleyn’s life better than she did? Want to walk a mile in Princess Kate’s gorgeous shoes? Now you can. Choice of Games, a quirky independent games company, has released their newest interactive novel, “Choice of Intrigues“—giving you the chance to star in your very own royal romance. “Choice of Intrigues” is a sequel to last year’s popular “Choice of Romance,” and is available as an In-App Purchase on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Choice of Games is

Vote in IntroComp

Dan Fabulich — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:44:33 +0000

Back in May we posted a link to IntroComp, an annual interactive-fiction competition in which entrants submit only the first part of their games. Players vote for the winning game. The introductions are now available and can be found here in a single zipped file: http://www.allthingsjacq.com/IntroComp11 There are 5 games in ChoiceScript this year; it’s easier to play them online than in the zip file, so I linked to their websites below. There are thirteen entries this year. They are as follows: Bender, by Katz Choice of the Petal Throne, by Danielle Goudeau Choice of Zombies, by Heather Albano Chunky