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Choice of Games is pleased to announce the release of Sons of the Cherry, by Alex Livingston, author of The Nightmare Maze. Play it on the web, or download the iPhone version or the Android version.

“Sons of the Cherry” is a game of espionage and arcane magic in the American Revolution. Choose a side or go it alone in the secret war for the soul of the new nation. Use multiple magic disciplines to reach your goals and change history.

Both “Sons of the Cherry” and “The Nightmare Maze” are part of Alex’s Waking Cassandra series, which now includes two multiple-choice games, a comic book, and a stage play. You may also recognize “Sons of the Cherry” as an entrant in the 2010 IFComp. (At that time, the game was available only on the web.) The new version of the game incorporates feedback from IFComp reviewers.

We hope you enjoy playing “Sons of the Cherry” and we encourage you to play it, tell your friends, and to recommend it on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our App Store ranking. Basically, the more times you download in the first week, the better “Sons of the Cherry” will rank.

Finally, a shameless plug: “Sons of the Cherry” is another game available as part of our hosted games plan. If you’d like to write a multiple-choice game of your own, give it a try! If you host our game with us, we’ll share a portion of the revenue that the game produces with you.

The Kindle Zombie Watch was upgraded to a Zombie Warning on Monday, following eyewitness reports of zombie sightings on the Kindle platform. Kindle users are advised to stay indoors and practice Zombiepocalypse Survival techniques with Choice of Zombies from Choice of Games.

• Choice of Zombies for Kindle Fire
• Choice of Zombies for E Ink Kindles
• Or, just search for “Choice of Zombies” on your Kindle.

The game is also (still) available on the iOS App Store and the Android Google Play Store.

Choice of Games, the company that has already given you valuable psychological insight into dragons and vampires, proudly unveils its Zombiepocalypse survival training simulation: Choice of Zombies, by Heather Albano and Richard Jackson. Download it from the iOS App Store, the Android Google Play Store, the Amazon Appstore for Android, the Amazon Kindle Store for E Ink Kindles, or play it on our website.

In Choice of Zombies, you play an ordinary person caught in a zombie apocalypse. Can you stay alive long enough to get your friends to a place of safety? Will you keep your humanity intact or become a bloodthirsty zombie hunter? And can you discover the secret behind the zombie virus?

We hope you enjoy playing Choice of Zombies, and we encourage you to tell your friends about it, wear your Zombiepocalypse t-shirt wherever you go, and recommend the game on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our App Store ranking. Basically, the more times you download in the first week, the better Choice of Zombies will rank.

UPDATE 4/23: Added link to Kindle Store

Mark your calendars! Choice of Zombies, our newest game from Heather Albano and Richard Jackson, will be released on Friday, April 13th. Download it this Friday from the iOS App Store, the Android Google Play Store, the Amazon Appstore for Android, or play it on our website.

If you’d like to be reminded when our game is available, subscribe to our blog on the right-hand side of this page, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. We’ll run one more blog post on Friday to post download links.

In the meantime, we’re running a Zombiepocalypse countdown on Twitter/Facebook/G+, featuring quotes from the game.

• Monday: “A cat food can is a pretty reasonable weapon, actually.”
• Tuesday: “The zombie’s hand comes off. With your new third hand, you wedge the accelerator down.”
• Wednesday: “The zombie baby starts to throw a little tantrum as it strains to bite you and fails.”
• Thursday: “You look into his soft gooey eyes. After you’ve eaten his eyes, you could eat his brains.”

There’s nothing quite like the high of galloping toward the end of a project, so I am particularly happy to report the “Choice of Zombies” finish line is in sight.

The first third of the game won IntroComp 2011 back in July (and have I mentioned that I am still floored by that? The Ego-Boost That Keeps On Boosting) and we’re pretty sure the rest of the game meets the expectations set by the beginning.

We’ve tried some new things with this one—Zombies is the most complex game ever made under the official “Choice of” brand, and it’s the first game my husband Richard Jackson and I have designed together. It’s Richard’s first foray into ChoiceScript, in fact—but almost certainly not his last. Welcome to the madness, love…

Zombies is also the first game to feature box art by the multi-talented Jason Wiser—art so awesome and so disturbing that it simply had to go on a t-shirt too. Because who doesn’t need a t-shirt depicting zombies bursting out of their ribcage? Right, exactly. Everyone needs this shirt. (There are actually three different, equally gorgeous and equally disturbing, versions of the sternum-exploding zombie, so you can choose the visual that best suits your torso.)

So: If you want a taste of the upcoming Zombiepocalypse, check out the IntroComp-winning beginning of the game here. To add a piece of art to your wardrobe, click there. And expect me back in two or three weeks telling you Zombies is live—er, so to speak—on all the usual platforms!

Choice of Games is pleased to announce the release of Apex Patrol and Zombie Exodus part 3!

“Apex Patrol” is our second title by Allen Gies, the same author who brought you Marine Raider. You can play Apex Patrol on the web, or download the iPhone version or the Android version.

In “Apex Patrol”, you command a star cruiser! Visit colonial worlds, rescue imperiled vessels, investigate stellar phenomena and prepare your ship to battle a ruthless foe. Only you and your crew can save Earth from utter destruction in this text-based adventure.

Zombie Exodus Part 3 allows you to continue the adventure you began in parts 1 and 2. Jim Dattilo has been hard at work on this expansion, and it the first two have been a big hit. Play it now on the web, or download the iPhone version or the Android version. If you’ve already downloaded the app, you just need to update it and then you’ll be able to purchase Part 3 from the main menu.

We hope you enjoy playing “Apex Patrol” and “Zombie Exodus” Part 3, and we encourage you to play them, tell your friends, and to recommend them on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our App Store ranking. Basically, the more times you download in the first week, the better “Apex Patrol” and “Zombie Exodus” will rank.

Finally, a shameless plug: these games are made available as part of our hosted games plan. If you’d like to write a multiple-choice game of your own, give it a try! If you host our game with us, we’ll share a portion of the revenue that the game produces with you.

On Friday, be prepared to download two Hosted Games: “Apex Patrol” by Allen Gies, and Part 3 of “Zombie Exodus” by Jim Dattilo!

Make sure to stay tuned for links to the apps in the app store. Remember, the more downloads in the first few days, the better the ranking for our authors. Show your support by downloading them this weekend!

Choice of Games is pleased to announce the release of Wizard’s Choice for iPhone and iPad, by Sam Landstrom. Sam has already published his successful series of Wizard’s Choice titles for Android, Windows Phone, and Kindle; we’re excited to partner with him to release the game for iOS for the first time.

Fortune and glory or death? Stay alive, manage your spell power, find treasure, and smite evil. Wizard’s Choice is a series of text-based adventures that will engross you in a storyline while allowing you to make the decisions that will determine your fate.

We hope you enjoy playing “Wizard’s Choice” and we encourage you to play it, tell your friends, and to recommend it on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our App Store ranking. Basically, the more times you download in the first week, the better “Wizard’s Choice” will rank.

Finally, a shameless plug: “Wizard’s Choice” is another game available as part of our hosted games plan. If you’d like to write a multiple-choice game of your own, give it a try! If you host our game with us, we’ll share a portion of the revenue that the game produces with you.

Yesterday, the 2011 XYZZY Award winners were announced. Zombie Exodus by Jim Dattilo was nominated in ten categories, including Best Game; it won only one award, a “Special Recognition” award, which was devised after voting started.

This happened because folks from the ChoiceScript community and/or fans of Zombie Exodus voted as a block. In the first round of voting, where voters nominated games out of a list of more than a hundred, a large number of people voted as a block for ChoiceScript games. In round two, the votes were split approximately 50/50: votes for Zombie Exodus, and votes for everyone else.

Without intervention, Zombie Exodus would have swept the awards, winning in every category for which it was nominated.

The XYZZY Awards are normally decided by a close knit community of interactive fiction enthusiasts; more than a hundred votes is a good turnout for XYZZY.

But this year, our votes completely overwhelmed the entire interactive fiction community. I think it’s fair to say that most of the voters for ChoiceScript games did not play any of the non-ChoiceScript games in the competition; they didn’t give the other games a fair shot. In discussions on intfiction.org, some folks were calling the voting block a “community invasion,” and I can’t entirely disagree.

(To be clear, XYZZY does not have a rule against blogging about the competition or campaigning for votes, but it’s normally “not done.” Ben Cressey on intfiction.org said, “I don’t have a problem with your [blog post on choiceofgames.com], but I do think it’s a shame that it was so effective.” In my opinion, that captures the tone of the discussion.)

In response to obviously lopsided voting patterns, and in conversation with Jim and Choice of Games, the organizers of the XYZZY competition chose to intervene, separating votes that went exclusively toward ChoiceScript games from all other votes.

We fully support their decision, although I think nobody’s really happy with the way things turned out.

On the one hand, we’re proud of Jim and the votes that Zombie Exodus earned; we rocked the vote.

On the other, we have nothing but the utmost respect for the winner of this year’s XYZZY Awards, Cryptozookeeper by Robb Sherwin. (It won Best Game, Best Writing, Best Setting, Best NPCs, and Best Individual NPC.) It was in the making for five years, and it shows: it comes on a DVD with a full album of background music and interstitial images. And it’s well written to boot! We’d like to offer a hearty congratulations to Robb for his accomplishments.

We’re in discussions with the XYZZY Award organizers to decide what to do for next year’s competition, to guarantee that the awards are fair to everyone involved.

For now, we should take this opportunity to celebrate the winners of the XYZZY Awards. There were some awesome games last year; now’s a great time to check them out!

The finalists in 2012′s XYZZY awards have been announced! 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).

Now it’s time to vote for the winners! Anyone can vote for the winner in every category, even those who did not vote in the previous round, but please play all four games before voting for Best Game. Voting ends March 2.

The nominees for Best Game are:

• Cryptozookeeper (Robb Sherwin)
• Mentula Macanus: Apocolocyntosis (Adam Thornton)
• Six (Wade Clarke)
• Zombie Exodus (Jim Dattilo)

Zombie Exodus is a finalist for Best Game, as well as Best Writing, Best Story, Best Setting, Best Puzzles, Best NPCs, Best Individual NPC, Best Individual PC, Best Implementation, and Best Use of Innovation.

Other ChoiceScript games also received nominations. The Race (by Andy Why) is a finalist for Best Puzzles and Best Individual Puzzle, and Marine Raider (by Allen Gies) is a finalist for Best Setting.

Choice of Games congratulates all of the nominees, and doubly congratulates the nominated ChoiceScript games!

Click here to vote for the winner in the XYZZY Awards. May the best games win!