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SAN FRANCISCO, June 1, 2011: Choice of Games, a quirky independent games company, has released their newest interactive novel, “Choice of the Vampire,” for Amazon Kindle. At more than 160,000 words, “Choice of the Vampire” is one of the longest works ever written in the “choose a path” style, allowing players to choose their gender, sexual orientation, ethnic background, and feeding habits. Play as a young vampire, from the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 through the end of the Civil War in 1866. You’ll meet (and possibly feed from) Andrew Jackson, Marie Laveau and Jefferson Davis along the way.

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We’re going to try something that (to the best of my knowledge) has never been done before: we’re going to try to play some interactive fiction in a combination online/offline event. Every Saturday at 11am Pacific, ClubFloyd meets online to play interactive fiction together in ifMUD. On Saturday, June 4th, the San Francisco Bay Area IF Group will meet in person (location TBD) in front of a big monitor and a streaming webcam; we’re going to try playing Choice of Broadsides on ClubFloyd, together with everyone playing online. Will it work? Will it be a catastrophe? Nobody knows. That’s why

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Writing a game in ChoiceScript is easy, but, like any work of fiction, finishing it can be hard. If you want to try your hand at writing just the first part of a game in ChoiceScript, consider submitting your game to IntroComp 2011, an annual interactive-fiction competition in which entrants submit only the first part of their games. Players vote for the winning game. The requirements of IntroComp are deceptively simple: All entrants must submit the beginning of a new, never before seen work of IF. This can be as short or as long as the author likes, so long

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What makes Choice of Broadsides fun is that it contains virtually every cliche in Georgian naval fiction…

By Allen Gies. Lead a platoon of elite Marine Raiders! Battle an intractable enemy during WW2! Choose your battle-plan, select your weapons and if need be fix your bayonets. You’ll wade ashore during a daring nighttime landing or plunge into frantic close-quarters fire-fights in this thrilling text-based game.

By Myth Thrazz. Use your incredible wits, fantastic skills and/or magnificent strength to choose your way out of a heavily guarded prison! Reveal the secrets of the dungeon, meet the mysterious co-prisoner and determine who’s responsible for your arrest. Grab your gear and prepare yourself for a hard fantasy quest.

By Christopher Salomon. In this retro-style multiple choice game, you take on the role(s!) of an adventurer in a fantasy world. Go from room to room in a dungeon like maze. Solve riddles and try to stay alive, reach the exit and pass the final exam of your apprenticeship. Can you become a “Master” of the three classes?

I was at the Game Developer Conference this week in San Francisco; on Monday, Michael Todd (@thegamedesigner) gave a short presentation about his personal battle with depression. It was the best presentation I’ve seen all year, and I’d like to use this space to blog my notes about it. EDIT: The video of Michael Todd’s presentation has been posted for free online. Depression is common among independent game developers. Working on a large creative project all by yourself is a huge emotional challenge. Indie game developers work notoriously long hours, often in isolation. You’re constantly facing the outer limits of

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PRESS RELEASE SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 22, 2010: Lovers of interactive fiction, rejoice! Choice of Games, a quirky independent games company, has just released their first two interactive fiction titles for Amazon Kindle. Both games are available now in the Amazon Kindle Store. In their first game, “Choice of the Dragon,” you play as a dragon who kidnaps princesses and sleeps on gold for fun. You’ll dominate the local kingdom, loot and pillage, and inspire terror in the hearts of your enemies. Their second game, “Choice of Broadsides,” is a swashbuckling naval adventure, in the spirit of C. S. Forester’s Hornblower

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The Independent Games Festival (IGF), the prestigious GDC-held video game industry event highlighting and awarding the talents of independent game developers, has announced the finalists and honorable mentions for the 2011 Nuovo Award, which honors “abstract, short-form, and unconventional game development.” Our swashbuckling naval adventure Choice of Broadsides earned an honorable mention from this year’s jury! Stay tuned for a big announcement about Dragon and Broadsides in the next day or so. 😉