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Unlock the secrets of the galaxy in the epic conclusion to the VERSUS Trilogy! Take your place among the gods with the superpowers you’ve stolen from them. VERSUS: The Deathscapes is a thrilling 200,000-word interactive novel by Zachary Sergi, author of our best-selling Heroes Rise series. I sat down with Zachary to talk about the final installment of Versus. VERSUS: The Deathscapes releases this Thursday, May 27th. 

This game is such a huge culmination. No spoilers, but tell me a little about that.

Well, when I finished the original Heroes Rise Trilogy in 2014, I knew I wanted to dive into the world(s) of Versus next (having developed the idea in my teen years with my action figures in my bedroom, much like Heroes Rise). I had the competition/setting concept for Versus fully developed in my head, but I didn’t yet know what the main character journey should be through this rich setting. Funnily enough, the first idea that came to me was this big, bold ending–then I quite literally reverse engineered everything in The Versus Trilogy and The Hero Project Duology from this grand ending idea. So this culmination feels very full circle to me, like the end actually meeting the beginning from so many years ago. And I promise, all the mysteries we’ve been exploring will be solved here! Now, which mysteries are solved on which read-through will be up to the readers, of course…

What surprised you most about writing The Deathscapes?

Without a doubt, the sheer scope of executing what I set out to do. This is my 8th novel for Choice of Games, so you’d think I’d have it down by now, but Versus: The Deathscapes has been by far the most difficult to write technically, emotionally, and interactively. Not to mention I originally conceived of Versus as being 4 books, so The Deathscapes has 2 books worth of ground to cover in one. This plot demand operated alongside managing a cast of 24 characters with intricate interactive histories (each of them coming from nearly as many planets with unique cultures/histories), and still experiencing our now-expected mind-bending MemoryTravel interludes–and all while driving to the ending I intended.

However, more surprising than these technical challenges was the emotional pressure I felt while writing. Not only to stick this landing that had been shining in my mind like a lighthouse the past 7 years, but also to deliver a satisfying conclusion to all our incredibly invested and loyal readers, who waited for this gamebook for years!

What do you hope your readers get out of it?

First and foremost, with any of my work, I hope the reader gets an escape and gets entertained–I want you all to have some fun. Beyond that, if a novel teaches the reader something about themselves or encourages them to think about something new, it’s such a bonus. Specifically for The Deathscapes, I just hope to provide some unexpected twists, lots of closure, and as the enormous Versus door swings closed, hopefully crack open a window for what comes next in the other far corners of the Sergiverse (a term one of you readers coined on Twitter that has mercifully stuck 🙂

Is it hard to say goodbye to the Versus story?

Versus feels like such a rich setting, I have a feeling it’ll be revisited someday, in some unexpected way. As for these specific characters in this iteration of Versus, it has absolutely been hard to say goodbye. That said, this one was really—REALLY—challenging to write, so I’m relieved it’s off my desk for the sheer relief of pressure! Though I have to say, without any spoilers, that every ending is a beginning (and vice versa). While The Versus Trilogy is absolutely ending, the series has been a portal creatively, personally and professionally. I just hope everyone enjoys warping through it as much as I have…and that we find each other in a new era, once one the other side.

I should also say, I designed the Trilogy quite purposefully to highlight different sets of characters in each gamebook (as readers experienced in the Ord camps of The Lost Ones and the castle revelry in The Elite Trials). There are plenty of familiar faces, but the focus in The Deathscapes is on some characters we haven’t gotten to know quite yet–and all the mysteries they in turn unlock.

If you had a favorite moment in the trilogy, what would that be?

That’s nearly impossible to answer, but if I had to choose, the world-creating MemoryTravel sequences in Versus: The Elite Trials springs to mind. I remember when I set out to write this two-part sequence, I was doing it purely for myself. It took nearly a month of full time work just to write those two sequences, and I was convinced it would annoy/bore every reader who experienced it. As it turns out, this has become a fan-favorite, much to my surprise–and the cornerstone of The Elite Trials in general, which felt like it cemented my own specific style of interactive fiction (plot twists meets world building meets personality profiles, oh my)!

There is a similar (but very different) set of sequences in The Deathscapes MemoryTravel experiences. My favorite has to do with a circular exploration of spiritual pillars–this one is deeply meaningful to me. In the future, I plan to keep this looped sequence loaded on my own app, to open and re-read when I need to re-center myself.

What else are you working on?

I suppose it’s worth noting that I have a debut print interactive hardcover novel publishing this September from Running Press Teens, MAJOR DETOURS, so I’m really excited to birth that into the world (and you can preorder it wherever books are sold now)! Beyond this, I am working on the interactive epic that comes next in the Sergiverse, for those more inclined to follow a more…Destructive path. But I can’t say any more about that right now!

If you’ve enjoyed Vampire: The Masquerade—Night Road you’ll be thrilled to know that all of Kyle Marquis games are up to 40% off this week on all platforms!

We’re also announcing a new Steam bundle: Every Game by Kyle Marquis! This bundle will be a “complete the set” bundle, meaning if you have any of his games in your Steam library you can buy the rest of them for a 15% discount!

AND, this bundle is also subject to this week’s sale on Kyle Marquis games, so if you get the Steam bundle, this week, this is as low a price as you’ll ever see on Empyrean, Sky Pirates of Actorius, Silverworld, Tower Behind the Moon, Pon Para and the Great Southern Labyrinth, and Vampire: The Masquerade—Night Road.

Empyrean—33% Off!

Far below the city of Actorius lies the mysterious world of the Deep Tech—creatures and plants both living and mechanical, and powered by unknown forces. Your father harvests the tech to create experimental airships, and the Revolution that fights his every move races to do the same. Your father’s aero, the Empyrean, is governed by Deep Tech dynamics not even he understands.

Sky Pirates of Actorius—40% Off!

Set in the world of Empyrean, you must infiltrate a pirate airship and foil the captain’s plans! Can you survive the greedy crew and ruthless officers and disrupt their schemes in time? You’ll hunt merchant vessels, and seek lost treasure while undercover as a sky pirate! 

Silverworld—30% Off!

In a world of trackless jungles, colossal beasts, and cruel pre-human civilizations, you must survive the past if you want to save the future! You were only meant to guard the laboratory, but when a treacherous power cripples Doctor Sabbatine’s time machine, you’re left stranded! Face the savage inhabitants of Silverworld and build your own civilization—or plunder the past and return home unimaginably rich!

Tower Behind the Moon—30% Off!

You are the greatest magician in the Sublunar World. It is not enough. As a rare Conjunction approaches, immortality is within reach. But the gods have noticed you trying to unlock the doors of heaven. Some demand you ascend–or else–while others plot your destruction. There are only two paths for you now, archmage: immortality or annihilation.

Pon Para and the Great Southern Labyrinth—30% Off!

Chosen by the gods, you must battle savage monsters, corrupt priests, and mad philosophers to save reality from the dark god of destruction! You have been raised far from the intrigues and corruption of the great cities–and from the plots of the gods. But after twenty years of peace, the pirate king Lord Vankred has found Raun. Under the threat of war, the gods grant you their powers. You must find the mad King Hyras and defeat Vankred before he can assassinate the King and shatter the Three Nations.

Vampire: The Masquerade—Night Road—20% Off!

It’s a new Dark Age for the dead. When the Second Inquisition’s vampire hunters hacked phone lines and computer networks to expose and destroy vampires all over the world, the elders turned to undead couriers like you. For ten years, you’ve raced across the desert between cities, delivering vital information and supplies. But when an old friend reappears with a plan to disrupt the blood trade across the American Southwest, everything you’ve built starts crashing down.

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

Welcome to ​Lux, City of Secrets,​ the third book in​ The Evertree Saga!​

It’s time to make a name for yourself in the city of Lux. In this first half of a two-part epic, you will discover a vibrant and dynamic metropolis full of mysteries. Meet and mingle with characters old and new, uncover clues and solve cases, wield weapons and magic, and rise to the top before the city drags you under!

It’s 30% off until May 13th!

Lux, City of Secrets​ is a 438,000 word immersive interactive experience by Thom Baylay. It’s entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast unstoppable power of your imagination.

The mayor of Lux believes someone is trying to kill him, and he has chosen you to save his life. But protecting the Luxican aristocracy is not your only priority. Will you be able to balance the responsibilities of life in the big city or will you be swallowed up by an unforgiving urban jungle? Will you prioritize your friends, your reputation, your career? In an open world where, more than ever, the choices you ignore matter as much as the ones you explore, you will need to choose carefully if you are to survive.

Reunite with old friends and enemies, continue to build the relationships you started in​ Evertree Inn​ and​ Sordwin​, or abandon it all in pursuit of something new. It’s time to find out if you have what it takes to uncover the mysteries of ​Lux, City of Secrets!​

• • Play as male, female or non-binary.
  • Play as gay, straight, bisexual or asexual.
  • Continue a story started in Evertree Inn/Sordwin or play as a brand new adventurer.
  • Explore the city of Lux over several days: pursue a career, investigate chilling mysteries, or head out into the local wilds in search of adventure.
  • Customize your character’s experience, including five different houses and twenty different professions, each with their own stories to be discovered.
  • Build a reputation among the clergy, the Watch and the aristocracy; become a champion of the poor or pursue a life of crime.
  • Stick to a plan, or be constantly side-tracked by a myriad of mysteries. More than ever, the choices you ignore matter as much as the ones you explore!
  • Meet a cast of vibrant new characters, and reunite with acquaintances from past adventures.
  • Develop a romance from Evertree and Sordwin or seek new experiences in the Luxican taverns.

When everyone has a secret, can you uncover the truth?

Lux, City of Secrets​ is the first half of a two part adventure which will be concluded in ​Lux, City of Lies.​

Thom Baylay developed this game using ChoiceScript, a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice interactive novels like these. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience. Write your own game and Hosted Games will publish it for you, giving you a share of the revenue your game produces.

This pandemic sucks, so here are some more free games. With love from Choice of Games, please stay safe and enjoy!

This week, we’re adding To the City of the Clouds, Thieves’ Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat, The Daring Mermaid Expedition, and T-Rex Time Machine  to that list: these games are now free to win in the Choice of Games omnibus app for iOS and Android, and free on our website.

We know this is a difficult time for us all. Remember that we have a library of over 130 games in our convenient Choice of Games omnibus apps on iOS and Android, which now include over 20 games that are free to win, supported by ads. (That means you can play the whole game, for free, or support our authors by paying to turn off ads and delay breaks.) So in addition to the games in today’s announcement, make sure you check out all our free Choice of Games titles:

• Choice of the Dragon
• Choice of the Vampire
• Creatures Such As We
• Choice of Broadsides
• Choice of Broadsides: HMS Foraker
• Choice of the Deathless
• Choice of the Petal Throne
• Choice of Kung Fu
• Choice of the Star Captain
• For Rent: Haunted House
• The Fleet
• Sky Pirates of Actorius
• Zip! Speedster of Valiant City
• Heroes Rise: the Prodigy
• Hollywood Visionary
• Showdown at Willow Creek
• NOLA is Burning
• Reckless Space Pirates
• Yeti’s Parole Officer
• Ratings War

Hosted Games has two new games for you to play!

The Mage’s Adventures by Samuel Young

Your party of intrepid adventurers is no stranger to taking on missions that the village guard simply isn’t equipped to. So it’s no surprise that when a demon attacks a nearby farmer, you and your group of arcanists, fencers, healers, and archers are tasked with killing her.

But when a rival adventuring party gets in the way, and the demon proves more powerful than any of you had thought, things get even more complicated. What’s more, you soon discover that this demon wants to take you as her human vessel. Will you defeat her before she takes control of your soul?

The Mage’s Adventures is a thrilling 115,000 word interactive fantasy novel by Samuel Young, where your choices control the story. The tale is a companion novel to The Magician’s Burden, set in an alternate time-line. It’s text-based, with occasional vivid illustrations, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Oh, and there’s a sixth and secret member of your party as well: the demon living in your head.

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; romance males, females, both, or no one at all.
• Romance a cold, aloof arcanist; a competitive, outgoing fencer; a shy, sweet healer; or a fun-loving, charismatic archer.
• Wield fantastic spells: turn invisible, throw fireballs, heal wounds, and much more.
• Make a deal with your demon and use his powerful magic, or resist the temptation altogether.

The demon in your head says this is a bad idea. He’s not wrong.

War of 2022 by YHGS

Join the special forces and fight in dynamic battles directly influenced by your previous choices in this modern military war novel!

Go through training and serve in the most prestigious unit of the Regovian army! Will you remain loyal to your country?

War of 2022 is a 116,000-word interactive, military novel by YHGS, a military veteran. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

• Play as Male or Female
• Serve in one of the three units which make up the Wardens- The Scouts, Sappers or Crows.
• Fight as a Fireteam leader, Medic, Marksman, Light Machine Gunner or Heavy Machine Gunner.
• Fight in dynamic battles directly influenced by your previous choices.
• Devote yourself to the Republic or turn your back on its lies.

Are you willing to go the distance?

Samuel and YHGS developed their games using ChoiceScript, a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice interactive novels like these. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience. Write your own game and Hosted Games will publish it for you, giving you a share of the revenue your game produces.

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

Between the monster attacks and the magic theory essays, your sophomore year at Magi Academy is shaping up to be a killer.

It’s 33% off until April 8th!

Keeper of the Day and Night is a 390,000 word interactive urban fantasy novel and sequel to Keeper of the Sun and Moon by Brynn Chernosky, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

A newly declared keeper, you realize life hasn’t changed much when you’re attacked by werewolves over the summer. With the aftermath of a demon attack to deal with, the kidnapping of a girl who isn’t supposed to exist, and more magic theory homework than ever, your sophomore year at Magi Academy is shaping up to be a killer. Hopefully not literally.

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, or asexual.
• Romance or befriend one of ten love interests, from a cheerful clairvoyant to a snarky telepath, each with a unique subplot.
• Learn to control your powers as one of seven unique species, from human to nephilim, while raising a hellhound puppy, phantom kitten, or dragon hatchling.
• Choose one of six majors, from Magic Theory to Magic Technology Engineering.
• Embrace your celebrity status as a keeper, or swear off press conferences forever.
• Support one of the factions working to take control of New Magi City, or forge your own path.
• Discover the secrets of your past, and become involved in the NMC intrigue yourself.

Who decided to let college students with magic save the world?

Brynn Chernosky developed this game using ChoiceScript, a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice interactive novels like these. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience. Write your own game and Hosted Games will publish it for you, giving you a share of the revenue your game produces.

We are thrilled to announce that The Luminous Underground, by Phoebe Barton, is a finalist for the Nebula Game Writing Award – and it’s on sale, 30% off this week!

The Luminous Underground is a 660,000-word interactive secondary-world science fantasy novel. Blast spirits out of a haunted subway system! Can your team defeat rival exterminators, shoddy gear, and City Hall?

This is the third year that there has been a Nebula award for game writing, and the third year that Choice of Games authors have been finalists. Past Choice of Games Nebula finalists are: Kate Heartfield for The Road to Canterbury and The Magician’s Workshop, Natalia Theodoridou for Rent-A-Vice, and M. Darusha Wehm for The Martian Job.

Since 1965, the Nebula Awards have been given annually to the best works of science fiction and fantasy published that year, as voted on by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The 56th Annual Nebula Awards ceremony will be streamed live during the 2021 Nebula Conference Online, June 4-6, 2021. Stay tuned for more!

We’re proud to announce that Fate of the Storm Gods, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, Android, and on iOS in the “Choice of Games” app. It’s 33% off until February 4th! You can also pick up Bendi Barrett’s first game, Avatar of the Wolf for 25% off!

Harness wind, earth, fire, and all the forces of nature to destroy your enemies! Will you stabilize the broken magic of the weather, or revel in its chaos?

Fate of the Storm Gods is a 275,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Bendi Barrett. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

The world-below is the realm of humans: mundane, short-lived, often helpless creatures. But you are a Weather Builder—a resident of the upper-world, controller of all things atmospheric and a veritable Storm God! In your Workshop of the Westerly Wind at the peak of Mount Gion, you and the Master Builder regulate the weather in the Western lands.

When a desperate human royal climbs Mount Gion and breaches your workshop, you learn that the weather in the Southern lands has descended into chaos. Floods destroy whole cities in high-lying areas. Fertile plains deteriorate into desert within months. Furthermore, the Builders’ loyal automaton servants, the homunculi, are slaughtering humans without provocation.

This must be the work of the Weather Eaters, enemies of the Builders since time immemorial. The Weather Eaters feed off of maladaptive weather, sowing anarchy and strife wherever they can. Now, your ancient feud threatens to break the weather and tear apart two worlds.

Armed with a suite of elemental powers and the aid of your trusty (and deadly) homunculus, you must leave Mount Gion for the first time, putting yourself between the will of the Builders, the needs of the humans, and the ire of your enemies. Will you use your elemental powers and your wits to mend this rift before it’s too late, or will you prioritize accumulating power and influence in the midst of growing chaos?

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, asexual, or poly.
• Ascend to the highest level of skill in the weather-building arts and become a Weather Master.
• Pursue romance with a stalwart royal, a criminal mastermind, a devout Weather Builder, or a villainous Weather Eater!
• Negotiate peace between warring factions or crush your foes under your thumb.
• Discover the secrets of the broken weather system and the complexities of bringing order to it.
• Decide the future of one of the last remaining human strongholds.
• Help guide the growth of your loyal homunculus companion, Humil, as they learn what it means to think for themselves.

The fate of two worlds is in your hands!

We hope you enjoy playing Fate of the Storm Gods. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our ranking on the App Store. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank.

The world-below is the realm of humans: mundane, short-lived, often helpless creatures. But you are a Weather Builder—a resident of the upper-world, controller of all things atmospheric and a veritable Storm God! Fate of the Storm Gods is a 275,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Bendi Barrett, author of Avatar of the Wolf. I sat down with Bendi to talk about his upcoming game. You can try the first three chapters today. Fate of the Storm Gods releases this Thursday, January 28th.

I love how both your games, Avatar of the Wolf and this latest one, transport me into a world of mythology that feels familiar but also completely new. Tell me about what inspires your worldbuilding.

At the inaugural Narrascope convention in 2019, I went to a talk by Ian Thomas (Author of Pendragon Rising) and he talked about horror and how effective horror leads the viewer to drawing conclusions that essentially scare themselves. For me, world building is similar in that you’re sketching a world and your goal is to do so with strong enough fundamentals and a compelling enough hook that the reader will fall into it and even forgive some of the fuzzy bits at the edge where maybe things don’t quite work as smoothly.

For Avatar of the Wolf, I was laser focused on a sustained mood. I wanted to magnify the strangeness and outsized influence of the animal gods, but I established early on that there was no ambiguity about their presence in this world. The narrative came out of a question about how people might adapt to a world where faith was a sort of by product of the direct evidence of divine presence.

In Fate of the Storm Gods you play as an apprentice Weather Builder just starting out and going into the human world for the first time and you don’t have the luxury of that sort of blanket faith. So I built the world around the idea of how a powerful, sort of mythical figure might go about making sense of this world that, to quote you, feels “familiar but also completely new.”

Both worlds bloomed out of a narrow focus on how one particular being—in this case both powerful and quasi-divine—experiences the world and grew from there.

Storm Gods revolves around the power to control the weather, and this is managed by these semi-celestial beings the Weather Builders. What weather based powers did you enjoy writing?

I think lightning was my favorite weather power to write. Lightning is a terrifying force with such an outsized impact that in the game I wanted it to feel like an exclamation point. So when lightning is on the table, things are usually pretty final and if lightning doesn’t work then you might have a problem on your hands.

But the PC also has access to flame powers and earth powers through different means and it was a lot fun trying to think of how someone who has been training with these powerful forces for a long time might employ them in response to particular challenges.

But yeah, probably the lightning.

Also, my favorite part of the game might be the homunculus and their brethren. Tell me a little about these creatures.

In the world of Storm Gods the homunculi are a sort of species of metallic-seeming servants built by the Weather Builders to perform tasks for them. They’re tall and imposing, but otherwise come in a variety of forms. They can be incredibly deadly when necessary.

At the start of the game the PC learns that some of the homunculi have become violent and that’s a part of what brings them to the human world alongside a representative of the humans and a faithful homunculus called Humil, whom the PC grew up with.

I think that the story of Storm Gods is also the story of Humil, who changes in significant ways over the course of the story right along with the PC. I’m really glad to hear that Humil’s journey connected with you, because writing Humil’s arc was an amazing ride and I can’t wait for people to meet this character.

I think if something ties the PC in Fate of the Storm Gods to the PC in Avatar of the Wolf it’s that there’s maybe an outsider/identity question that occurs for each. Can you talk about that?

There’s a lot of weight placed on the shoulders of both these PCs early on: In Avatar you have a dead god to avenge and in Storm Gods there’s a world-spanning crisis to investigate. In both stories these pressures give the PC the opportunity to reevaluate their allegiances and maybe question some of the assumptions that they’ve nurtured up until that point. Ultimately, that’s what I think identity is: a set of assumptions about yourself that you accept as fact and then encourage the world to accept as fact, which is why I love having NPCs who will kind of question your PC’s identity and ask you repeatedly to either double down on your convictions or bend toward new configurations.

As for being an outsider, I think that’s an important ingredient in the alchemy of identity. While in these extraordinary circumstances both PCs find themselves newly independent—in Avatar, it’s from a hungry god; in Storm Gods it’s from a patient, but exacting teacher—and they have to define themselves in a larger context, deciding what they stand for and what they don’t in a world that they may not yet fully understand.

I don’t envy either of these characters for the tough decisions they have to make, but hopefully it makes for compelling storytelling.

What else have you been working on? 

So many things! However, nothing close enough to imminent release to talk up yet. I encourage anyone who might be interested in keeping up with me to follow my work at benmakesstuff.com or on twitter at @bendied. I promise I am attempting to be better at regularly updating both.

Hosted Games has two new games for you to play!

Relics of the Lost Age by James Shaw

The Nazis are on the trail of six ancient magical artifacts powerful enough to crush all opposition and conquer the world. But they didn’t take one thing into account: you.

Relics of the Lost Age is a swashbuckling 350,000 word interactive adventure novel written by James Shaw, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

It started out as a routine dig in Palestine. But soon you find yourself racing across the desert on a quest to track down a fabled ancient relic before the Nazis can get their hands on it. And that’s just the beginning. The Third Reich are mobilizing right across the globe, on the hunt for mysterious ancient Relics of Power, objects which could put unimaginable supernatural forces into the hands of the armies of darkness. And the only thing standing in their way is you.

Step into the weathered boots of a swashbuckling 1930s archaeologist and strap in for a wild ride around the globe, finding adventure, romance, and mystery at every turn. Do you have what it takes to locate the Relics, vanquish your foes and save the world from a thousand years of darkness?

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, poly, or asexual.
• Find romance with a fearless explorer, an exiled prince, a passionate archaeologist, or a tormented spy.
• Take on a rogue’s gallery of memorable and despicable villains, including the Nazis, the mafia, Triads, Klansmen, renegade soldiers, and ruthless treasure-hunters.
• Travel widely in a lovingly recreated 1930s world, exploring the deserts of Palestine, the high passes of Tibet, the noxious politics of Louisiana, the jungles of Congo, London’s cut-throat art-crime scene, and Hong Kong’s deadly Triad underworld.
• Experience epic gunfights, visceral brawls, and wild stunts in vintage vehicles.
• Uncover a sinister secret lost for millennia.

Archaeology just got a whole lot more exciting.

Clans of Éire: The Brothers’ War by Fionn Graham

In pre-Christian Ireland, where family bonds and the honour of one’s tribe are worth dying for, and where the old gods are forever watching, you must be as guarded as the hound, as cunning as the fox, or as brutal as the boar to survive. You have fallen out of your father’s favor and are being sent along with a dispatch of hardened warriors to help your uncle quell the ever-frequent viking raids to the east. You must impress your father to reinstate your right to the throne of the Boar Clan… or you can seize it for yourself. Your father’s numerous enemies are conspiring against him, the peasants are rising in revolt, his own guard outposts are deserting him and even his most trusted may be tempted to rip his throne from under him. 

The Brothers’ War, a Clans of Éire Saga, is a 60,000 word historical-fantasy interactive fiction written by Fionn Graham, where your choices and decisions control the world around you, including characters you meet, your possible romances as well as the enemies you make. It is text-based without sound or special effects, supported by occasional celtic la-Tène style art and fuelled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. The people of Éire whisper of a time when your father’s time on land has ended, and when, or whether, you will take his place. Through politics, persuasion, battles and knowledge, you must secure your future throne… or die trying. 

• Play as male, female or transgender, gay, bisexual, straight, aromantic or asexual.
• Explore a unique land rich in culture, religion and tradition
• Take part in military plannings, court cases and more.
• Fight and negotiate with Bandit hoards, Peasant rebels, Viking settlers and more.
• Discover the lighter -and darker- sides of your clan’s traditions and policies.
• Select a variety of distinctive physical traits, as well as starting skills and abilities.
• Conspire for or against the chieftain of the Boar Clan, your father.
• Learn and improve your skills through teachers, instructors and elders.
• Hire mercenaries and buy better combat equipment to gain the upper hand.

As your father’s influence trickles through his fingers, which side shall you choose?

James and Fionn developed their games using ChoiceScript, a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice interactive novels like these. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience. Write your own game and Hosted Games will publish it for you, giving you a share of the revenue your game produces.