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Cast spells, pass your exams, and save the world! Blackstone is more than a magic school: you’ll compete for glory in the sky sailing tourney, find love, and steer the fate of magic itself.

Blackstone Academy for the Magical Arts is a fast-paced 188,000-word interactive YA fantasy novel by Alana Joli Abbott, author of Choice of Kung Fu, Choice of the Pirate, and Showdown at Willow Creek. I sat down with Alana to talk about her history with interactive fiction and world-building.

Blackstone Academy for the Magical Arts releases this Thursday, April 9th. You can try the first three chapters for free today.

Blackstone Academy for the Magical Arts is your fourth Choice of Games title. That puts you in a very elite club, with I think only three other authors who have written more than three games for us. Can you talk a little about your evolution as an IF writer?

Oh, goodness, I didn’t realize there were that few of us! It’s an honor to have been involved with Choice of Games for that many projects, and my thinking about interactive fiction has certainly evolved with the Choice of Games audience. With Choice of Kung Fu, I tried to model the game play very closely after the previously published Choice of Games titles structurally, which I think worked well, but meant I didn’t take as many risks. In Showdown at Willow Creek, I drew more deeply on my tabletop role play design experience, and I think it shows; that one feels (to me) more like a tabletop game than any of my other games. Both Choice of the Pirate and Blackstone Academy for the Magical Arts lean into the wide variety of identities you can have as a PC, and I hope that I’ve given players there a broader choice of who and how they can exist within a world, without constraints or judgment. I’ve absolutely learned something new on each game, and tried something different than in previous stories, and I hope that experimentation is successful for players to have a fun experience!

Blackstone is a really fun story, with lots of unexpected twists. What did you most enjoy writing? The fantasy elements around the magic, the school setting, or the way different world mythologies come into it?

I have actually been working on the Thimbleport setting for more than a decade, so the most exciting thing about this project for me is finally breathing life into this place I’ve already invested in so heavily. The Liminals, in particular, are characters I’ve known for a long time, and though you only get a peek at them in the game compared to where they live in my imagination, I am so excited to have them get to exist somewhere outside my brain.

There are a lot of supernatural elements in the game, so it’s not just that magic exists, but vampires and werewolves do as well. Can you tell me a little more about the world?

Blackstone Academy draws on a lot of world mythologies, as well as pop culture incarnations of different creatures. Some of that is just the genre: once you’ve added one part of contemporary fantasy, it’s fun to have the rest of it in your sandbox as well. One of the things I really wanted to make sure of, though, was that an American-set school didn’t just ignore the folklore and tradition native to the area. Several of the characters in the story come from different Native American tribes (federally recognized and not), and the supernatural or spiritual creatures from the legends and folklore of the indigenous peoples of the Americas were always on my mind as I was creating the world. I wanted Blackstone to be a really diverse school, because I think magic isn’t just limited to one group of people, so there are hints at other world mythologies and creatures as well.

The magic itself is broken down into two types: innate (magic you’re born with) and learned (spells and rituals). To me, a lot of talents come that way: you can be naturally good at it, or you can train yourself really hard to learn a skill. I wanted both of those aspects to play a role in how magic worked, too.

If you had your own powers within the world of Blackstone, what would they be?

I think I’d probably be more like Jules, who doesn’t have an innate talent, but does the book learning to keep up. When I was a student myself, I wouldn’t have done at all well in Coach Rogers’s classes, but I think now learning combat skills and sky sailing would be my favorite subjects!

Was your own school experience anything like the Academy? Sans skyboats, of course.

I definitely haven’t gotten to fly in a boat, although I have gotten to take sailing lessons as an adult! My high school was not very much like Blackstone Academy, but I went to college after tenth grade, to this little college nestled in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Although I stepped back from the college level work to make Blackstone Academy fell like a private school, there are definitely aspects of Simon’s Rock that show up in Blackstone Academy, especially in Mr. Delgado’s classes. Most of the Blackstone Academy teachers are named after teachers I had in either high school or college (or after teachers of my friends).

What are you working on next?

One of my other hats is as an editor, and I’m really excited to be working on editing some anthologies for Outland Entertainment. Where the Veil Is Thin, which I co-edited with Cerece Rennie Murphy, will be published later this year, and APEX: A Dinosaur Anthology, which I am co-editing with Jonathan Thompson, is going to be Kickstarted later this summer. I’m also looking forward to working on a Greek-mythology RPG project with Jonathan. But who knows? Now that Blackstone Academy is in the world, I might have to dig up those drafty old stories about the Liminal Agency and about Vi Cole (and her end-of-the-world playlist) to see if I can breathe some new life into them!

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

The blight eats the world while humans war for scraps. Will you fight, run, or lead your people to the stars? Or murderously ascend the human throne?

It’s 33% off until April 9th!

The blight eats the world while humans war for scraps. Will you fight, run, or lead your people to the stars? Or murderously ascend the human throne?

Two races clash; humans and turans–human discord versus turan magic. When the turans’ ancestors left the world to walk between stars, wild magic began returning. Now humans war to fill the vacuum, blind to the magical blight that is racing to smother the whole continent. High in their plateaus, the last turans must choose: Fight, follow their ancestors into the stars, or perish. And their fate rests on the life of a human child.

The Aegis Saga is a 280,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Charles Parkes, where your choices affect the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

• Play as a male or female human, or as an ungendered turan; gay or straight.
• Race through a hostile city on the back of a feaclaw.
• Betray the trust of a powerful shaman as he teaches you to dance time.
• Find love on the shingle beside a peaceful water garden.
• Learn about glyf and how your magic can alter or destroy you!
• See your personality change with your character development, without being locked into decisions to win stats checks.
• Reread a page you missed, or skip ahead during a second read through.

Whether you try to understand the new world of the humans, or focus on the mysteries of the blight, either way, the child holds the key to everything.

Charles 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.

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

Terror has struck at Franklin High School! On the very day the prom court announcement, the prom queen is kidnapped! You and the rest of the prom committee members soon find yourself trapped in the school, held hostage by the scheming kidnapper. The only way to escape is to solve puzzles, search for clues, and go along with the culprit’s twisted game…but could the villain be closer than you think?

It’s 25% off until April 9th!

The Kidnapped Prom Queen is an exciting 120,000 word interactive novel by Michael Gray, 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.

• Play as male or female.
• Enjoy three different pathways, each with a different culprit!
•  Over twenty different puzzles to solve.
• Interact with an interesting cast of high schoolers.
• Figure out the meaning of the kidnapper’s clues.
• Suspense, mystery and secrets abound as you investigate.
• Could one of your friends be working with the culprit?

Michael 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.

For a limited time, the following games are available for free in the Choice of Games omnibus app for iOS and Android, and free on our website.

• Heroes Rise: The Prodigy
• Hollywood Visionary
• Showdown at Willow Creek
• The Fleet
• NOLA Is Burning
• Choice of the Petal Throne

Remember to click the “Play Now” button to access the game for free.

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, including 16 games that are now 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 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 Kung Fu
• For Rent: Haunted House
• Sky Pirates of Actorius
• Zip! Speedster of Valiant City

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

You are a person on the run from your past, and no matter how far or fast you go, you cannot outrun your destiny. In this epic journey, it’s not just your life that hangs in the balance. Ancient artifacts of untold power are waking up from their millennia-old sleep, and whoever controls them will help mold the shape of your world.

It’s 30% off until March 12th!

The Soul Stone War is a thrilling 487,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Morgan Vane, 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.

Embark on a journey of self-discovery, sacrifice, and heroism, meet the people that are bound to you through the threads of fate, fall in love or fall into despair. Will you rise up to the challenge that is to be a Soul Stone Wielder? Or will you allow the world to be shrouded in darkness? The choice is yours.

• Play as female, male, or non-binary; straight, gay, or bisexual.
• Be chosen by an all-powerful artifact—a Soul Stone assuming the form of eight different weapons and six different gemstones.
• Choose one of three different backgrounds, each one of them unique and providing different content for your roleplaying needs.
• Meet a cast of distinct characters—a prickly warrior, a mischievous she-elf, a half-dragon woman, a gentle noble with a dark past, and the mysterious antagonist. Forge friendships, or fall in love with each of them individually or in three different polyamorous relationships.
• Do battle with fierce enemies, grow in strength using your combat or magical prowess, your wits or persuasion. Become the Stone Wielder you’re meant to be against impossible odds.
• Immerse yourself in a world of magic, sacrifice, and love where your choices will determine the very fate of the world.
Your Soul Stone is waiting for you.

Morgan 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’re proud to announce that Ironheart, 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 Omnibus app.

It’s 33% off until March 5th!

Pilot and customize a giant iron war mech in this alternate medieval history! In 1182 AD, the Papacy, the Caliphate, and the Mongols are at war, and they all have mechs–hulking war robots, powered by energy from mysterious “skystone” meteorites.

Ironheart is a 250,000-word interactive novel by Lee Williams. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Our story begins in the far future, on a space mission to intercept a comet that can open wormholes through space and time. When your ship and the crew are sucked in and thrown backward through time, you awake from cryogenic suspension in 1182–at the height of the Third Crusade.

Trapped in the past, you must choose sides in the mech war between Saladin’s Caliphate, the Catholic Papacy, and Genghis Khan’s Mongolian Golden Horde.

Will you search doggedly for the rest of your crew or focus your energies on helping one of the factions in the war that rages around you? Do you seek to unite a divided land? Or use your advanced knowledge to gain wealth and power for yourself?

Along the way, you may meet historical figures such as Saladin, fight off attacks from the notorious order of Assassins and the secretive Knights Templar, or even take part in a grand tournament of mechs!

• Play as male, female or non-binary; gay, straight, bi or asexual.
• Pilot a giant medieval war machine! Choose how to equip, customize and decorate your machine.
• Take sides in the Third Crusade as a knight or emir. Rise through the ranks of your chosen faction or strike out alone.
• Hone your ability in a wide range of skills including warfare, diplomacy, medicine and engineering.
• Manage your own fiefdom. Decide how to govern, what to build and who to recruit.
• Entangle yourself with a wide supporting cast of characters, from fools and bandits to priests and princesses.
• Seek revenge, strive to build a better world or just live it up in the 12th century!

What new future will you forge now that the old one is gone?

We hope you enjoy playing Ironheart. 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.

Pilot and customize a giant iron war mech in this alternate medieval history! In 1182 AD, the Papacy, the Caliphate, and the Mongols are at war, and they all have mechs–hulking war robots, powered by energy from mysterious “skystone” meteorites. Our story begins in the far future, on a space mission to intercept a comet that can open wormholes through space and time. When your ship and the crew are sucked in and thrown backward through time, you awake from cryogenic suspension in 1182–at the height of the Third Crusade.

Ironheart is a 250,000-word interactive novel by Lee Williams. I sat down with Lee to talk about his game, the Crusades, and why work-in-progress sharing works. Ironheart releases this Thursday, February 27th. 

Tell me a little about how you came to be writing for Choice of Games.
Like most good things that happen to me, I fell into it unexpectedly. I’ve been writing professionally for almost twenty years and a couple of years back I worked on a project with Gavin Inglis, who’d previously written a couple of excellent COG games, (For Rent: Haunted House and Neighbourhood Necromancer), and he recommended that I pitch some concepts. I was already a fan of the franchise so I followed his advice and here we are!

What drew you to this period of history for the subject of a game of interactive fiction?
I’ve always been fascinated by the Crusades and, in a broader sense, by all places and times where different cultures have rubbed up against one another with such dramatic results, seismic activity along the fault lines of history. It isn’t the conflict that interests me so much as the exchange of ideas and the ways in which the peoples and cultures involved were changed and often enriched by the contact.

The Crusades were vastly more complex than the simple clash of East and West that is often portrayed and I hope I’ve managed to capture some of that in Ironheart. Although I try to avoid having any sort of message or agenda in my writing, I think it’s worthwhile to reflect on this in a time when our own global politics seem to be increasingly polarised.

What was the most challenging part of writing Ironheart for you?
As I was writing, I was conscious of being tugged two ways: on one hand, I love the period and want to make it feel as authentic as I can, but on the other hand, my game has giant mechs in it! I tried hard to hit a sort of swashbuckling mood that could marry the setting and the silliness together and I just hope I’ve been successful.

How did you like working on it in a semi-public way, as a posted WIP on the forum?
I usually write in a complete vacuum so this was a new experience for me and I loved it. The forum was a really helpful source of feedback and encouragement and I made huge changes to the early chapters of the game in response to requests and suggestions from players.

I think it’s especially useful for interactive fiction to be developed in this way since player agency is such a large part of the experience. If I were writing a traditional novel, a reader could say “Oh, I wanted the main character to be more like this” or “I don’t think the main character would have done that” and I could simply dismiss their concerns with a lordly wave of my hand and say “Pshaw! It’s my story and my character, I know how it should be!” In interactive fiction, however, you can’t treat the player/reader like that–they’re in control of the protagonist and if they want to do something and can’t, that’s a fault you have to address.

(I wouldn’t really say “Pshaw” anyway. I had to check how to spell it and I’m not brave enough to try pronouncing it in conversation…)

Did you have a favorite NPC you liked writing? I think Tonzo will be a fan favorite.
He’s probably mine too. They say write what you know so a fool was easy! I especially enjoyed writing his interactions with Guillaume, his elderly master; they seemed like a natural double-act.

To be honest, I enjoyed writing all the characters. The structure of a COG game was really healthy for me as a writer because there’s an expectation that you cover every path a reader might care to take and this means writing a whole range of disparate characters. It forcibly broadens your focus and that’s really invigorating!

What are you working on next?
I’ve recently been able to take on enough writing work that at the start of 2020 I made the decision to step down from my other job, as a special educational needs co-ordinator in a local school. So it’s all clear horizons at the moment, exciting and terrifying in equal measures!

One of the reasons for my change of career was that I’d moved into a more administrative role and missed working with young people, so I’m hoping to marry the teaching and writing together by working on some educational games, with a particular focus on games designed to help children with emotional and behavioural regulation. I think there’s a lot of untapped potential for good in this area.

I also have a couple of collaborations on more traditional video games underway, and I’d love to write something else for Choice of Games in the future. ChoiceScript is a beautiful, flexible language and it’s been an absolute joy working on Ironheart.

Links to all my projects can be found on my website: www.leewilliams.eu

We’re proud to announce that The Magician’s Workshop is a finalist for the 2019 Nebula Game Writing Award–and it’s on sale this week!

Last year the renowned science fiction and fantasy awards added a game writing category, and Choice of Games authors M. Darusha Wehm (The Martian Job), Natalia Theodoridou (Rent-a-Vice), and Kate Heartfield (The Road to Canterbury) were finalists, alongside (winner) Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, and Santa Monica Studio’s God of War.

This year, Kate Heartfield has again been named a finalist for her game The Magician’s Workshop, and we’re celebrating by putting it on sale until February 27th! The game is on sale on Android, Steam, and the Choice of Games Omnibus app on iOS.

The Nebula Awards take place at the end of May: watch this space and keep your fingers crossed for our finalist!

Thanks to a very scientific poll conducted on our forums, we’re proud to announce that our “most underrated” games, aka the hidden gems, are on sale until February 27th!

Pick them up on the platform of your choice–Android, Android Omnibus app, iOS and iOS Omnibus app, Steam (where applicable), the website, and on the Amazon Android Marketplace! 

Choice of Games Titles: $2.99 USD EACH!
Avatar of the Wolf
Cannonfire Concerto
The ORPHEUS Ruse
Sixth Grade Detective
Weyrwood

Hosted Games Titles:
Divided We Fall now $0.99!
Elemental Saga: The Awakening now $1.99
Marine Raider now $0.99
My Day Off Work now $2.99
The Saga of Oedipus Rex now $2.99

We’re proud to announce that Zip! Speedster of Valiant City, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, the web, and on Android and iOS in the Choice of Games Omnibus app.

It’s free to win, and $4.99 to turn off advertisements and delay breaks, discounted to $2.99 until February 27th! Turning off ads also unlocks special content!

Please note this is a special, omnibus-only release on mobile.

Use your speedster powers to defeat the superpowered Sloth and save the day, all while tracking down a deadly new weapon threatening your city! There’s no room for error in the hero business, not even for the fastest person in the world. One tiny mistake against your deadliest foe threatens to end your career and plunge your city in chaos.

Zip! Speedster of Valiant City is a 48,000-word superpowered interactive novel by Eric Moser. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

As a superpowered hero, you’ve beaten the Sloth before, but this time he’s finally gotten the upper hand (claw?) and he’s aiming his deadly new device right at the innocent citizens of Valiant City. It’s up to you to stop him and his terrible machine before time runs out!

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, or bi.
• Use your speed powers to battle an array of superpowered foes.
• When facing especially tough decisions, use your limited supply of Juice to run even faster.
• Focus on your struggling relationship with your romantic partner or flirt with a new hero.
• Train your snarky sidekick to prepare for battle with the Sloth, or leave her to make her own mistakes.
• Unleash your powers to run for mayor, land a lucrative endorsement deal, or run your enemies out of town.
• Destroy the Sloth’s machine, learn how to disarm it, or even convince to Sloth to give up his criminal scheme.
• Paying to turn off advertisements (or buying the whole game on Steam) will also unlock a special power boost feature!

Are you fast enough to thwart the Sloth’s scheme and save the day?

We hope you enjoy playing Zip! Speedster of Valiant City. 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.