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Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

Time for a break from your uneventful life. Ancient knowledge that is too risky to keep in your memory calls for you once again. Will you be able to learn the things you knew in the past and chose to forget all the while not losing yourself to madness? No matter what, your will must be strong.

It’s free to play.

The Oldest Dream is a 34,000 word interactive horror novel by Onurhan T, 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, female, or other; straight, gay, or other.
• Delve into the past that you chose to forget before.
• Try to stay sane on a path no one came back from.
• Watch reality distort in front of your eyes.
• Don’t give your trust freely, it is not easy to know who deserves it.
• Learn as much as you can, your primary intent is seeking knowledge.
• Meet a creature stronger than god and live to tell it.

Onurhan T 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!

This is a story where you do something more terrifying than entering a haunted house, more dangerous than assaulting an alien horde, and more important than ruling a fantasy kingdom. You, and you alone, must turn your newborn baby into a functional adult. Will you be a tiger mom or a helicopter dad? Can you raise a child through eighteen years of humor and heartache with nothing on your side except a little patience and a lot of love? It’s a fun and unique experience designed for potential parents of all ages!

It’s 25% off until October 7th!

The Parenting Simulator is a lighthearted 189,000 word interactive slice-of-life novel by Matt Simpson, 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.

• Experience over 60 scenes designed to touch on events both major and minor in your digital offspring’s life.
• Overcome potty training, bullies, and the dreaded driving test!
• Live the wild emotional rollercoaster of raising a child as you go from birth to high school graduation.
• Be the main role model in their life, as every little thing you do can have consequences that reverberate through the years.
• Maintain relationships with friends and family or burn your bridges to spare you and your little one further heartache.
• Watch your child grow and change from the choices you make.
• Find out who they become through numerous possible endings!

Matt Simpson 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!

You’re enjoying a writing retreat held in an Australian small town, when one of your fellow writers is killed, and all the rest are suspects—including you. The ancient rectory grants you curious supernatural powers, and it’s not clear if the magic is benign or malevolent. Can you figure out who the killer is before they take another victim? Is the rectory the real killer? Or is this the ultimate chance to find out for yourself what it feels like to murder another person—and get away with it?

It’s 33% off until October 7th!

Death at the Rectory is an 87,000 word interactive magical murder mystery by Felicity Banks, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fuelled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Are you attracted to the vivacious Muslim woman or the charming American man? Do you dare to fall in love when the object of your affection might be a murderer? Will your word count survive the stress of being a murder suspect? Will you ever get a turn in the shower?

• Choose from three genders, and whatever sexuality suits your mood.
• Pay attention to the clues, as the murderer is not the same in every play-through.
• Who do you suspect, and who do you trust?
• Pick a genre, hero, and ending for your own novel outline.
• Gather clues to make your case to your fellow writers.
•   Can you get away with murder?

Felicity Banks 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!

Become the greatest hero or villain that the world has ever known! Balance the challenges of leading a normal life, while attempting to defeat evil…or wreak havoc on the world. It’s 25% off until September 26th!

Hero or Villain: Genesis is a 330,000 word interactive novel by Adrao, where your choices control the story. The game is text-based, with artwork to help set the scene. Will you hunt down villains to the last corner of the planet, join a group of fellow heroes (or villains!), defeat New York’s criminal mastermind, or even replace him?

• Choose from dozens of powers. You can pounce on your enemies with the power of your fists, strike them down with hellfire, take control of their minds, dodge their attacks with your super-speed, or rewind time to learn from your mistakes.
• Build your own gadgets, improving the quality of your armor or the weapons mounted on it.
• Make alliances with other heroes, and attempt to find a sidekick that works with you.
• Play as male, female, or non-binary, and romance many of the other characters!
• Several illustrations to enhance your experience.
• Many different game paths, with over two dozen different endings.
• Several difficulty settings. Play as a mighty invincible hero, or just somebody only slightly more powerful than an average human.

Adrao 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.

In honor of the release of Adrao’s latest game, Hero or Villain: Genesis, his other game Tokyo Wizard is also on sale and for the first time, is available on Steam!

Updated, and with an expanded Kamakura path, try Tokyo Wizard today. Become a powerful wizard or witch in modern day Japan! Tokyo Wizard is a 160,000 word tale in which you’ll learn the power of magic and the consequences of it. Become one with Shinto animal spirit magic, learn powerful battle spells, or choose the path of necromancy and command an undead army! The game is entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects, where your choices control entirely the outcome of the game. Can you free Tokyo from the evil menace facing it, or will you be consumed by dark magic?

• Learn over 60 unique spells, divided into magic schools such as necromancy and illusion.
• Battle or befriend an array of Japanese mythological creatures, including guardian Nio, bakeneko, forest Kappa and powerful elementals.
• Three different game paths with 30+ endings.
  Restore yourself to life with the save system.

We’re proud to announce that Sword of the Slayer, 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 40% off until September 19!

Fight monsters and free the ancient city with your enchanted talking sword!

You’re a common orphan scraping a living on the streets of Targas Adur—a city older than memory, full of dark corners and darker magics, ruled by a merciless Sorcerer King, Demorgon. While exploring one of those dark corners, you stumble upon…the sword, an ancient weapon of power. And it can talk, in a voice only you can hear.

“Sword of the Slayer” is 185,000-word interactive fantasy novel by S. Andrew Swann, 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.

Dark creatures do as Demorgon bids, and his royal guard keeps order with an iron fist. All gods and temples are suppressed except for his own Dark Tabernacle. But with the re-emergence of the sword, Demorgon’s power may be waning. Evil monsters invade the city, and sections of Targas Adur have fallen to their influence. It’s up to you to slay them.

You must train yourself in sword-fighting to protect the ones you love, as you battle the demons of Targas Adur, including the dread White Wyrm. Thrust into the role of monster-slayer, you find yourself the focus of decadent nobles who want to return to power, devoted monks who want to see the gods return to the city, and—most troubling—you now have the attention of the Sorcerer King himself.

Will you become a foe of the monsters, a threat to Sorcerer King’s regime, or a hope for the forces trying to bring down his rule? Or will you give yourself over to the sword, losing control of your mind and body?

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, or asexual
• Rise from the gutter to the highest level of power
• Support the gods, the nobles, or a rival sorcerer for the rule of the ancient city
• Bring back the gods or fight the Great White Wyrm when you enter the Dark Tabernacle
• Make allies in your quest to free the city
• Protect your childhood friend, and your swordsman trainer from capture and death
• Face monsters of all sorts, up to the Sorcerer King himself
• Save your place before a chapter and you can return to that point after the story’s end and try a different set of choices

An enchanted sword. An ancient evil. A hero waits.

We hope you enjoy playing Sword of the Slayer. 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.

Your first game for us was Welcome to Moreytown, which was based in a world you’d already written about in your novels. What was challenging for you in writing Sword of the Slayer in a new setting?

I think the most challenging thing was avoiding being too wordy. This genre is one in which it’s easy to fall down a hole of descriptive prose that would probably quite annoying for anyone clicking through pages of text to get to the next choice. Keeping things concise while still serving the genre could be a hard balance to strike.

Have you written much fantasy in this direction?

About a third of what I’ve written has been some sort of fantasy or other. I’ve done light humorous fantasy with my Dragon series, and I’ve done dark fantasy with medieval werewolves and the Teutonic Knights (Wolfbreed and Wolf’s Cross). This is, however, the first straight-up sword & sorcery work I’ve written.

What parts did you most enjoy writing? NPCs? Monsters? The Sword? Fight scenes?

I really enjoyed writing the gods, especially since I was writing four poles on a moral axis that’s not the old D&D good/evil law/chaos dichotomies. The sword was also fun to write, as it definitely has its own opinions about what’s going on and how the PC should be dealing with it.

I’m pretty sure the sword is the first talking inanimate object we’ve had that’s also a major character in the game. That must have been interesting to think through as you were working on parts where it’s interacting with the player. It’s kind of like an evil or at least morally compromised Jiminy Cricket. 

The really interesting thing about the sword is that it’s a major character that has very limited agency. After all, it’s a sword. It might be magic, but it can only do anything if someone is wielding it. So having it as an active participant in events is a bit of a challenge. Also, at times, it is a rather ambiguous ally to the PC. Sure, it wants the PC to make it through this, but that’s because it has its own agenda and the PC is the easiest means to that end.

Sword of the Slayer feels like one story about Targas Adur. Is it a setting you see yourself returning to?

Possibly. I don’t have any immediate plans in that direction, but it’s a place I could easily return to if I wanted.

What are you working on now?

I’ve been hired on to a big exciting project that I can’t really talk about yet. I can say it’s a new novel and I’m just polishing up the outline now.

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

Become the vagabond you always knew you were. Rely on your blade and wits, for little else will save you amidst the cold and unforgiving North! Retrace the steps of your past and rekindle a love once lost. Or try your best to snuff it out—either way, it’s going to burn. You may be the toughest ronin around, but even you aren’t prepared for what’s next! It’s 25% off until September 5th!

Samurai of Hyuga Book 4 is a 375,000 word interactive fantasy novel by Devon Connell, 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, female; gay, straight.
• Survive amidst a clan war between the Uesugi and the Takeda!
• Unravel the secrets of your past and embrace your forbidden power!
• Enjoy 27 beautiful illustrations that bring the world of Hyuga to life!

The truth behind the forbidden style of the Jigoku and a hell of a lot more await you in the fourth book of this epic series!

Devon Connell 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.

In conversation with Google Play Store developer support today, they confirmed to me that all new Android apps now require at least three days for approval.

When releasing today’s newest game, Psy High 2: High Summer, our app was greeted with a warning banner, saying, “To help better protect our users, we’ll take more time to thoroughly review your app. Learn More”

In a chat with Google support, they confirmed:

• • All new apps are getting the “we’ll take more time” banner. “We’re taking more time to thoroughly review every app.” Plan for at least three days between submitting your app and going live. We’re professional developers, and we can definitely plan a few days in advance, but that then raises another, bigger problem.
  • There is now no way to schedule the release of a new app. When you submit an app for review, it will automatically go live whenever it’s approved, even if the app is approved days before the planned release date. Google offers a “timed publishing” feature, but it only works for app updates. (We discussed using the “closed alpha” process, which also undergoes Google review, but closed alphas go through a separate review process; you still have to plan for three days buffer when promoting a release from closed alpha to production.)
  • Google offers no way to expedite review. “Unfortunately, there is no escalation path, and there is nothing that can be done to expedite the review process. I completely understand your frustration, and I would love to be able to help you get your app approved immediately, but there is nothing I or my team can do.”
  • Developers were not notified of this change ahead of time.

Google’s Warning Appears Too Late, After Submission

The “we’ll take more time” banner appears only after you submit your app to go live in production. There’s no way to know that you have to submit three days in advance until it’s already too late.

Google’s failure to communicate this change is extremely disappointing. Back in April, Google announced on their Android Developer Blog that they were planning to take more time to review certain apps.

Separately, we will soon be taking more time (days, not weeks) to review apps by developers that don’t yet have a track record with us. This will allow us to do more thorough checks before approving apps to go live in the store and will help us make even fewer inaccurate decisions on developer accounts.

We’ve been a developer on the Google Play Store since 2010, so we didn’t think this would impact us. We were wrong.

If you click “Learn More” on the banner, Google doesn’t provide much additional detail; it’s the all-purpose documentation for publishing apps in general. But it does include this note near the top:

Note: For certain developer accounts, we’ll take more time to thoroughly review your app(s) to help better protect users. You’ll receive a notification on your app’s Dashboard about how long this should take. We recommend that you adjust your planning to include a buffer period of at least three days between submitting your app and going live.

“Certain developer accounts?” That didn’t sound like us. We have dozens of games published on the Google Play Store; we’re a developer in good standing.

It turns out that instead of just “developers that don’t yet have a track record,” all new apps are undergoing additional review. App updates may go through quickly if the app itself has earned Google’s trust, but each new app starts with an empty track record.

Luckily, we did submit Psy High 2: High Summer in time to get it approved today. Next time, we’ll have to submit to Google a few days in advance and “soft launch” our app, not announcing the release until the official release day.

Here’s the transcript with Google Play Store developer support.

Dan Fabulich: Our app release for Psy High 2 com.choiceofgames.psyhigh2 seems to be held up in extra delay. We’ve scheduled marketing for today’s release. Please help!

Liz: Thank you for waiting.

I apologize for the delay. Please note that we’re currently still reviewing your app. Due to recent changes, we’re taking more time to thoroughly review every app to help better protect users.

I see your app was updated yesterday, and moving forward, we recommend that you adjust your planning to include a buffer period of at least three days between submitting your app and going live. You can learn more about these changes here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6334282.

We do take developer feedback very seriously and I will be happy to pass any you may have regarding this process to the appropriate team for you. Please note you can also learn about new features in our blog here: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/.

Dan Fabulich: Will this delay apply to app updates as well?

Liz: The delay should be less than 3 days, but recommend still planning for 3 days for the review process to complete

Dan Fabulich: Is it possible to request expedited review for Psy High 2?

Liz: Unfortunately, there is no way to expedite the review process

Dan Fabulich: When did this change roll out? Were developers notified that we needed to add a three day buffer?

Liz: I am not sure exactly when the changed rolled out except that it happened a few weeks ago. I do not believe developers were notified, but the Play Console has been updated to reflect this information. I apologize for the inconvenience and the lack of clear communication

Dan Fabulich: Where has the Play Console been updated? The only information I see about this is in the documentation site and a banner on the app we’re trying to release. I just checked a few of our other apps and there’s no sign that we need to add a buffer.

Liz: Yes, there is a banner on the Play Console that states “To help better protect our users, we’ll take more time to thoroughly review your app. Learn more.” Also, if you hover on the question mark next to Processing update, it states “We’re currently reviewing your app. This usually takes a few hours, but can occasionally take more. Learn more”

Dan Fabulich: That banner only appears (only appeared) after submitting the app for review.

Dan Fabulich: There was no way to know that we needed to add a buffer until it was already too late.

Liz: I apologize again for the inconvenience. I will be sure to let our engineering team know that there needs to be more notification given beforehand

Liz: Do you have any other questions for me today?

Dan Fabulich: Liz, I’m sorry to do this, but are you able to escalate me to the next tier of support? It was impossible for us to add buffer without being notified, and we need someone to take action to get our app approved in a timely manner.

Liz: Unfortunately, there is no escalation path, and there is nothing that can be done to expedite the review process. I completely understand your frustration, and I would love to be able to help you get your app approved immediately, but there is nothing I or my team can do

Dan Fabulich: Can you clarify for me how to submit apps without making them go live immediately upon approval? I see that it’s possible to use timed publishing for app updates, but that doesn’t seem to be possible for new apps.

Liz: You could submit your app to a closed Alpha track first, and once everything looks good to go, you could promote it to the Production track

Dan Fabulich: Do closed Alpha tracks undergo submission review? (I’m pretty sure they don’t/didn’t last time I used alpha tracks.)

Liz: Yes, closed Alpha tracks undergo a submission review. We again recommend having a three day buffer. There is also a review once promoting to the Production track

Dan Fabulich: Will we need a three-day buffer when promoting to the production track?

Liz: It should be slightly quicker, but again we recommend three days just to be safe

Dan Fabulich: Well, that’s my question: we want to undergo production-track review before going live, without automatically going live after review, so we can control the date of our release. How can we do that?

Liz: Unfortunately, there is no functionality available for that. As you mentioned previously, we do have the timed publishing feature, but that only applies to updates. I will be sure to also let our engineering team know that developers would like this type of feature

Liz: Do you have any other questions for me today?

Dan Fabulich: Do you have any recommendations for how to submit new apps and release them on a particular calendar day?

Liz: Unfortunately, I do not have any recommendations on how to submit new apps and release them on a specific calendar date.

Dan Fabulich: When you communicate with the engineering team, please mention that we used to be able to release apps on a day of our choosing, but now, due to these changes, that’s impossible.

Liz: Yes, I will definitely be sure to let them know. I am very sorry again for the inconvenience, and thank you very for the feedback

Liz: Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Dan Fabulich: That’s all, thank you.

Liz: You’re very welcome!

Liz: Thanks for supporting Google Play. Have a nice day!

We’re proud to announce that Psy High 2: High Summer, 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 35% off until August 22nd!

What if summer could last forever? With your psychic powers and a little time magic, it can!

Psy High 2: High Summer is a 270,000 interactive teen supernatural mystery novel by Rebecca Slitt, and the sequel to her 2014 smash hit, Psy High. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

One year after saving Kingsport High at the junior prom, you’ve graduated, and you’re working as a counselor at a sleepaway camp before heading off to college. Your power to read minds certainly comes in handy when you’re in charge of a cabin full of nine- and ten-year-olds! You’re responsible for taking care of them and teaching them everything you know. But you’re also enjoying a summer of freedom: you’re away from your parents and on your own.

Camp Cedarcrest has its share of mysteries. Why do the people in the camp’s photos look like they never age? Why is the groundskeeper always lurking on the edges of the camp? Why can’t your friends remember what happened last summer? And what about the ghost stories? Generations of campers tell stories about seeing “the White Lady” floating through the woods.

All your friends from Kingsport High (and their powers) are just a text away: you can always look to your best friend for support, ask the editor of the school newspaper to help with research, or sneak a date with your hometown sweetheart.

But in order to make it through the summer, you’ll have to find the truth about Camp Cedarcrest. And when you discover a powerful source of time magic, you also learn that it comes with a high price. How far are you willing to go to preserve or destroy it?

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, or bi.
• Find summer love with your co-counselor or a mysterious stranger; or deepen your relationship with your high school sweetheart.
• Sing songs around the campfire, eat s’mores, make friendships that will last forever.
• Learn magic from a powerful mentor, and teach magic to a new generation.
• Earn your campers’ love – or just ignore them and have your own fun.
• Win Colorwars!
• Save Camp Cedarcrest – or shut it down for good
• Explore a secretive society and its powerful magic.
• Be a good influence on your campers, or teach them to be troublemakers, just like you.

We hope you enjoy playing Psy High 2: High Summer. 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.