We’re proud to announce that Welcome to Moreytown, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. It’s 25% off until May 12th!
Claw your way to the top of Moreytown, a furry slum for human-animal hybrids. Will you take down the gangs who rule the town, or take them over instead?
Welcome to Moreytown is a 150,000-word interactive novel by S. Andrew Swann. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
You’re a moreau: a genetically engineered human-animal hybrid, a remnant of mankind’s last war. Surviving life in a Moreytown hasn’t been easy, but now, someone is out to kill you and your fellow “moreys”—unexplained fires, explosions, and the gangs swirling around the neighborhood add up to big trouble. It’s up to you to save your pelt, and maybe take over town.
Play as one of thirteen different species, including tiger, capybara, bear, or wolf. Infiltrate a sinister cult, or ally yourself with a gang of moreys. Choose a side and let the fur fly!
• Play as male, female, or non-binary, gay, straight, bi, or ace
• Fight the police or help them to bring down a terrifying enemy
• Save your neighborhood from utter destruction
• Take over a street gang, or even run your own cult
• Explore multiple potential romantic relationships
We hope you enjoy playing Welcome to Moreytown. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, 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.
Choice of Games’ latest release will be Welcome to Moreytown by S. Andrew Swann. In Moreytown, You’re a moreau: a genetically engineered human-animal hybrid, a remnant of mankind’s last war. Surviving life in a Moreytown hasn’t been easy, but now, someone is out to kill you and your fellow “moreys”—unexplained fires, explosions, and the gangs swirling around the neighborhood add up to big trouble. It’s up to you to save your pelt, and maybe take over town. I sat down with the author to learn more about the game and their experiences writing interactive fiction. Look for Welcome to Moreytownlater this week, releasing on Friday, May 5th.
Tell me about what influenced your world creation for Moreytown. What kind of a world is this set in?
Welcome to Moreytown is based on the universe I created with my first three novels back in the early 1990s. The world was built around the idea of the genetically engineered “moreaus;” soldiers engineered from various animals’ DNA. The novels, and the game, are set a generation or so after the wars the moreaus were created for, and after a mass wave of moreau immigration into the United States. Moreaus in the United States, in theory at least, have the same rights and equal protection under the law as any human– a substantial improvement compared to the countries where they were created, where they’re little better than chattel. The literary influences were Noir and Cyberpunk, so a dark and not-quite-dystopian setting. The world of the game, like the books, is gritty and urban. The characters experience street-level conflicts; dealing with cops, inter-gang rivalries, human-moreau relations and so on.
Are you a big fan of H.G. Wells?
He’s a foundational author, right up there with Edgar Allan Poe. Someone I was reading back in junior high, before I knew I was a SF writer.
What kinds of social issues did you have in mind as you were writing it?
The moreaus, like any group, have their own unique perspective and problems. That said, they share common threads with many different marginalized groups. The original novels were written in the shadow of the Rodney King verdict and the L.A. Riots, so the analogs with racial tensions were inevitable. The prejudice many humans exhibit toward the moreau population can be easily seen as a metaphor for race relations in the US. But that’s not the only thing going on. The moreaus are also a multi-generational refugee population with some serious assimilation problems. In some sense, they can never assimilate into the surrounding society, because the barriers are physical as well as cultural. Markers of culture, such as dress and diet, are constrained by the moreaus’ biology. They don’t just look different, in a fundamental sense they are different.
Then there’s religion. Moreaus happen to know the details of their creation and why they were created. That has certain theological implications. Any moreau religion that defines the moreaus’ relation to God, by necessity has to do the same for humans. And given the historical treatment of moreaus by humans, it is easy for a new moreau religion to take a gnostic point-of-view, see creation as a perversion of the divine, and cast humankind as the villain. The political and social problems faced by moreaus mirror those suffered by any minority population embedded in a larger society; they live in a segregated community, they’re economically disadvantaged, individual bad actors are often seen as representative of the whole, and they have to bear with the prejudices and misconceptions of the surrounding society. It’s a story that’s as old as civilization, but the fact that moreaus aren’t a human population helps to emphasize exactly how universal these problems are.
What did you find challenging about the process of writing in ChoiceScript/our game design?
It was intuitively obvious that each scene could lead to multiple branching paths. What’s less obvious is that each scene might have multiple converging paths leading up to it. That means that the PC’s experience of a given scene is going to be influenced in large part by the path by which they got to it. The same line of dialog from the same NPC will read differently if the PC’s prior interactions with the character have been friendly, manipulative, or hostile. Also given that there’s no real way to write the narrative sequentially, it makes continuity problems easy to introduce and difficult to track down.
The other challenge is more in terms of design. In linear fiction you can build the plot around the measured release of information (Who is the villain? What are they planning? What secrets are the other characters hiding?) but, in a game where the player may go through multiple times, you can’t rely on these kind of revelations for drama’s sake. “Luke, I am your father,” is only going to have a big impact the first time around.
Are you a fan of interactive fiction in general? Any favorites you’d like to share?
My introduction to the genre was back in the day on my old Commodore 64. I played a lot of Infocom’s library on that thing. I still have a soft spot in my heart for Zork and its sequels, which I’ve run on emulators on various pieces of hardware since. More recent vintage I’ve enjoyed CoG’s own Psy High.
What else are you working on now as a writer?
I have a few novels in various stages of development. I currently have two SF titles sitting with two different editors, one a time travel/alternate history story with zombies and zeppelins, the other an interplanetary thriller that’s sort of The Expanse meets The Bourne Identity.
Proust/Pivot Style Questionnaire Questions
What is your favorite word?
Three way tie: “Antidisestablishmentarianism,” “Illuminati,” or “Jabberwock.”
Your favorite color?
Red– no Blue!–Ahhhhhhhh…
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
I’ve always had an interest in graphic design. I could easily see that my career could have headed in that direction if I’d done a few things differently out of high school.
Do you want to know more about the origins of A Midsummer Night’s Choice? Do you want to impress your friends with how much you know about Shakespeare? And more importantly, do you want to know why there’s a bear? Now you can purchase the Director’s Commentary!
In the “Director’s Commentary” mode, an extra option will appear on certain choices, “View new commentary,” allowing you to read the author’s notes about that moment in the story.
To unlock the Director’s Commentary, you’ll first need to purchase the full version of A Midsummer Night’s Choice on the web, iOS, Android, or Steam. The Director’s Commentary is an additional in-app purchase for $0.99.
The author, Kreg Segall, is Associate Professor of English at Regis College, in Massachusetts, where he teaches and writes about medieval and Renaissance literature. In addition to his scholarly work on Shakespeare and Spenser, he has been writing live role-playing games for over twenty years.
Whenever we try something new, we think of it as an experiment. If lots of people buy and enjoy the Director’s Commentary for Midsummer, we’ll plan do more of it in the future.
Choice of the Dragon was our very first game, and we’re proud to announce that it’s now available in Spanish!
It’s completely free to play the entire game from beginning to end.
On iOS and Android, if your phone uses Spanish as its native language, the game will automatically be in Spanish when you open it. On the web, you can click the “Español”/”English” link to switch back and forth. On iOS, you can click the “Settings”/”Ajustes” button on the Menu screen to change languages. On Android, use the Menu button and select “Change Language”/”Cambiar idioma”.
Launching a game in Spanish is a big bet for us. Translating a game can cost as much as writing the game in the first place! If the Spanish translation sells well, we’ll be able to deliver translations of more of our games in even more languages. Please share Choice of the Dragon with Spanish-speaking friends and relatives!
For years, people have asked us for the ability to change the color and size of the text in our games, and now you can! We now offer a choice of three background colors (black, white, and sepia) and many choices of text size.
You can find the new “Settings” button right at the top of the screen on web and Steam, or on the menu screen on iOS or Android.
This position has been filled. Thanks for your interest.
Choice of Games LLC is hiring! We’re looking for a part-time customer service representative. If you’re interested, please send your resume to jobs@choiceofgames.com.
Here’s the full job listing:
Employer: Choice of Games LLC Location: Telecommute (US resident) Part-time, flexible hours (15-30 hours/week)
Choice of Games LLC was founded in 2009 to produce high-quality, multiple-choice text adventures. Choice of Games has a strong commitment to diversity of authors and representation within its publications. Its games are feminist and inclusive, and it has been featured positively in press for its embrace of the vision-impaired community and the LGBT community. Choice of Games is a small, fast-growing company, with over fifty titles published on storefronts such as the iTunes App Store, Steam, Amazon, and Google Play. This is an excellent opportunity for someone interested in customer service and community development within the gaming industry. This is a part-time position; we will guarantee a minimum of 15 hours of work per week, but individual weeks will vary from approximately 15 to 30 hours of work.
The Customer Service Representative will serve a variety of outward-facing functions in the company. The two core aspects of the position will be: 1) providing customer service and support in response to e-mails from customers via our company inbox, and 2) engaging with and monitoring our large and active forum community.
Main Responsibilities:
Monitor the support@choiceofgames inbox and respond to Customer Service requests.
Work with customers to diagnose and solve their problems.
Engage with and monitor the (sometimes raucous) forum community.
Listen to and support the existing forum moderators.
Escalate problems that need additional attention to appropriate members of the Choice of Games team.
This is a telecommute position. The first two weeks will involve learning the current Customer Service processes as well as getting acquainted with the forum community. After that, the Customer Service Representative will have primary responsibility for handling all traffic to the support@choiceofgames inbox and for monitoring the forum community with an eye towards spotting and defusing developing problems. Volume of customer service work at Choice of Games varies significantly from week to week. During high-volume weeks, we will expect additional hours of work. During low-volume weeks (under 15 hours), we will assign other responsibilities (such as Quality Assurance work, familiarizing yourself with our proprietary ChoiceScript scripting language, and other tasks).
This position has the potential to develop into a full-time community management position as the needs of Choice of Games evolve and as the Customer Service Representative gains more experience. There are also opportunities for this position to develop into other aspects of Choice of Games’s work, including game design, programming and technical work, and editorial work, depending on the interests and qualifications of the candidate.
Required Qualifications: Strong written communication skills, including comfort with communicating by e-mail. Ability to handle difficult and aggressive communications from customers gracefully is key. The candidate must be organized, a self-starter, and capable of managing their own time.
The ideal candidate will have a strong interest in games in general and Choice of Games’s interactive fiction games in particular. A college degree or equivalent experience is a plus, but not required. Prior experience with forum management or moderation and community building is a plus. Proficiency in Spanish would be helpful but is not required. Familiarity with at least one programming language is a plus; familiarity with ChoiceScript is even better.
Compensation:
Base wage of $14/hour.
Competitive benefits package.
This is a part-time, non-exempt position. We would prefer an immediate start, but the start date is negotiable for the right candidate. Choice of Games LLC is an equal opportunity employer with a strong commitment to diversity. Choice of Games encourages people with disabilities and people of all genders, sexualities, ages, family and marital statuses, races, ethnicities, national origins, and religions to apply.
Please submit a CV and cover letter to: jobs@choiceofgames.com
Something is rotten in City Hall—can you uncover it and…win a Pulitzer? When the mayor unexpectedly resigns, it’s up to you, the rookie reporter on the City Desk to find out the real story and get it into print. Right away you smell a rat. As you track down sources and information, your reporter’s instincts, brains, heart, or impeccable writing will lead you to the truth.
“The Daily Blackmail” is a 33,000 word interactive fantasy novella by Mary Duffy, 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.
In The Daily Blackmail, you’ll get all the news that is (and isn’t!) fit to print.
• Play as male, female, or non-binary.
• Cross paths with an evil editor, a mobster, and even scarier: the publisher.
• Lie, cheat, and steal to get your front page story.
• Press your colleagues, political cronies, and underworld sources for information.
• Reach for every reporter’s dream—a Pulitzer Prize.
Mary Duffy 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.
The Golden Age of heroes is over, but you’re just beginning. Will you use your powers to help the world or help yourself? Set on a near-future Earth that has been irrevocably altered by the arrival of superhumans, the world has been dealing with a radical shift in the nature of humanity. For thirty years, those with world-altering powers – referred to as capes – have been at the forefront of the world’s media. There has been heroes, there has been villains, and there has been world-shattering confrontations when those two groups came into contact. For a time, those individuals walked the world like modern deities. For a time, it was good.
But things change. Given time, all things resolve to entropy.
The Golden Age is over. The player, a member of the newest graduating class of an international academy for powered individuals, needs to find their place in this new world, and whether that place will be determined by their own hand – or by the machinations of others. Assigned to the troubled Paradigm City, it’ll be up to the player to determine whether their name becomes a byword for fame or infamy, idealism or pragmatism, and loyalty or ambition.
“Paradigm City” is a 110,000 word interactive fantasy novel by James Rhoden, 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 non-binary, straight, gay or bi!
• Experience your life from youth to the end of your first big mission!
• Multiple endings, with differences both big and small! How will your actions affect the future of the world?
• Utilize the three precepts of epic heroism – brawn, bravado and brains – to solve challenges!
• Increase the potency of your electrokinetic superpower to overcome dangerous threats!
• Work with a team of elite heroes to solve a mystery – your relationships with them will determine their fates, and whether you’ll learn their stories.
• Uncover and unveil a conspiracy, or work to use it for your own ends!
• Embrace the traditional values of the classical crusader, or embody the cutting-edge pragmatics of modern powered heroes!
• Sixty achievements!
• Three romance options to choose from – or don’t, and keep things strictly professional!
James Rhoden 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.
As part of our support for the Choice of Games Contest for Interactive Novels, we will be posting an irregular series of blog posts discussing important design and writing criteria for games. We hope that these can both provide guidance for people participating in the Contest and also help people understand how we think about questions of game design and some best practices. These don’t modify the evaluation criteria for the Contest, and (except as noted) participants are not required to conform to our recommendations–but it’s probably a good idea to listen when judges tell you what they’re looking for.
If these topics interest you, be sure to sign up for our contest mailing list below! We’ll post more of our thoughts on game design leading up to the contest deadline on January 31, 2018.
This is the final part of our three part series in designed to give concrete ways in which our Guidelines connect with our Judging Rubric. For a refresher, here’s the previous blog post where we covered Creative Stats, Balanced Choices, and Conflicting Goals with Satisfying Endings, and here’s the first blog post where we covered Inclusivity, Length and Coding Efficiency, and Setting and Plot. Here we’re going to cover writing Original, Interesting Characters, and what we look for in Prose Styling, in addition to explaining what the judges personally look for in games to give you a better understanding of how we approach things.
Original, Interesting Characters (15% of score):
Characters should be fresh, interesting, and distinctive. They should feel different from each other, and have their own personalities and motivations distinct from the PC’s. Interesting characters require a balance of characteristics that make them identifiable, relatable, and unique. The details of what this means, however, is fairly specific to the game. For example, a gritty noir may have characters that are most identifiable by the different way each one talks, relatable in that they have very human vices, and unique in their complex motivations and desires. A more heroic epic, on the other hand, may require characters to be identifiable in much more vivid and exaggerated descriptions, relatable in that they represent more absolute emotions and thoughts, and unique less in their complexity and more in how literally one of a kind they are.
In keeping with the ideas of inclusivity, characters should not play into stereotypes. While the reasons negative stereotypes are damaging to marginalized groups is relatively obvious (anyone should be able to understand the implications of having all the villains be the same ethnicity, and all the heros be another), games should also avoid ‘positive stereotypes’ such as “all women are nurturing”, “all Asians are good at math”, “all black men are good at sports”, and “all indigenous people are naturally spiritual.” These stereotypes limit characters from being unique and interesting in addition to limiting our understanding of the roles available to minority groups.
Games with characters which are fun, interesting, engaging, and relatable are likely to score higher in this category. Games with characters that are entirely defined by their tropes, or their physical characteristics, or that are indistinguishable from each other, are likely to score low on Interesting Characters. Games that lack enough distinction between characters, or that otherwise lack characterization, may receive an 0 in this category.
Prose Styling (10% of score):
Your writing should attempt to be as word-perfect as possible: that means correct spelling, grammar, and usage. While prose styling beyond those elements is subjective (How good is this writing? Does it engage me and do I want to keep reading?) we expect to see evidence that you’ve worked to submit clean copy to us. Writing should conform to our Style Guide both in terms of text (second person games should use first person options) and punctuation (no smart quotes, correct em-dashes, etc.)
Games which are beautifully written, or that deeply engage the player with their prose, are likely to score higher in this category. Games which are boring to read, or that that contain odd, confusing, or difficult writing are likely to score lower. Games which are unintelligible, which lack proper punctuation, or that are otherwise very poorly written may receive an 0 in Prose.
Judge’s Choice (5% of score):
The Judge’s Choice category is, obviously, how much the judges like your game. While it’s possible to discuss what makes a “good” game to the point of exhaustion without getting anywhere–especially once you start trying to account for taste–there are still three major things we can start off for games that are widely appealing. Most objectively, how does your game hold up as a cohesive whole? Cohesiveness can mean a good, logical interaction between stats and end states, while the lack of game balance, like having branches that are excessively difficult or far too easy to reach, or that have systems that make the player’s choices meaningless, can indicate some cohesiveness problems. Likewise, stats that match up meaningfully with theme and storytelling indicate a good game, while games that have odd combinations (such as a core choice of strength, agility, intelligence in a love story) might lack a sense of cohesion.
There are also more subjective standards. For example, is the game enjoyable? There’s a certain element of “fun” which can be very elusive both to make and describe, but the degree to which a game is gripping–how much it makes you want to keep playing to see the end–is a strong indicator. It’s very possible to paint by the numbers and end up with a game that at first glance appears decent, but in actual play isn’t all that enjoyable. In avoiding that, it’s very necessary not to lose that element of enjoyment in trying to hit all the right keys. Finally, and already mentioned briefly, is taste. While our rubric is designed to put the best games at top irrespective of our personal tastes, the fact of the matter is that we all play games and read stories to have a good time. So rather than break down what’s good and what’s bad for this category, here’s what the judges have to say about what they personally enjoy in our games:
Dan: A good story is like a good joke. The ending has to be surprising but inevitable in hindsight. A great ChoiceScript game makes players complicit in the process, allowing them to surprise themselves in ways only they could have predicted.
Jason: The thing that I want is to not be asked the same question repeatedly. I want the choices to be in different registers; about different plotlines; to be at cross-purposes. I want narrative tension. I want to be anguished by having to make a decision. In short, I want to be compelled to replay the game.
Becky: Does the story make me feel something? Does it make me want to know what happens next – by letting me connect with the characters enough to feel invested in their stories; by setting up enough tension in the plot to make me want to see how it gets resolved?
Adam: I focus on whether a game keeps me hooked. I want a game to grab me early on and make me determined to play more. I want choices that keep me interested–and that means I want variety of choices, not a repetition of the same choices over and over again. When I get to the end of the game, I want there to be different strategies that call out to be tried in a replay.
Mary: I tend to look closely at the prose of a game. I like to see polish at a sentence level–that is, prose that moves me through a scene in an exciting way, or slows down to a level of detail when I need to know more about an interaction or what’s happening. The dictum of fiction is: “Does this sentence reveal character or move the plot forward?” If it doesn’t, cut it.
Rachel: There’s a certain joy in having everything intricately–yet still neatly–tied together. When subtle changes in one early choice ripples out, the consequences of which gather steam until it shifts the whole course of the story, it feels like anything can happen.
And so along with the rest of the Judging Rubric, that makes up everything we’ll be judging our games on. Of course no game is or can be perfect in all of these categories, but each should make should strive to be as good as they can in all of them.
We’re proud to announce that The Eagle’s Heir, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. It’s 20% off until April 6th!
Defend Napoleon’s heir in this steampunk alternate history game of political maneuvering, airship adventure, and romantic intrigue! Will you bring liberty to France, or plunge Europe into bloody war?
“The Eagle’s Heir” is a 200,000 word interactive novel by Amy Griswold and Jo Graham. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics, or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Since Napoleon won the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, seventeen years ago, Europe has enjoyed an uneasy peace. While the great empires of Austria, Russia and England have tried to stem the tide of revolution, France has mastered steam power to conquer the air and sea. Now, Napoleon’s health is failing, and France is torn between his legitimate heir, Franz, and his illegitimate son Alexandre.
Luckily, Alexandre has you, his loyal bodyguard and childhood companion, skilled in the arts of the duel and the ballroom, and ready for anything from diplomacy to airship combat!
It’s brother against brother as you choose who will rule France, and how. Will France have a king, an emperor, or become a republic? Can you guide your lifelong friend Alexandre to the throne, and keep not just your prince but his revolutionary ideals alive? Or will you throw your weight behind his half-brother Franz? Will you defeat France’s enemies with the thunder of airship guns or forge a marriage alliance in gaslit ballrooms?
• Play as male, female, genderfluid, or non-binary; gay, straight, or asexual
• Race airships across the English Channel
• Find romance with a journalist or a lady’s maid, or ménage a trois at the Tuileries Palace
• Join a motley crew of actors in the revolutionary cause, or spy on them for your allies
• Duel aristocrats to preserve your and Alexandre’s honor
• Plan a scandalous elopement which sends Europe into an uproar
When swords cross before the throne, who will be the Eagle’s Heir?
We hope you enjoy playing The Eagle’s Heir. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, 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.
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