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First, we’d like to announce that one of our bestselling games, Mecha Ace, is now available on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Buy it today for 34% off the regular price!

Second, we’re announcing that The Ascot is now available under our “Hosted Games” program for iOS, Android, and the web.

Mecha Ace: Duel giant mechs with plasma sabers to save us all

Step into the cockpit of a giant robot in an interstellar civil war! Customize your mecha to duel against enemy pilots with “monosaber” plasma swords. Find glory, disgrace, and even love.

“Mecha Ace” is a thrilling interactive sci-fi novel by Paul Wang, where your choices control the story. The game is entirely text-based–without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

We need your support to continue delivering our games on Steam. Our goal is to release our entire catalog of interactive novels on Steam. Based on the performance of Heroes Rise, Valve has allowed us to ship Choice of the Deathless, Thieves’ Gambit: Curse of the Black Cat, and Mecha Ace. We’ll need to continue to deliver outstanding results to prove that interactive fiction can be successful on Steam.

We’re asking all of our fans to follow us on Steam. Even if you don’t use Steam that much, it will be a big help if you sign up to follow us there, because the more followers we get, the better visibility we get on Steam’s curator list. (Our goal is to hit 3,000 followers for our Steam curation page; we’re about 9% of the way there after just a week!)

When you follow us, you’ll see our games and our recommended games right on your Steam home page. It’s free, and it’s a big help to us, so follow us today!

The Ascot: Excitement! Adventure! Want treasure? (Y/N)

In The Ascot, anything might happen to you on the way to the convenience store. You might even run into a guy handing out cursed ascots that lead you to lost fortunes guarded by terrible monsters. Can you nab 100% of the Hizkwelderbang fortune, or will you be lunch for the Eagle Beast?

“The Ascot” was nominated for a 2009 XYZZY Award for “Best Individual Puzzle,” which is extra impressive when you consider that in this game, you have to speak through an electronic interpreter that only allows you to say “Yes” or “No.” Can you find the best ending with just shaking and nodding?

We hope you enjoy playing Mecha Ace and The Ascot. We encourage you to tell your friends about them, and recommend our games on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our ranking on the sales charts. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank!

Starting today, you can buy our games for 34% off on Steam! (Sale ends December 2.) This includes the Heroes Rise Trilogy, Choice of the Deathless, and our newest game, Thieves’ Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat.

We need your support to continue delivering our games on Steam. Steam has introduced a powerful new curation system, that lets you follow people and organizations that recommend good games. We’ve set up our own Steam curation page to recommend our favorite choice-based games, and we’d like you to follow us.

Our goal is to hit 3,000 followers for our Steam curation page. Even if you don’t use Steam that much, it will be a big help if you sign up to follow us there, because the more followers we get, the better visibility we get on Steam’s curator list.

When you follow us, you’ll see our games and our recommended games right on your Steam home page. It’s free, and it’s a big help to us, so follow us today!

Apple released iOS 8.1.1 today, which fixes a bug in iOS 8 that prevented our games from working in iOS VoiceOver mode. Visually impaired users who upgrade to iOS 8.1.1 can now play our games normally.

Have you ever wanted to write an interactive novel? November is National Novel Writing Month or “NaNoWriMo” for short. This year, thousands of authors will write 50,000 words of fiction between November 1st and November 30th.

Of course, most NaNoWriMo authors will write traditional linear novels this year, but we’d like to invite you use ChoiceScript to write an interactive NaNoWriMo novel. ChoiceScript is a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice games (MCGs) like ours. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience.

And you won’t be alone! A number of authors on our forum are going to work on their novels this month together, reporting their progress and encouraging each other to finish.

When you’re finished, you can even submit your finished ChoiceScript game to us; we’ll host it for you publicly and give you a share of the revenue your game produces.

Choice of Games wishes all participants of NaNoWriMo the best of luck. Happy writing!

Choice of the Deathless, Max Gladstone’s interactive necromantic legal thriller, is 34% off on Steam, starting today. The sale ends November 2nd.

If you’ve ever wanted to be an undead skeleton lawyer wizard working with clients from another plane of reality–and who hasn’t?–this is your game.

Buy it today at our lowest price ever!

Choice of Games condemns the misogyny and hate speech of the GamerGate movement.

GamerGate’s primary effect is to drive women from the gaming community. For many participants in GamerGate, stigmatizing and threatening women gamers, game designers, and game commentators is not merely an effect of GamerGate, but is the underlying purpose. Even GamerGaters who do not themselves engage in hate speech against women contribute to the hostile environment of GamerGate when they hold themselves out as comrades-in-arms with people who make rape and murder threats, who engage in doxxing attacks against women for speaking out against GamerGate, and who strive to make the gaming community unwelcoming to women.

Feminism is a core value of Choice of Games. We believe that women, girls, and genderqueer individuals constitute a vital part of the gaming community; they are equally important and as welcome as men and boys. We are proud that many of our authors are women, many of the gamers who enjoy our games are women, and our professional staff includes both women and men.

Choice of Games is proud to fight for social justice. We oppose GamerGate, and we stand with the women who are making a better, more diverse gaming community.

Today, Choice of Games is proud to announce two new games. First, Thieves’ Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available on Steam, iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire.

Second, we’re announcing that Divided We Fall is now available under our “Hosted Games” program for iOS, Android, and the Chrome Web Store.

Steal the world’s unluckiest diamond in “Thieves’ Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat”

You’re the world’s greatest jewel thief! Well, second greatest. But if you and your team of talented crooks can steal the Black Cat, the world’s unluckiest diamond, you’ll be legendary!

Thieves’ Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat is an interactive heist caper by Dana Duffield, 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.

The Black Cat has never been stolen, its previous owners all having died under improbably unfortunate circumstances. Break into the palace of San Castellano, pinch the gem, evade the relentless Inspector Leclerc and get away before you succumb to the Curse of the Black Cat!

Play as male or female; gay, straight, or bi. Choose your methods and your motives. Will you be an honorable thief or a ruthless criminal? A technical genius or a master of disguise? Who can you trust, and who will you double-cross?

• 100,000-word tale of adventure and intrigue
• Fast cars
• High fashion
• State-of-the-art spy gadgets
• Double-cross or be double-crossed

“Divided We Fall” is a Spanish Civil War epic

The Spanish Civil War is the setting of Divided We Fall. In 1936, Spain was a nation bitterly divided by politics, religion and class. These tensions exploded into one of the most brutal and ideological conflicts in history, the Spanish Civil War.

Shape the lives of four Spaniards on both sides of the divide; will they be brutalised, stay true to their principles or even survive? You decide in this 130,000 word illustrated interactive epic.

We hope you enjoy playing Thieves’ Gambit: The Curse of the Black Cat and Divided We Fall. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend our games 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.

We’re proud to announce that Yeti’s Parole Officer, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for iOS, Android, and, via the Chrome Web Store, Windows, OS X, and Linux.

The Yeti, Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabra, and Mothman are aliens, sentenced to prison on Earth by the Pan-Galactic Prisons Bureau. As the Yeti’s parole officer, you must defend the galaxy from these convicts, unravel their criminal conspiracy, and bring them to justice!

“Yeti’s Parole Officer” is a hilarious interactive sci-fi novel by KT Bryski, 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.

As an officer of pan-galactic law, you’ll travel around the world to wipe all memory of alien activity on Earth, battling extraterrestrial smugglers and rival PGPB agents alike to save the world from nefarious cryptids.

Will you play as male or female? Gay or straight? Will you throw the book at the alien scofflaws messing with your planet, or will you betray your allies for personal gain? The choice is yours!

We hope you enjoy playing Yeti’s Parole Officer. 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.

We’ve received a number of reports recently that our apps don’t work in “Voiceover” mode for iOS 8, which reads the game aloud for visually impaired users. I’ve confirmed that, indeed, our games really don’t work in Voiceover mode on iOS 8, even though they used to work in iOS 7.1, and that this is due to a bug in iOS 8.

The effect of the bug is that it’s not possible to activate the “Next” button at the bottom of the screen, which should normally lock in a choice selection and display the next page of content. When Voiceover users double-tap to activate the “Next” button, Voiceover makes the “button activate” sound effect and repeats the name of the button, “Next,” but nothing else happens.

I’ve identified a minimal, complete and verifiable example of the Voiceover iOS 8 bug and filed a bug report to Apple’s bug reporter. For now, there’s nothing we can do about this; we just have to wait for Apple to fix it.

Our games do work correctly on iOS 8 mobile Safari on the web, so for the time being, if you’re visually impaired and wish to play our games on iOS 8, playing games on our web site is probably your best option.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Visually impaired users are a very important part of our community. Please reach out to us at support@choiceofgames.com if you have any questions or if we can provide further assistance.

We’re proud to announce that Gangs of Old Camp, the latest in our Hosted Games label of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for iOS, Android, and, via the Chrome Web Store, Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Gangs of Old Camp is an interactive suspense thriller by Amith Shaju where your choices control the story. Undercover, you are on your own! Embark on the deadliest quest of your life. Death awaits you at every corner. Battle thugs, find love, solve puzzles and piece together the story to unravel the mysterious mastermind. Is the legend of the Lone Wolf a mere myth? Will you come out with your soul unscathed? Or will you become the very monster you planned to bring down? Do you have what it takes to complete all eight milestones? Find out in this action packed interactive tale of love, duty and betrayal.

We hope you enjoy playing Gangs of Old Camp. 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. Basically, the more times you download in the first week, the better we’ll rank.