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Now you can play Choice of Zombies as a retired Delta Force operator – an elite member of the U.S. Army’s special forces, expert at unarmed combat, infiltration, and staying alive in enemy territory. And armed with an MP-5 and a grenade launcher.

It’s zombie hunting season.

The Delta Force option is only available for iOS and Android devices, because it requires an in-app purchase. Discover how your new skill set changes the zombiepocalypse experience! See how much longer you can survive, how many more people you can rescue, how many more zombies you can put back in the grave!

(And when you’ve been there and done that, get the t-shirt!)

Back in June we posted a link to IntroComp, an annual interactive-fiction competition in which entrants submit only the first part of their games. Players vote for the winning game.

The introductions are now available and can be found here in a single zipped file:
http://www.allthingsjacq.com/IntroComp12

There are six contestants this year, of which two were written in ChoiceScript. As always, we recommend playing as many of the games as possible before voting.

Please note that it is the expectation of the IntroComp organizers that no one will canvass for votes on the authors’ behalf. It’s inappropriate to post voting recommendations on our forums or anywhere else.

It is furthermore hoped that you’ll vote in good faith and on an introduction’s merit, as opposed to a show of support for a particular author, genre, or platform. In other words, please don’t just vote for the ChoiceScript games! Try some of the other stuff to see if you like it. All of the other games are parser-based interactive fiction; here’s a handy cheat sheet for how to play games like that.

The voting deadline is midnight Eastern time on August 25, 2012. You’ll need to register before you can login and vote online.

Please vote for your favorite intoductions! May the best game win!

Today, we’re proud to announce that Heroes Rise: The Prodigy, the latest in our popular line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for iOS, Kindle and Android. This is also our first game available for download on Windows, OS X, and Linux via the Chrome Web Store.

In “Heroes Rise,” Powered heroes have become the ultimate celebrities, and you dream of joining the A-List–but to get there, you’ll first have to take down evil Powered gangs, compete with deadly rivals, choose a worthy sidekick, team up with famous champions, and prove to all of Millennia City that you’re a true hero.

“The game is completely text-based,” said Zachary Sergi, author of “Heroes Rise.” “There’s no graphics, no music; nothing but 100,000 words and your imagination.”

At each step, “Heroes Rise” offers a multiple-choice question, putting you in control of the interactive story.

For example, when surrounded by dozens of criminals who are battling for control of the “Gravitas” artifact, which would you choose?

• Jump in right away and stop the killing. It doesn’t matter who gets the Gravitas–saving lives is more important than anything.
• Your only concern here is the Gravitas. Make a grab for it and go!
• Wait for them all to kill each other off, then take the Gravitas by surprise from whoever is left standing.
• Stay put and wait for the police to arrive–this is way too much for you and you know it.

Will you play as male or female? Gay or straight? Crusade for justice, or gun for money?

How high will you rise?

This Is Not a Hosted Game

In the past, Choice of Games has distinguished between two types of releases: our official “Choice of” games (Dragon, Broadsides, Romance, Vampire, Zombies) and unofficial “hosted games” written by third parties.

Today, we’re trying something new: Heroes Rise is a full-fledged “Choice of” game, written by a professional author outside the “Choice of Games” partnership.

Furthermore, unlike our other games, we’re not offering the entirety of “Heroes Rise” for free on our website. We’re offering the first 20,000 words of the game for free (out of 100,000 total); to play the rest, you’ll have to purchase the game.

That’s why we’ve chosen to make “Heroes Rise” available on the Chrome Web Store. Anyone on Windows, OS X, or Linux who doesn’t have an iOS, Android, or Kindle device can download Google Chrome for free to purchase our game. When you buy Heroes Rise on the Chrome Web Store, the game will download to your computer, where it will be available to play offline as long as you like.

We hope you enjoy playing Heroes Rise: The Prodigy. 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 Heroes Rise will rank.

EDIT 7/18: The iOS app is now available!

There are two fantastic game development events happening this month: the 2012 IntroComp competition and National Game Development Month. Both are great venues for games written in ChoiceScript.

National Game Development Month is a parallel to National Novel Writing Month; we’re late in announcing it, because it started June 1. You can register here to start working with a community of game makers who can encourage you to start and help you finish the game that’s been dancing in your imagination for years.

If you’re not sure you can finish a game in that time, consider just writing the introduction to a game, and submitting it to IntroComp!

The requirements of IntroComp are deceptively simple: All entrants must submit the beginning of a new, never before seen work of IF that is not yet complete and for which the ending is somewhat uncertain. The introduction can be as short or as long as the author likes, so long as it is 1) a working, playable game and 2) interactive fiction.

Note that this year has a new rule that only introductions to games which are slated for non-commercial release may be entered in the competition. (I asked for some clarification of this rule in email; the organizer emphasized that IntroComp “is not a venue for people aspiring to make money.”) This includes games distributed for free with advertisements.

If you’re interested participating, you’ll need to submit your Intent to Enter by June 15th (just a few days away!) and submit your polished introduction on July 15th. The competition is open and welcoming to games written in ChoiceScript; last year, the top two entries were in ChoiceScript, including the winner, Choice of Zombies.

Choice of Games is pleased to announce the release of Sons of the Cherry, by Alex Livingston, author of The Nightmare Maze. Play it on the web, or download the iPhone version or the Android version.

“Sons of the Cherry” is a game of espionage and arcane magic in the American Revolution. Choose a side or go it alone in the secret war for the soul of the new nation. Use multiple magic disciplines to reach your goals and change history.

Both “Sons of the Cherry” and “The Nightmare Maze” are part of Alex’s Waking Cassandra series, which now includes two multiple-choice games, a comic book, and a stage play. You may also recognize “Sons of the Cherry” as an entrant in the 2010 IFComp. (At that time, the game was available only on the web.) The new version of the game incorporates feedback from IFComp reviewers.

We hope you enjoy playing “Sons of the Cherry” and we encourage you to play it, tell your friends, and to recommend it on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our App Store ranking. Basically, the more times you download in the first week, the better “Sons of the Cherry” will rank.

Finally, a shameless plug: “Sons of the Cherry” is another game available as part of our hosted games plan. If you’d like to write a multiple-choice game of your own, give it a try! If you host our game with us, we’ll share a portion of the revenue that the game produces with you.

The Kindle Zombie Watch was upgraded to a Zombie Warning on Monday, following eyewitness reports of zombie sightings on the Kindle platform. Kindle users are advised to stay indoors and practice Zombiepocalypse Survival techniques with Choice of Zombies from Choice of Games.

• Choice of Zombies for Kindle Fire
• Choice of Zombies for E Ink Kindles
• Or, just search for “Choice of Zombies” on your Kindle.

The game is also (still) available on the iOS App Store and the Android Google Play Store.

Choice of Games, the company that has already given you valuable psychological insight into dragons and vampires, proudly unveils its Zombiepocalypse survival training simulation: Choice of Zombies, by Heather Albano and Richard Jackson. Download it from the iOS App Store, the Android Google Play Store, the Amazon Appstore for Android, the Amazon Kindle Store for E Ink Kindles, or play it on our website.

In Choice of Zombies, you play an ordinary person caught in a zombie apocalypse. Can you stay alive long enough to get your friends to a place of safety? Will you keep your humanity intact or become a bloodthirsty zombie hunter? And can you discover the secret behind the zombie virus?

We hope you enjoy playing Choice of Zombies, and we encourage you to tell your friends about it, wear your Zombiepocalypse t-shirt wherever you go, and recommend the game on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our App Store ranking. Basically, the more times you download in the first week, the better Choice of Zombies will rank.

UPDATE 4/23: Added link to Kindle Store

Mark your calendars! Choice of Zombies, our newest game from Heather Albano and Richard Jackson, will be released on Friday, April 13th. Download it this Friday from the iOS App Store, the Android Google Play Store, the Amazon Appstore for Android, or play it on our website.

If you’d like to be reminded when our game is available, subscribe to our blog on the right-hand side of this page, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. We’ll run one more blog post on Friday to post download links.

In the meantime, we’re running a Zombiepocalypse countdown on Twitter/Facebook/G+, featuring quotes from the game.

• Monday: “A cat food can is a pretty reasonable weapon, actually.”
• Tuesday: “The zombie’s hand comes off. With your new third hand, you wedge the accelerator down.”
• Wednesday: “The zombie baby starts to throw a little tantrum as it strains to bite you and fails.”
• Thursday: “You look into his soft gooey eyes. After you’ve eaten his eyes, you could eat his brains.”

There’s nothing quite like the high of galloping toward the end of a project, so I am particularly happy to report the “Choice of Zombies” finish line is in sight.

They're happy, too.

The first third of the game won IntroComp 2011 back in July (and have I mentioned that I am still floored by that? The Ego-Boost That Keeps On Boosting) and we’re pretty sure the rest of the game meets the expectations set by the beginning.

We’ve tried some new things with this one—Zombies is the most complex game ever made under the official “Choice of” brand, and it’s the first game my husband Richard Jackson and I have designed together. It’s Richard’s first foray into ChoiceScript, in fact—but almost certainly not his last. Welcome to the madness, love…

He wants YOU.

Zombies is also the first game to feature box art by the multi-talented Jason Wiser—art so awesome and so disturbing that it simply had to go on a t-shirt too. Because who doesn’t need a t-shirt depicting zombies bursting out of their ribcage? Right, exactly. Everyone needs this shirt. (There are actually three different, equally gorgeous and equally disturbing, versions of the sternum-exploding zombie, so you can choose the visual that best suits your torso.)

So: If you want a taste of the upcoming Zombiepocalypse, check out the IntroComp-winning beginning of the game here. To add a piece of art to your wardrobe, click there. And expect me back in two or three weeks telling you Zombies is live—er, so to speak—on all the usual platforms!

Choice of Games is pleased to announce the release of Apex Patrol and Zombie Exodus part 3!

“Apex Patrol” is our second title by Allen Gies, the same author who brought you Marine Raider. You can play Apex Patrol on the web, or download the iPhone version or the Android version.

In “Apex Patrol”, you command a star cruiser! Visit colonial worlds, rescue imperiled vessels, investigate stellar phenomena and prepare your ship to battle a ruthless foe. Only you and your crew can save Earth from utter destruction in this text-based adventure.

Zombie Exodus Part 3 allows you to continue the adventure you began in parts 1 and 2. Jim Dattilo has been hard at work on this expansion, and it the first two have been a big hit. Play it now on the web, or download the iPhone version or the Android version. If you’ve already downloaded the app, you just need to update it and then you’ll be able to purchase Part 3 from the main menu.

We hope you enjoy playing “Apex Patrol” and “Zombie Exodus” Part 3, and we encourage you to play them, tell your friends, and to recommend them on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our App Store ranking. Basically, the more times you download in the first week, the better “Apex Patrol” and “Zombie Exodus” will rank.

Finally, a shameless plug: these games are made available as part of our hosted games plan. If you’d like to write a multiple-choice game of your own, give it a try! If you host our game with us, we’ll share a portion of the revenue that the game produces with you.