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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,

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Eric Moser, author of Community College Hero: Trial by Fire, is offering readers a free (non-interactive) 2,500-word short story, titled “A Very Stoic Christmas.” The events in the short story involve the character Stoic and take place on an evening several days after the conclusion of Trial by Fire but before the events of Community College Hero 2: Knowledge is Power, currently in development. The events in the story are canon, but spoilers for the sequel are minimal. The story also includes cover art by Adrienne Valdes, the official artist for the sequel. To receive the free short story, just

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Hosted Games has a new game for you to play! Defeat the rampaging demon horde, save the Kingdom of Daria, and avenge the death of your parents in the thrilling conclusion to this epic three part series! You’ll need all the power you can muster to finish building your legend, tapping into any of the dozen new prestige classes, including Druid of Decay, Dragon Knight, and even fighting the demons with their own fire by becoming a Demon Master! The Lost Heir 3: Demon War is a 250,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Mike Walter—the conclusion to the trilogy—where your choices

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To celebrate the launch of The Lost Heir 3: Demon War, we’re also announcing that two of Mike’s other games in our Hosted Games program, Life of a Wizard and Life of a Mobster are out now on Steam! Write an archmage’s autobiography in this 80-year 130,000-word interactive fiction. Play good or evil, man or woman, as you bring peace to the kingdom or take over the world with your sorcery. Brew potions, raise the dead, summon mythical beasts, control men’s minds, and blast away your enemies. Life of a Wizard is an epic interactive novel by Mike Walter where

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Hosted Games has a new game for you to play! A mysterious tavern with a deadly secret! Check-in to this magical tale of murder and mystery where not everything is as it seems. Explore the tavern in secret or in style, meet and mingle with guests and staff, wield weapons and magic and uncover clues before the killer strikes again! Evertree Inn is an immersive 265,000 word interactive experience by Thom Baylay, 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. What will you do when an

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Hosted Games has a new game for you to play! Become a powerful wizard or witch in modern day Japan! Tokyo Wizard is a 144,000 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

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Hosted Games has a new game for you to play! Tap into pure, unconditional love, be engulfed in a journey of oneness, and bring peace to a place that knows none. Twin Flames is an interactive novel by Ivailo Daskalov, 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. Enjoy the beauty of the self-discovery that occurs when one soul finds its other half, and they start a mission that will change the lives of many. Help the twin flames uncover the mystery of who they were

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This is Part 3 of a 3-part series of posts about the Hosted Game First Year Demons. In the first part, I talked about games in education, and why ChoiceScript games can be a good method for teaching about culture. In the second part, I talked about our process for developing the setting and story for First Year Demons. In this part, I’ll talk about the differences in design and story between the two versions of the game. Educational Game vs. Story Game An educational game – at least, this particular variety of educational game – is written with the

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This is Part 2 of a 3-part series of posts about First Year Demons. In the first part, I talked about games in education, and why ChoiceScript games can be a good method for teaching about culture. In this part, I’ll talk about how we decided on the setting and story for First Year Demons. Choosing a Culture and Story The people who would be playing these games to learn the information contained in them would primarily be university students in the US and Canada. Therefore, we took North American culture as our “home” culture. We decided that the contrast

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This is the first in a series of blog posts about the Hosted Game First Year Demons, which was released on April 8, 2016. In this first post, I’ll talk about why and how IF can be used as a teaching tool, especially its combination of immersive first-person perspective and concrete dynamic feedback. In the second post, I’ll talk about the process of developing the story, particularly why we chose to set it in China, and how I approached the process of writing a game whose characters inhabit a culture that isn’t my own. In the third post, I’ll talk

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