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We’re proud to announce that Devil on Your Shoulder, the latest in our “Heart’s Choice” line of multiple-choice interactive romance novels, is now available for iOS and Android in the “Heart’s Choice” app. You can also download it on Steam, or enjoy it on our website. It’s 30% off until February 20th!

See your name in lights on Broadway! Find fame, fortune, and true love! All it costs is your immortal soul.

Devil on Your Shoulder is an interactive urban fantasy romance novel by Lisa Fox, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based, 300,000 words and hundreds of choices, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

It’s the ’90s! You’ve just moved to New York to chase your dreams of Broadway stardom. Every day you walk past the theaters where legendary shows debuted. Rent! Les Miserables! Phantom of the Opera! Smash hits bring audiences to their feet and launch the careers of people just like you. You’ve landed an audition for a new production of Alice in Wonderland, which could be your big break, but hitting it big is harder than you ever imagined.

Meanwhile, you’re trying to make another one of your dreams come true: to find love. Will it be with your neighbor Cris? He’s an award-winning photojournalist, daring enough to go into war zones, with luxurious long dark hair, strong tattooed arms, and very sexy dance moves.

Or will you fall for Ryan, a rising politician from a fabulously wealthy family, with sparkling sapphire eyes and movie-star good looks? He’s always looking to the future, full of ideas about how to make New York a better place: will you be part of the next political dynasty with him?

But then, you and your roommate accidentally summon a powerful demon. A very [i]handsome[/i] powerful demon named Davin, who instantly turns all of his infernal might towards helping you! With a wave of his hand, he can grant your every wish. Land that starring role? Take down your rival? Save your local bookstore from gentrification? Win the lottery? It’s done!…as long as you give him a bit of your soul.

The demon is always whispering in your ear. There’s a reason the phrase ‘handsome as sin’ exists—and it might be because of his flowing golden hair and supernaturally sharp suits. He’s enormously powerful, yes—but he’s got some metaphorical demons of his own haunting his past, and with your help, he just might be able to break free.

Become everything you’ve dreamed of in the glorious, glamorous, gritty concrete jungle of 1990s New York. Dance at a star-studded gala; sing your heart out at auditions; stroll through Central Park; dive deep into the graffiti-filled subways. Will you give in to temptation so that you can achieve stardom, or try to make it on your own and risk losing it all?

• Play as a woman romancing men.
• Find love with a daring photojournalist, a visionary politician, or a tempting demon.
• Preserve your soul, or spend it freely to gain effortless rewards!
• Try to land a starring role on Broadway: choose your performance style and charm the producers!
• Mingle with the poets, dreamers, and eccentrics of the East Village! Help them resist gentrification or make way for the next millennium.
• Join a political campaign to bring in a new era in New York City politics!
• Befriend your professional rival, or do whatever it takes to cut her down.
• Dig deeper into arcane mysteries to understand your demon’s mystic powers—or to break free of the bonds that tie you together.

How far will you go to see your name in lights?

We hope you enjoy playing Devil on Your Shoulder. 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.

See your name in lights on Broadway! Find fame, fortune, and true love! All it costs is your immortal soul.

Devil on Your Shoulder is an interactive urban fantasy romance novel by Lisa Fox, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based, 300,000 words and hundreds of choices, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

We’re excited to announce that Devil on Your Shoulder is releasing this Thursday, February 13th!

You can play the first three chapters for free today and read an interview with the author!

And don’t forget to wishlist it on Steam!

Can the power of music save the human race?

When you and the Raqullan regime descend upon Earth, the plan is to force all humans into submission. Otherwise, exterminate. But when you learn about this curious practice they call music, you realize the humans may be worth more than just labor.

Message in a Melody is 40% off until February 13th!

Music does not exist in Raqullan society, and your curiosity to learn more may be enough to keep the humans alive long enough to understand it. Is it an art? A tool? A weapon? You may have to come to a conclusion when the fate of the human race rests in your claws.

Message in a Melody is a 150,000-word interactive science fiction novel by Tyler S. Harris in which your choices control the story. It is entirely text-based—without graphics—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. There are some opportunities to click a link and hear the song that inspires the scene. Open in a new tab to listen if you’d like.

• Play as male or female. You do not have to choose a sexual orientation and can play as straight, gay, bi, or aromantic. 
• Become a master of science, oration, weapons, or perhaps even a musical instrument.
• Build relationships in a manner similar to humans. Find a partner, a companion, or even a lover.
• Help a friend to research weapons, cure a disease, bring animals from your home planet to Earth, or become a musical prodigy.
• Be the first of your kind to perform music for a human audience.
• Gain enough power to become a member of the Raqullan High Council, or throw it all away to become a starving artist.
• Discover songs (achievements) as you play. Can you discover the entire playlist?

Will music be the bridge that crosses the divide between Raqullans and humans? Or will the troubled waters from the first contact be too much to overcome?

Tyler 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!

When you arrive at your late Uncle Tanner’s secluded cabin by the lake, you’re seeking closure, a chance to sort through his belongings and your tangled emotions. But when your ex—and their alluring best friend—unexpectedly show up, the peaceful weekend you planned quickly spirals into anything but. 

It Takes Three to Tango is 25% off until February 13th!

It Takes Three to Tango is a 90,000-word dark romance interactive novel by C.C. Hill, 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.

Trapped together by circumstance, old wounds are reopened, raw emotions flare, and buried secrets resurface.

Will you give your past love another chance, find solace in the arms of the best friend you never knew you wanted, or forge a new path on your own? In this cabin, it’s not just about uncovering the past—it’s about deciding your future. Love, lust, and life-changing decisions collide in a weekend that will test more than just your heart.

• Play as cis, trans, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, or polyamorous.
• Customize your character.
• Make your ex jealous.
• Win petty arguments.
• Flirt with your ex’s best friend.
• Confront your past.
• Experience a story where boundaries are pushed or crossed.
• Uncover the secret your ex has been hiding.
• Discover yourself.

A cabin, a weekend —will you choose love, lust, or solitude?

Content Warning: This game contains mature themes, mentions of toxic relationships, strong language, explicit sexual content, and emotionally intense situations. Please proceed with caution and sensitivity.

C. C. 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.

We’re proud to announce that Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery, 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” app. It’s 30% off until February 6th!

Deep beneath the earth, the dragon is rising! Quest into mysterious underground caverns and forests to learn magical secrets, draw strength from friends and family, secure alliances that can save your home, and carry on the heroic legacy of Stronghold!

Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery is an interactive fantasy novel by Amy Griswold where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—380,000 words and hundreds of choices—without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

You’re the grandchild of your town’s legendary heroic leader, and everyone’s always expected great things from you. So when you began to study sorcery, you intended to prove them all right—until your magical experiments disturbed a sleeping dragon in the depths of the mountain caves. Now you’ll have to discover something even more powerful if you’re going to save your town and help your family’s legacy endure for generations to come.

Delve deep into ancient caverns to find more fuel for your sorcery—along with unexpected allies and places for secure fortified camps. But there are also fragile wonders beneath the earth: will your efforts to protect your town threaten the dryads and treasures in the caverns? Learn mystic lore to strengthen your fight against the dragon—alchemy, magic, or even the knot-work enchantments of goblins and spiders—or raise an army from among your loyal townsfolk and allies. Or maybe, just maybe, you can bargain with the dragon—if you dare.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay or straight.
• Continue the saga of the town founded in Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate, and see the effects of your actions two generations later.
• Marry a spouse (or two), or form a new family with a sworn sibling.
• Explore vast underground caverns to unearth secrets and treasures.
• Reconcile with your grandparent and uphold their position in your town – or convince everyone to defy authority and claim leadership yourself!
• Rebuild an ancient tower into the perfect workshop for mastering sorcery!
• Fight goblins, spiders, and dryads – or make them your allies against the dragon.
• Bond with your friends: help them make difficult decisions, influence their views on important issues, and play matchmaker for them!

How long can your stronghold stand against the dragon’s wrath?

We hope you enjoy playing Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery. 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.

We’re excited to announce that Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery is releasing this Thursday, January 30th!

You can play the first three chapters for free today, and check out the author interview as well!

And don’t forget to wishlist it on Steam! The more wishlists we get, the better the game will do on Steam on release day.

Deep beneath the earth, the dragon is rising! Quest into mysterious underground caverns and forests to learn magical secrets, draw strength from friends and family, secure alliances that can save your home, and carry on the heroic legacy of Stronghold!

Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery is an interactive fantasy novel by Amy Griswold, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—380,000 words and hundreds of choices—without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

You’re the grandchild of your town’s legendary heroic leader, and everyone’s always expected great things from you. So when you began to study sorcery, you intended to prove them all right—until your magical experiments disturbed a sleeping dragon in the depths of the mountain caves. Now you’ll have to discover something even more powerful if you’re going to save your town and help your family’s legacy endure for generations to come.

Delve deep into ancient caverns to find more fuel for your sorcery—along with unexpected allies and places for secure fortified camps. But there are also fragile wonders beneath the earth: will your efforts to protect your town threaten the dryads and treasures in the caverns? Learn mystic lore to strengthen your fight against the dragon—alchemy, magic, or even the knot-work enchantments of goblins and spiders—or raise an army from among your loyal townsfolk and allies. Or maybe, just maybe, you can bargain with the dragon—if you dare.

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay or straight.
• Continue the saga of the town founded in Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate, and see the effects of your actions two generations later.
• Marry a spouse (or two), or form a new family with a sworn sibling.
• Explore vast underground caverns to unearth secrets and treasures.
• Reconcile with your grandparent and uphold their position in your town – or convince everyone to defy authority and claim leadership yourself!
• Rebuild an ancient tower into the perfect workshop for mastering sorcery!
• Fight goblins, spiders, and dryads – or make them your allies against the dragon.
• Bond with your friends: help them make difficult decisions, influence their views on important issues, and play matchmaker for them!

How long can your stronghold stand against the dragon’s wrath?

See your name in lights on Broadway! Find fame, fortune, and true love! All it costs is your immortal soul. Devil on Your Shoulder is an interactive urban fantasy romance novel by Lisa Fox, author of A Pirate’s Pleasure. I sat down with Lisa to talk about her newest game and romance in general. Devil on Your Shoulder releases Thursday, February 13th. You can wishlist it on Steam today—even if you don’t intend to purchase on Steam, it really helps!

This is your second time writing for Heart’s Choice, and we loved your first game, A Pirate’s Pleasure. This game has a very different setting and feel! Tell our readers all about it. 

Thanks so much! A Pirate’s Pleasure was an incredible project. My first ever IF. I’m so glad it was as well-received as it was.

Devil on Your Shoulder is definitely a very different setting. It takes place in the 1990s, sort of all the 90s crushed into one year, in New York City’s East Village and Times Square. It was a gritty time, and the city was a gritty place. The city’s rebirth into what it’s become today was just beginning back then, and there were literal sweatshops in Chinatown and rotting tenements throughout the Lower East Side.
But despite all that, the city was also full of everyday magic. A dollar and a dream as the New York lotto used to say. That’s all you need to make it in New York.

Well, that and a whole lot of determination, of course.

I have so many fond memories of that time. I tried to put them all into Devil in some small way. That time, in that place, was amazingly special. If you lived in the East Village, you really could see Joey Ramone walking down the street on any given day, stop by CBGB’S for a beer, have lunch next to Allen Ginsberg, or go to an illegal rave advertised with nothing more than a phone number written on the door of a bathroom stall.

I want readers to feel that vibe, and I hope they love it as much as I do.

Heart’s Choice author Lisa Fox

What changed for you in the writing of these two games? For one thing, I can see that Devil on Your Shoulder is much longer, at 300,000 words! 

Jebus, what hasn’t changed since Covid? Everything. So much. And Devil is definitely a Covid baby. It has struggled to leave the confines of my computer and see the light of day for quite a while!
But the extra time gave me the flexibility to write extra words, and so I did. Also, this time around I had more of an understanding of how IF works, so I was able to offer – what I hope! – is a fuller experience.

What are some of your favorite romance novel conventions/tropes, or some of your least favorites? 

I go absolutely mad for a tsundere character. Every time. I’m a total sucker. I love that initial aloofness, the slow breaking down of their walls. Bonus points if the love interest is a Ray of Sunshine. I eat that trope up with a spoon!

In that same vein, I love, love, love enemies to lovers. I will never get tired of that one! Also, fake marriage/fake dating is tremendous fun.

The only trope I really can’t get into is yandere. I’ve tried it in many different games, and I’ve just never liked it. Not my thing at all.

If you were going to romance one of your characters in Devil on Your Shoulder, who would you choose? 

Aww, that’s not fair! I refuse to choose… All right, if I must – Mikhail.

What are you working on next?

I’ve made it my goal for 2025 to learn Ren’Py. I think I want to try my hand at visual novels next.

Deep beneath the earth, the dragon is rising! Quest into mysterious underground caverns and forests to learn magical secrets, draw strength from friends and family, secure alliances that can save your home, and carry on the heroic legacy of Stronghold!

Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery is an interactive fantasy novel by Amy Griswold, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—380,000 words and hundreds of choices—without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Choice of Games editor Mary Duffy sat down with author Amy Griswold to talk about the upcoming game and some of her other works. Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery releases Thursday, January 30th—you can wishlist it on Steam today, it really helps, even if you don’t plan to purchase it on Steam. 

Amy Griswold, Choice of Games Author

We’re returning to the world of Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate. This is something of an indirect sequel, right?

Yes, it’s a chance to revisit the town founded in Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate with a new generation of characters facing new challenges. The influence of your town’s founding hero determines the starting situation of your town and the personality of your grandparent, the town’s current leader. But for players who want to jump in without playing the first game, there’s the option to choose a preset backstory or make detailed choices about your town’s history when you begin the game.

How was it for you picking back up the threads of the Stronghold universe?

I really enjoyed revisiting the world of Stronghold and getting to explore some corners of it in more detail. In Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate, the goblins are mostly seen at a distance, and the dryads are enigmatic forest protectors. Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery takes a closer look at both goblins and dryads, with befriendable (and romanceable) goblin and dryad NPC companions. It was also interesting to write a game primarily focused on sorcery. In Stronghold: A Hero’s Fate, it’s possible to never engage with the lost magic of your ancestors at all. In Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery, the player character and their friends Corbin, Zoe, and Fox are all sorcerers, and “I use sorcery!” is the obvious way to approach a lot of problems. This required making the magical system more complex and varied, with options to focus on the knotwork of goblins and dryads or the experimental science of alchemy as well as rediscovering your ancestors’ lost arts.

Between these two games you published The Play’s the Thing with us, which is a fantastic game, and a fantastically different setting. Tell me a bit about the inspiration there, because within the Amy Griswold canon we’ve also got one of my all time favorite games, The Eagle’s Heir, which is a wonderful Napoleonic alt-history. You seem adept at jumping around in genre.

I like changes of pace. The Play’s the Thing was a fabulous chance to play with a bunch of dramatic tropes that would probably be over the top in a Stronghold game — wicked rulers, troubled heirs, long-lost siblings, and a deadly curse! plus a dancing bear! — while at the same time exploring what it’s like to try to make art that means something while the world is falling apart around you. The Eagle’s Heir is a swashbuckling steampunk adventure with airship racing and dastardly plots, but it’s also about how personal choices can shape political change. And both Stronghold games are fantasy adventures built around the tropes of classic tabletop games, and are also about how your choices influence other people in a small community. To me, the Choice of Games format is well suited to games that let players soak up the atmosphere of a particular genre, while at the same time exploring the reasons why choices and stories matter.

What surprised you most about the writing of Stronghold: Caverns of Sorcery?

I kept finding edge cases carried over from A Hero’s Fate that I had forgotten were possible and needed to be accounted for. What happens if the original player character has no children (biological or adopted) and no nephew, and then chooses a protégé as their heir, and then their protégé dies, leaving no one the right age alive to be the grandparent of the player character in Caverns of Sorcery? Etc.

There’s a dragon in this game. Choice of Games is a dragon-heavy publisher. Please say a bit about your dragon.

Dragons are useful because they give player characters a problem to react to in interesting ways. It’s hard to ignore a dragon. The dragon in Caverns of Sorcery was imprisoned by your ancestors centuries ago in the caverns near your town. It would very much like to escape, set your town on fire, and feast on the survivors. What else the dragon wants is possible to explore over the course of the game. But this isn’t, at its heart, a game about a dragon; it’s a game about a situation where doing nothing will lead to disaster, so you have to try doing something. What kind of “something” is up to you.

In addition to writing interactive fiction for us, you’re also a prolific novelist, I’d love to tell our readers about other works of yours they can enjoy.

Fans of the steampunk world of The Eagle’s Heir may enjoy the gaslamp fantasy mysteries Death by Silver and A Death at the Dionysus Club (with Melissa Scott), in which metaphysician Ned Mathey and detective Julian Lynes solve mysteries and navigate the fascinatingly awful world of Victorian London and its gay community. And for sci-fi adventure, I recommend the Stargate Legacy series, a virtual fifth season of tie-in novels set after the end of the Stargate Atlantis TV series (start with Homecoming by Jo Graham and Melissa Scott.)

What are you working on next?

I’m working on revisions to a science fiction novel, Gyre, that’s under contract for probably sometime in 2026, and I’ve got a couple of historical fiction projects on the back burner as well.

In partnership with World of Darkness and Paradox Interactive, Choice of Games is proud to announce the release of Hunter: The Reckoning — The Beast of Glenkildove by William Brown, now available on Steam, iOS, and Android. It’s 25% off until January 23!

William Brown’s earlier game The Mysteries of Baroque is 33% off as well!

Full moon. Cold night. Dark shadow. Warm gun. The Beast of Glenkildove has stalked Ireland for centuries. Now, you must hunt it.

Hunter: The Reckoning — The Beast of Glenkildove is an interactive novel by William Brown, set in the World of Darkness. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Eight years ago, when you were eighteen, the Beast of Glenkildove killed one of your closest friends. You’ve never returned to Ireland since that day.

It’s difficult to remember what happened. As you’ll soon learn, the human mind blots out the traumatic memories of facing a werewolf.

Now, you must stalk that werewolf across the shadowed glens and fogbound mountains of Ireland, hunting a shapeshifting killing machine with your friends, your wits, and a shotgun.

But you and your friends are not alone. You have entered a world of Hunters, humans who dare to challenge the dominion of the monsters who rule over them. Can you trust the fanatics of the Society of Leopold, the scholars and savants of the Arcanum, the ruthless Duffy crime family, or the enigmatic biotech company Fada?

Can you even trust your oldest friends?

Redemption for some. Retribution for others. A reckoning for all.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; befriend or romance humans and supernaturals of any gender
• Kill, study, capture, document or negotiate with the creatures you hunt
• Craft your own traps, gear, and weapons to take the Hunt to the enemy
• Find camaraderie and romance with the only people in the world that you can trust to fight alongside you
• Adopt and train your own wolfhound to assist you in the Hunt
• Build and maintain your own safehouse at the Wolf’s Head Inn in the Wicklow Mountains

Become the thing that even nightmares fear.

We hope you enjoy playing Hunter: The Reckoning — The Beast of Glenkildove. We encourage you to tell your friends about it, and recommend the game on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and other sites. Don’t forget: our initial download rate determines our ranking on the App Store and on Steam. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank.

We’re excited to announce that Hunter: The Reckoning — The Beast of Glenkildove is releasing this Thursday, January 16th!

You can play the first three chapters for free today, and check out the author interview as well!

And don’t forget to wishlist it on Steam! The more wishlists we get, the better the game will do on Steam on release day.