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Escape your captors…and endure your rescuers, but don’t be late to the ball! When you are kidnapped, you must take charge of your rescue, and reclaim your rightful throne. Kidnapped! A Royal Birthday is a 158,000 interactive novel by Charles Battersby. I sat down with Charles to talk about how writing comedic games can be a challenge, and Charles’ extensive work outside of games. 

Kidnapped! A Royal Birthday releases this Thursday, August 20th. You can play the first three chapters for free today.

Kidnapped! A Royal Birthday is semi-new territory for Choice of Games. We’ve only done a few other games that venture into really broad comedy. Tell me about what mood and tone you wanted to strike here.

I love dark fantasy settings and post-apocalyptic dystopias as much as the next person (if not more). But I think games should be fun. Even in grimdark games, the most memorable moments are when something funny or absurd happens. The Secret Cow Level, or a mutant with a tree growing out of his head, or a shopkeeper whose entire inventory consists of a single Mystery Box. So my game is has lots of moments like that. But there are also sword fights, giants, and fire-breathing monsters.

The enemies will be familiar to fantasy fans, but I put an outlandish twist on them all, and let the Player use unorthodox methods to deal with them. One of the options for outwitting the goblins is something that Lucille Ball would try. And, if the zany schemes don’t work, there is always the option of cleaving your foes in half with a battle-axe!

These NPCs are wild. What’s some of the inspiration there?

Because the Player is the one getting rescued in this game, I thought about the kinds of heroes that players usually control in a fantasy game. The knight, the Amazon, the enchantress, the simple peasant with a grand destiny. Each one of them thinks they are the hero of this story. All of them are trying to impress you, and gain the upper hand against the others in the group.

There’s also sexual tension between the knight and the Amazon. Not to mention class tensions with the humble peasant and the lady-like enchantress.

It’s like playing an online RPG with a group of strangers who can’t function as a group without someone to lead them, and that’s where the Player comes in. You have to be the leader, or you aren’t getting rescued.

What did you find most challenging about the writing process?

Maintaining the balance between comedy and telling a compelling story. That’s always the trick with comedy; if you take out all of the gags, will it still hold together as a story?

Because it’s an interactive game, players do have the option of choosing between funny dialog, or a more serious tone. I hope players run through it a couple of times, alternating between comedy and drama (Broderick’s bawdy ballad is not to be missed).

Kidnapped is your first foray into interactive fiction, but not your first time doing game design, right? Tell me a little about your other game projects.

Right in the middle of my work on Kidnapped I took a couple of weeks off to compete in the “Miss Subways” beauty pageant. For the talent portion of the pageant, I designed a video game.

I can’t sing, and I don’t dance well, so I had to do something! I brought my laptop on stage so the judges could play the game while I talked to the audience about game design (while wearing a swimsuit and heels, of course). The game is about a girl competing in the “Miss Subways” pageant, and was carefully designed so that the judges could get through it in the two minutes I had on stage.

It was a simple old-fashioned RPG, but it impressed the judges. I suppose they weren’t expecting the leggy blonde in the pink swimsuit to be a computer nerd too.

And you’re an actor and model as well?

I am! I do a lot of theater in New York, and there’s a local theater company here in Brooklyn that does an annual festival of plays inspired by video games. I’ve written and produced some plays there. Hmmm…a live reading of Kidnapped might be an interesting concept for a theater performance…

Casual game fans might recognize me as the voice of “The Avenger” in the games Grim Facade: Hidden Sins and Grim Facade: The Red Cat. I can sound very menacing when I want to.

People can also see me in small roles and background work in TV shows and movies. I usually get typecast as “Hooker #2” or “Transwoman in gay bar.” Right before production shut down for the quarantine, I did some extra work as “phone sex operator” on the next season of Pose. Keep an eye out for me.

On very rare occasions you might see a pic of me in a fashion magazine or newspaper, but most of my “modeling” is for cosplay fashion shows. I’m known for making elaborate princess gowns, and I competed in the New York Comic Con’s cosplay contest in a costume that was half Cinderella and half Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

I had debated trying to make a game about cosplay but, the truth is, the life of a cosplayer is pretty boring. We spend most of our time sitting on the floor with a mouthful of pins, and burning our fingers with hot glue.

What else are you working on these days?

Naturally, I’m working on some more interactive fiction games. I’d love to do a prequel to Kidnapped, but with more barbarians this time around. There’s an incredibly obscure reference to the 1982 Conan movie hidden in Kidnapped. Whoever spots it first and mentions it on the Choice of Games forum definitely deserves a free copy of my next game.

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

Choose your career in a post-Climate Change future. Will you follow in your parents’ footsteps and run the city’s shark farm, or will you break the mold?

It’s 30% off until August 13th!

The Floating City is a 130,000 word climate fiction novel by Felicity Banks, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and powered by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

You can explore the drowned city of Old Sydney, the secrets of the underground New Sydney, and travel around your own floating city. The pressure is on to hone your skills and choose your future job, but there is hidden danger far below the surface of the sea. Your friend Kassandra is risking her own life to figure out why the sharks are afraid, and you are the only person she listens to. Will you risk her life to try to save others, or will you beg her to give up her dreams?

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, or asexual and/or aromantic.
• Develop a romance with a male or female friend, or neither.
• Trade with other cities, and make useful connections.
• Build your reputation in order to enhance your career prospects.
• Learn more about how sharks behave, and solve the mystery of their unusual behavior.
• Awaken an ancient cosmic horror.

Felicity Banks 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!

You wake up, confused, in a strange place. A place determined to kill you. A haunted house. Will you leave with your life, or be trapped in undead servitude?

It’s 30% off until August 13th!

Macabre Mansion is a 43,000-word interactive horror novel by Billy Towers, 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.

When you find yourself in a strange room, in a strange house, with blood splattered across the walls and on the floor…you try to recall how you got there. But you remember nothing. There is an ominous aura here, the smell of death lingering in the air.
There is one thing you now know; you need to leave if you want to stay alive.

• Play as male, female, or non-binary.
• Travel through a cursed mansion that wants your soul.
• Solve puzzles, avoid traps, and escape your undead captors.
• Encounter the tormented souls that haunt every corridor.
• Discover the secrets that hide behind the house’s walls.
• Survive the night and change the fate of the mansion.

Billy Towers 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 Werewolves 2: Pack Mentality, 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 33% off until July 30th!

It’s a war between your werewolf pack and the Human Sovereignty Movement! Lead the pack to victory before extremists turn your packmates against each other.

Werewolves 2: Pack Mentality is a 360,000 word interactive novel in Jeffrey Dean’s acclaimed ‘Claw, Shadow, and Sage’ series, 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.

This thrilling sequel to Werewolves: Haven Rising seamlessly integrates your choices and experiences into a new tale of survival and loyalty, desperation and betrayal.

After escaping the Haven werewolf detention camp and tasting freedom for the first time in your life, you and your pack must infiltrate “The Nail,” a top-secret underground military prison for werewolves, and liberate the prisoners. But integrating these new wolves into the greater pack will prove difficult, testing bonds and straining leadership to the breaking point.

In your fight for freedom, you’ll confront the phantom of your father and his legacy of self-hatred, as well as the opposing fanaticism of werewolf supremacists more interested in domination than peace. In the end, the greatest threat to your pack’s survival may be what you fear most, as your inescapable feral nature threatens to tear your newly-forged pack apart!

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, or bisexual.
• Infiltrate a top-secret military prison deep below the Earth, risking it all to save your species!
• Overcome a deadly outbreak of feral madness that pits members of your new pack against each other.
• Either stand in solidarity with a bloodthirsty new packleader, or work to undermine them at every turn.
• Interact with a diverse cast of new characters alongside your old favorites!
• Explore two new potential romances, continue your relationships from Haven Rising, or go it alone in an increasingly chaotic world.

We hope you enjoy playing Werewolves 2: Pack Mentality. 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.

It’s a war between your werewolf pack and the Human Sovereignty Movement! Lead the pack to victory before extremists turn your packmates against each other. Werewolves 2: Pack Mentality is a 360,000 word interactive novel in Jeffrey Dean’s acclaimed ‘Claw, Shadow, and Sage’ series, and the sequel to Werewolves: Haven Rising. I sat down with Jeffrey to talk about the challenges of writing a series and what players can look forward to in Pack Mentality.

Werewolves 2: Pack Mentality releases this Thursday, July 23rd. You can play the first three chapters today.

Werewolves 2: Pack Mentality, the follow up to Werewolves: Haven Rising is coming out almost two years to the day after the first game released. This one is a bit longer, and definitely more complex. Tell me about the writing process this time around.

In many ways writing the sequel was more collaborative. I’m normally what’s known as a “pantser” when it comes to writing—an author who lets the story come to them as they write rather than planning out every detail. While writing the sequel I had pages and pages of reader feedback, both on the Choice of Games forum and through other mediums. While I wouldn’t say that the feedback changed the way I chose to go with the main plotlines, it did make a difference on sub-plot and side-adventure additions. The most visible of these was the addition of Tiva as a potential romantic partner which was not part of my original plan. Her story is a difficult one to tell, and I think the addition of a closer relationship gave me a better position from which to examine it in greater detail.

One of the reasons Pack Mentality took a while to write is that there’s so much side content available. I wanted to flesh out characters and plotlines which in a more traditional novel would have been left a bit one-dimensional. If a player wants to sit with the elders and learn about werewolf history and world-building for several pages, they can! If they’d rather spar and impress their friends with their fighting prowess, they can do that too. Or maybe they want to check on a particular friend, or interview a prisoner of war, or investigate a bizarre new scientist character, they can do that too. I certainly wouldn’t call Haven Rising linear, but Pack Mentality is a whole lot branchier and that took a lot of work to keep straight.

What was the biggest challenge in writing the sequel?

The biggest challenge by far was bringing all the different endings from book one together in a cohesive and natural way through the prologue with a minimum of railroading and making sure that the player’s choices still mattered. It was immensely important to me that major plot points in book one were reflected in book two. Love interests all carry over, endings carry over, faction relationships, character proclivities (bookish, fighter, killer, peacenik, etc…) all carry over and are acknowledged.

Have you already created plans for a third book in what you’re calling the Claw, Shadow, Sage series?

Absolutely! Book three (working title: ‘Evolution’s End,’) will be the final chapter in the main trilogy with the potential for branching out to additional stories set several years later if sales show enough reader interest to create more volumes.

Much like book two, the third book will continue immediately after the events of the previous one and wrap up the last remaining plot threads in a rather explosive manner. I can’t talk much about the primary antagonist for book 3 as they’re introduced in Pack Mentality, but I think readers will be excited to learn more about them. Things will also come full-circle with a certain father figure as well, who will remain nameless for those who haven’t yet played Haven Rising.

What will people find surprising about this game?

Probably the same things that surprised me when I deviated from my outline because the plot demanded it. ~laughs~ I mean, there are a few things, really. I think the climax will surprise a lot of people, particularly regarding who the player can choose to aid or betray and how that choice alters tens of thousands of words worth of plot points and endings. Also, while the reader still has the option of behaving entirely peacefully with no killing, there are some pretty dark places the player can go which leads down a rather twisted rabbit-hole.

How did you handle creating a satisfying playthrough for people who haven’t played Haven Rising?

It’s difficult, because as a reader I can’t understand why someone would read book two without reading book one first, but I certainly wanted to prepare for all eventualities. I created an interactive recap of book one where a new reader can choose through all major plot points and have their choices reflected in book two. A Cliff’s Notes version, basically. Ideally though, a reader should start with Haven Rising if they want to get full enjoyment out of the series.

And what else are you working on?

I have a few projects on the go, most notably my new gamebook for CoG’s licensed project, Vampire: the Masquerade–Parliament of Knives. It’s a bit of a changeup for me, mostly revolving around vicious interpersonal politics with sporadic bouts of violence depending on which factions you choose to support or defy. It’s really a dream come true to be working on an official Vampire: the Masquerade project, since I’ve been a fan of the IP for more than half my life.

Other than that, I’m outlining Werewolves 3 and designing a possible port of my ‘Road Less Traveled’ gamebook trilogy to Choicescript. I’ve been wanting to dust off my first gamebook, ‘Westward Dystopia,’ for years now and update the text to make the prose more attractive. All in all, it’s an exciting few years ahead of me!

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

You arrive at the White House for your first day as an intern. President Disaster snaps his fingers and points at you: “Hey! You! I’m appointing you my new Chief of Staff.” Now you have one month to get us to election day and save the world from the worst president ever. Are you up to the task?

It’s 40% off until July 23rd!

President Disaster is an 35,000-word interactive humorous novel by Maeve Adams and Marc Faletti, that puts you in the middle of the messiest drama in American history. You’ll play diplomat, crisis manager, creative accountant, and national babysitter. Experience new scenarios and combinations every time you play. Decide if you’ll resist the dark side…or give into it.

• Play as any gender and any sexuality as you try to get us to election day alive.
• Begin your political career as President Disaster’s 34th Chief of Staff.
• Make the life-or-death decisions that could save the world…or doom it.
• Wrangle the strangest presidential family in history.
• Choose fortune and infamy, or ethics and responsibility.
• Dodge the President’s wrath or you might find yourself short a body part or parent.
• Strike deals with other world leaders who look to you to save us all.
• Defend our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms while we still have them.
• Experience new scenarios and combinations every time through the game!
• Exercise control or lean into the chaos as America hurtles towards catastrophe.

Marc Faletti and Maeve Adams 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 180 Files: The Aegis Project, 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 40% off until July 16th!

Uncover a web of evil as an elite superspy! You might break a few rules—or a few hearts—but you won’t break cover. As Agent 180, a star secret agent, you’ve never found a problem you couldn’t solve with guns, gadgets, or a devastating quip. But after a personal tragedy sends your life off course, your next mission will test you to your very limits.

180 Files: The Aegis Project is a 184,000 word interactive spy thriller by Karelia Hall, 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.

An ex-informant is dead—and you’re sent to find out why. As you go undercover at the sinister company he worked for, dangerous secrets begin to emerge, along with shadows from your own past. Can you infiltrate the company in time to stop a deadly plot? And with your career in the balance, will you follow orders to the bitter end—or be tempted into a deal with the devil?

• First place winner of the Choice of Games Contest for Interactive Novels
• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; as gay, straight, bisexual, demisexual or asexual.
• What lurks in Agent 180’s past? Choose the background that led you here.
• Use tech knowledge, charm, strategy, brute force, or sheer nerve to achieve your goals.
• Choose from an assortment of gadgets to help you.
• Decide what’s more important to you – the mission, or yourself.
• Participate in a cover-up to please your employers, or expose the truth to get justice.
• Try to build genuine relationships – or manipulate people for your own ends.
• Romance an intrepid reporter, a charming executive, or a brilliant scientist – or pique the interest of a dangerous enemy agent.

We hope you enjoy playing 180 Files: The Aegis Project. 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.

Uncover a web of evil as an elite superspy! You might break a few rules—or a few hearts—but you won’t break cover. As Agent 180, a star secret agent, you’ve never found a problem you couldn’t solve with guns, gadgets, or a devastating quip. But after a personal tragedy sends your life off course, your next mission will test you to your very limits.

180 Files: The Aegis Project is a 184,000 word interactive spy thriller by Karelia Hall. I sat down with Karelia to talk a little about how the game went from contest winner to Choice of Games title. 180 Files: The Aegis Project releases this Thursday, July 9th.

How did 180 Files come about? What prompted you to begin writing it?

The original idea came from thinking about how the action genre and the Bond-inspired superspy genre tends to have very clearly-defined character roles. You have the good guy, the clearly evil bad guy, the sexy love interest, and so on. I thought it would be fun to play around with that, so that what the reader is expecting might not be the role that character actually has, and I wrote a short story-game based on that premise. When the contest came up I then decided to expand that into a full-sized game in order to enter. The concept changed a lot in that process. I had originally intended it to be essentially a genre parody, but as I began developing plot and characters it naturally became more serious (though I still left the crocodile pit in).

In the full game, I liked the idea of having a focus on Agent 180, the player character as a character in their own right and not just a cipher. It ties into what for me is one of the great strengths of interactive fiction, which is the feeling that you’re inviting the reader/player to help you tell this story. I’ll tell you where the character is, but you tell me how they got here, and why, and together we’ll see where they’re going next…

This was the winner of the Choice of Games contest in 2018, and now it’s being published. Can you talk a little about the process of editing the game between now and then?

One of the main changes made in the editing process was making changes to the game stats. The three original skill stats were expanded into five. To give the player some more concrete goals to aim for, some more tracking stats were added like the Coverup/Expose stat which linked into a pre-existing subplot involving a reporter investigating the same case as the player character.

I also got the chance to flesh out some parts of the game that needed it. For example, in the climax of the original game, if you’d failed some earlier checks you ended up with all sorts of exciting obstacles. But if you’d been successful all the way through then it became too easy and lost some of the tension. Now there’s a lot more happening there!

What surprised you most about that process?

It can be surprising just how much even making what seems like small changes to the game stats and structure can change things downstream. A tweak here becomes another possible branch there which then becomes a whole extra scene that’s needed to tie things back to the rest of the game.

What did you find most challenging in editing the game for publication?

The most challenging part for me was probably keeping a sense of how the game is balanced throughout. You have to be going through it with an eye to the stat options you use–have you been favouring one more than others? Is this part going to be too difficult? Is it going to be too easy, so players will likely miss out on interesting things that can happen when you fail? When the game branches, is the amount of content in each branch roughly equal? It can be especially difficult if you have great ideas for one or two options but are struggling to think of a third – sometimes that requires you to go right back to the drawing board to figure out what the scene really needs.

Do you plan to write another game?

Yes, I do have a few plans, but that’s all I’m saying for now!

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

Find your way through the haunting forest in this puzzle narrative. Is this a nightmare or reality? The trees trap all who enter. You must discover what it takes to truly be free.

It’s 33% off until July 9th!

Trees Don’t Tell is a spooky interactive puzzle novel by Taylor Zane, where your choices help you find your way through the story. It’s mostly text-based—without graphics or sound effects – and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Folk tales have spread about the forests of Shonnra Morr. Tales of were-beasts, ghosts and demons. The trees are a hotspot for the paranormal, drawing in the curious. Teens go to explore, but few dare to enter. Of the few that do, none have returned.

• Choose to play as a male or female.
• Unique action loop counter that really defines the insanity of the forest.
• Every choice you make is on you. Which way do you go? Which item do you investigate? Some lead to answers, some lead to death.
• Entire items, rooms and even characters can be left undiscovered for multiple playthroughs.
• Uncover the history kept secret by the forest.
• A beast stalks you amongst the shadows. Escape his grasp or be devoured.
• Unveil the reality of your worst nightmare.

Taylor Zane 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 Blood Money, by Harris Powell-Smith, author of the the smash-hit Creme de la Creme, now has a brand new expansion and update–10,000 more words of expanded romance scenes!

This update is free for all customers who have already purchased the game, and for those who haven’t: get Blood Money on sale until July 2nd!

By the power of your blood, you and your ghosts will take over your crime family!

Blood Money is a 300,000-word interactive novel by Harris Powell-Smith. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

When your cousin murders the city’s most notorious crime boss–your mother–a power struggle erupts across the criminal underworld. As your sisters Octavia and Fuschia vie for control, you alone in the family possess the blood magician’s power to summon and command ghosts. They hunger for your blood; if it’s blood they want, then blood they’ll have.

Will you take over the family business? Remain loyal, go it alone, or defect to a rival gang?

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, or ace.
• Embrace your unearthly gifts and build connections with the dead, or banish ghosts to the underworld to protect the living
• Look for love, or manipulate your friends and allies; Betray those who trust you, or maintain family loyalty no matter the cost
• Fight a gang war for your family, defect to your rivals, or reject a life of crime
• Negotiate volatile family relations: resolve squabbles, fall in line as a loyal lieutenant, or sharpen your knife for backstabbing
• Influence citywide politics: exploit the Mayor’s office for your own ends, or use your connections for a greater cause

What will you sacrifice for freedom, and who will you sacrifice for power?