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Everyone thinks you saved the world three years ago. It was all a lie. The truth is, the “dark lord” you and your friends supposedly slew never existed; you used magical illusions to fake a prophecy. But now, as you relax into a life of fame and luxury, the omens from your false prophecy are happening again, and this time, you had nothing to do with it. Heroes of Myth is a 560,000-word interactive novel by Abigail C. Trevor, a staff member of Choice of Games. I sat down with Abby to talk about her first game with us and the challenges of writing long. Heroes of Myth releases this Thursday, July 25th. 

Abby, this is your first game for Choice of Games, and you’ve been on staff for just over two years now, right? Tell me a little about how you managed to write Heroes of Myth and work, and stay sane?

Well, the simplest answer is that I worked during the day and wrote at nights and on weekends. Since 2015 I’d had a system in place where I wrote something every day, though that makes it sound a little more stringent than it really was: it was more like I’d do something related to writing every day, which would sometimes be actually making progress on my current project and would sometimes be plot notes, worldbuilding, outlining, or even drawing maps or charts. I also never gave myself any word count requirements: some days would be fewer than 10 words, some near the end of the Heroes of Myth writing process were over 4000, and the vast majority of them were somewhere in between. I started this to finish a (currently unpublished) novel and switched over to Heroes of Myth a couple of years ago. I’d already been in college or working for most of the time I’d been doing this, so having the discipline to work consistently on the game wasn’t too big an adjustment.

Of course, when the later chapters of Heroes of Myth started to get over 70,000 words long, I was looking at far more writing in a shorter period of time than I’d ever had to contend with when I was working alone on my novel with no deadlines. It was taking over my non-work hours a little more than I would have preferred by the end, but fortunately I managed to finish the game before it got too overwhelming. And aside from beta testing, I’ve been taking a bit of a break from writing since then, which was much needed.

Heroes of Myth is going to be followed pretty closely by another staff-written game, Psy High 2: High Summer. Do you have favorite Choice of Game titles, either from before you started working here, or since, or even ones which are still in the works?

I can’t remember if Affairs of the Court: Choice of Romance was the first Choice of Games title I ever played, but it was definitely the one I fell in love with, a few years before I started working here. Our game design has gotten more sophisticated since then, but I still have a lot of affection for it, and I still remember the glee I felt on first scheming my way to the throne (and the only slightly concerning texts I sent my friends about how much I was enjoying all the different ways the game let me eliminate my competition). I also really enjoyed Cannonfire Concerto and Thieves’ Gambit: Curse of the Black Cat when they were first released, and I ended up doing some of my early editorial and QA training with them once I started working here, which was particularly cool. With the music and the intrigue, Cannonfire Concerto features a combination of things I really adore, and the heists in Curse of the Black Cat are a ton of fun.

Since I started working here, there are lots of games I’ve really enjoyed playing and watching develop. Just a few of these are Heart of the House, Blood Money, The Mysteries of Baroque, and Asteroid Run: No Questions Asked, all of which have beautifully-drawn characters in deeply compelling settings. As for upcoming games, I’ll cheat and say I’m very excited about all the games I’m currently editing – one of which, Crème de la Crème by Harris Powell-Smith, is currently in full draft review, and might be familiar to some forum-goers!

What part of Heroes of Myth did you enjoy writing most? World-building, NPCs, interesting choices, fight scenes?

Characters and dialogue are always my favorite parts of anything I’m writing, and Heroes of Myth is no exception. In more linear writing I always have to resist the urge to let conversations I’m enjoying writing spiral on forever, and while that isn’t necessarily any more advisable in interactive fiction, I love creating conversations that can branch in multiple directions. Figuring out how a character might respond to all the different things the PC might conceivably say is so much fun. Some of my favorite lines in the game are hidden in relatively insignificant dialogue branches, and I dearly hope people find them!

If you had it to do over, what would you do differently?

Anything that would keep the game from taking over my life quite as much as it did in the final chapters – whether that’s figuring out a better schedule, writing a shorter game, or getting a better sense of how long something will be before I write it, I’m not sure. People always talk about interactive fiction ballooning out of control as the branches accumulate, which is certainly part of the problem, but I’ve never written anything that didn’t come out much longer than I was intending it to be, interactive or otherwise.

Which part of the process surprised you, despite knowing exactly how things go behind the scenes here?

I was only a few months into working here when I started the game, so I certainly didn’t know everything about how things go behind the scenes then, and I’m not sure I’d say I do even now – there are always still new things I’m learning! One thing might have surprised me precisely because I’m familiar with how the process works, which is how quickly things moved once the game was submitted. Which is not to say that we have routine catastrophes or anything, just that I was well aware of all the places where the game could get bogged down, and that more or less didn’t happen. That said, it hasn’t actually been released yet, so I should probably stop talking and may have already said too much.

And what do you want to write next!?

As I mentioned, I’ve been taking a writing break, so I’ve only recently started thinking seriously about concepts for my next game. After the doomsday prophecies of Heroes of Myth, I’d love to do something where the stakes are just a bit lower than the apocalypse – but where the choices you make feel just as important, of course! And somewhere in there I’d like to work in revisions to the novel I mentioned, but I’ve discovered I love writing games too much to put that down for long. When I get all of that ironed out, you’ll be one of the first to know!

It’s Choice of the Dragon as you’ve never heard it before! Enjoy this classic Choice of Games title on your Amazon Alexa!

In partnership with Matchbox Mobile, we’ve newly edited this game to optimize it for audio, with revised options, vivid sound effects, character voices, and more. Thanks to the Amazon Alexa’s text-reading capability, you can get the same customized experience that you could on the page.

Choice of the Dragon is a thrilling interactive novel by Dan Fabulich and Adam Strong-Morse, where your choices control the story.

Tyrannize the kingdom as a fire-breathing dragon who sleeps on gold and kidnaps princesses for fun! Battle heroes, wizards, and rival dragons in your insatiable thirst for gold and infamy. Start by dominating a local tribe of goblins, then usurp the kingdom, defending and expanding your despotic regime to annex neighboring kingdoms, incinerating the peasants in their thatched-roof cottages.

Find the skill here, or just say, “Alexa, open Choice of the Dragon.” Play the first part for free! It’s $0.99 to unlock the rest of the game once, and $2.99 to unlock unlimited playthroughs.

O, mighty dragon, spread your wings and let your shadow fall over the terrorized nation beneath you – and listen to the sound of your roar!

We’re proud to announce that Exile of the Gods, 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 Omnibus app. It’s 30% off until July 18th!

In the great war between the gods, will you wield the chains of destiny, or shatter them forever?

Exile of the Gods is a 460,000 word interactive epic fantasy novel by Jonathan Valuckas, 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.

Our story begins twenty years after the action of the first game, 2015’s Champion of the Gods. Which ending did you get? Start this game as the Champion, a warrior born to serve the gods, and follow the holy destiny the Weavers have crafted for you. Or start this game as the Exile, enemy of the gods, and forge a new life for yourself in the faraway land of Khovros–where mortals are free to choose their own fates.

Champion and Exile alike must unravel a deadly conspiracy, and confront the brewing war upon their gods. Will you vanquish this invading force, or use its power to free your realm from its ruthless creators forever? Take revenge on the gods who exiled you, or steal this chance to prove your worth to the pantheon, and seize your destiny of glory?

The gods made you what you are. Now, you will show them what you are made of.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, or ace
• Take the role of your realm’s beloved savior, or that of a vengeful warrior living in exile
• Explore a world inspired by the myths of Ancient Greece
• Fight land and sea battles inspired by the military campaigns of antiquity
• Unravel a divine conspiracy that spans two realms, complete with shocking twists
• Use the power of Inspiration to endow your companions with unearthly prowess, or wield Rapture to stun your enemies with bliss
• Move the hearts of your foes with your sincerity, or harness the power of deception to spin a lie that suits your fancy
• Play the game in standalone mode, or import your skills and backstory from “Champion of the Gods” to unlock new storylines–and a terrifying bonus power
• Confront golems, fire-wielding mystics, and the armies of the dead
• Receive a horoscope for your character, based on their virtues and humors

We hope you enjoy playing Exile of the Gods. 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.

In the great war between the gods, will you wield the chains of destiny, or shatter them forever? Our story begins twenty years after the action of the first game, 2015’s Champion of the Gods. Which ending did you get? Start Exile of the Gods as the Champion, a warrior born to serve the gods, and follow the holy destiny the Weavers have crafted for you. Or start as the Exile, enemy of the gods, and forge a new life for yourself in the faraway land of Khovros–where mortals are free to choose their own fates. Exile of the Gods is a 460,000 word interactive epic fantasy novel by Jonathan Valuckas. I sat down with Jonathan to talk about his latest game and how it feels returning to this world after four years. Exile of the Gods releases today, Thursday, July 11.

Champion of the Gods is one of our most popular Choice of Games titles, and it has a special resonance for me. It was the first game I worked on, my first week at Choice of Games, which was its release week. And that was four years ago almost to the day! Tell me about Exile of the Gods. What was the biggest challenge in continuing the story?

First and foremost, happy anniversary! I love that Champion was your inaugural title. I was in the midst of a big job-related move while I wrote it, so it’s also cool to see I am not the only person who associates this game with a “new office.”

Another fun fact about Champion (and I promise, I am segueing to the question!) is that it used to end with your character’s funeral. The idea was, we were going to make your character a god in the second game, and depending on how well you’d done in Champion, you would either become a deity or not. That was how you’d know if you “won.”

But this knowledge that you weren’t going to make it out of the game alive gave me free rein to twist the action of the penultimate chapter in all kinds of weird directions, so I started letting wildly different things happen during playtesting. Want to have your family at your wedding? Sure you do! Want to run off with your fighting companion? Why not! Want to get exiled yourself? But of course! It didn’t matter that I was complicating things, because your character was just going to die anyway, and then we’d make the sequel about something entirely new and different. Done and done!

Needless to say, that is not how things worked out. The more complex the endings got, the more the funeral started to feel like a cop-out. In fact, a lot of these new endings just didn’t feel like endings anymore; they felt like the beginnings of new stories. So we cut the funeral at the last minute, and wound up with all these endings that shot off all over the place–which was great for people finishing the first game, and not so great for the poor schlump who had to write the sequel!

At least I can say that I have only myself to blame.

What did you most enjoy about the writing process the second time around?

For one reason or another, most of this game was written on the go: much of it at shopping malls in New Jersey, and the rest of it on trains, at train stations, at various casinos (I have family in Las Vegas), and at our nation’s many Paneras (my wordcount can be measured in cinnamon crunch bagels).

Writing this way made the game feel like a travelogue where I wasn’t allowed to explicitly mention any of the places I was going, but it also translated into a really fun writing experience–one that’s made revising the game like opening a scrapbook. I’ll scroll through the code and be like: “Aww, remember the time we were at the Starbucks between the Venetian and the Palazzo, and we wrote the part where the player confronts the archivist in the Hall of Law? Good times, good times.”

Which NPC in Exile do you like spending the most time with, as a writer?

Cephiel, hands down. Please don’t @ me here, I realize she’s done questionable things! But in the second game, especially in the pathways for continuing players, I feel like we start to see this other side of her. She tries to atone, in her way, for the mistakes she has made. And even if she isn’t successful, I feel like she’s the one god out of all of them that you could have a good conversation with. In fact, I may not actually be speaking as a writer here, because I would 100% go to lunch with Cephiel in real life.

Is this story over for now, or is there a third game there?

I have the sinking suspicion there will be a third game! I have only the vaguest idea what it would be about at this point, but there is a lot of potential there. And speaking logistically, about as many open-ended plot points show up at the end of Exile as we resolved at the beginning, so it’s conceivable I could write a third volume that will not take twice as long to write as this one did. (Nobody quote me on this, please!)

What else are you working on?

I have a novel that’s due for a fourth draft before anyone should be subjected to it, so I will be digging into that. It has pretty dense world-building in it, despite technically taking place in this one.

I’m also going to start doing stand-up! I have been talking about doing stand-up incessantly for years, but saying it would have to wait until the game was out, so now that the game is out I’m officially trapped. I get a weird level of satisfaction from public humiliation, so it should be fine.

And finally, I’m going to watch non-documentary movies! I have this oddball allergy to watching new fiction whenever I’m working on fiction. I can leave Investigation Discovery and HGTV on all day, I can even watch fictional movies I’ve seen before, I just can’t watch anything new. So before I hit the novel, there is this window where I have to try to cram in the last six years of film, while resisting the urge to watch “Profondo Rosso” over and over again instead.

There’s a new app from Hosted Games available on the Google Play Store called Hosted Games. It’s an “omnibus app,” just like the iOS omnibus we’ve had for more than a year now, but now it works on Android.

If you have an Android phone that supports the Google Play Store, please give it a try!

What’s next:

• We’ve submitted the “Hosted Games” app to Amazon to review; we expect the HG omnibus to be available on the Amazon Appstore for Android in a few days.
• Soon, we’ll also release a “Choice of Games” omnibus app for the Google Play Store. We’re going to let the HG omnibus sit for a week or so, then release the Choice of Games omnibus when we’re pretty sure we’ve fixed major bugs.

No doubt you have a lot of questions, so we’ve written up an Omnibus FAQ. It answers these questions in more detail:

• What is an omnibus app?
• When will the Choice of Games omnibus be available for Android? (Soon)
• When will the Choice of Games omnibus be available for the Amazon Appstore for Android? (Soon)
• Will you make an omnibus app for Steam? (Probably not)
• Will new games be available in a separate app or in the omnibus?
• Why does Apple require Choice of Games to deliver an omnibus app?
• Why is Choice of Games releasing an Android omnibus? Is Google forcing you to do this? (No)
• If I purchase/purchased a game as a separate app, can I play it in the omnibus? (Yes)
• If I purchase a game on choiceofgames.com, can I play it in the omnibus? (Yes)
• If I purchase a game on Steam, can I play it in the omnibus? (No)
• If I purchase a game in the omnibus, can I play it on choiceofgames.com?
• Can I play games offline in the omnibus app? (Yes)
• Will the omnibus app take up more space on my phone or tablet? (No)
• Will the omnibus app have Game Center achievements? (No)
• Can I rate and review games inside the omnibus app?
• Can I search for games by title, author, and genre in the omnibus? (Yes)
• Can I sort games by title, author, release date, etc. in the omnibus? (Yes)

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

A millionaire’s secluded estate. A collection of dead girls. A group of reluctant strangers. One is the killer …but who? You need more than your badge and gun to catch the killer. Only a sharp mind and the right questions will uncover this mystery. It’s 33% off until Jul 9th!

Scratch is a 165,000 word interactive murder mystery by Cloud Buchholz, 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.

You’re a small town detective. An anonymous tip leads you to a collection of sadistically murdered girls dumped on the forest estate of an eccentric, reclusive millionaire. A group of strangers are holed up in his dilapidated cabin, waiting out the recent storm.

They seem unaware of the murders, but the serial killer is hidden among them. You need to interrogate the suspects, gather clues, and stop the killer, but if you don’t tread carefully, more innocent people will die.

• Play as male or female
• Interrogate seven potential suspects and discover their sordid pasts
• Gather clues from your conversations to root out the killer
• Succumb to your alcohol addiction or fight withdrawals
• Recall cases from your past and the cruel life lessons from your Pa
• Seventeen unique endings

Cloud Buchholz 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!

Unhappy with your life? Then see if the grass is truly greener on the other side…of the world! Will you work hard and be the best English teacher you can be? Or, will you mess about and become the bane of the Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages world? It’s 33% off until July 9th!

A Sensei’s Story is a 240,000 word interactive novel by Dom Fella, 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.

Find out if you have what it takes to teach English in a foreign land, as you live, laugh, and love each day in Japan!

• Play as male or female; straight, gay, bisexual, or asexual
• Experience what it’s like to live and work in the Japanese city of Fukuoka
• Make friends, enemies, or lovers out of your fellow co-workers
• Become your eccentric boss’s new pet or drive him up the wall with your antics
• Visit a scenic island where you can go fishing, swimming, and tomb raiding
• Teach with kindness and intelligence or sarcasm and stupidity

Dom Fella 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!

From royal birth, to outlaw, Robyn lives the carefree life in Sherwood Forest, robbing from the undeserving rich and giving to the wretched poor. But when Prince John makes him an Enemy of the Crown and places a high bounty on his head, Robyn decides it would be best if he, and anyone who wanted to, make a quick dismissal from Sherwood. It’s 33% off until July 9th!

Who Was The Real Robin Hood? is a 150,000 word interactive novel by Christy Waites, 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.

On a pirate ship that belonged to his good friend, the Moor, he left the shores of an English port with Marian, her hand servant, and his Merry Men. Soon an unusual fog envelops the ship and when it lifts, the ship had taken itself to the shores of an unknown land. The Isle of Varna.

At least, that is one tale.

Maybe the Elves of Light show up in Sherwood Forest requesting the help of Robyn and Marian to retrieve their powerful weapon and rescue their daughter, and magically spirit them away? Maybe Marian went to the Hag of 49th Alley for help? There wasn’t much time before bounty hunters would be combing the forest looking for Robyn’s camp and the Hag does have her special ways of making things happen quickly.

What happens simply depends on who you are playing, Marian or Robyn, and which choices you make.

• Play as Robyn, or Marian
• Be highly efficient with a bow and arrow, sword, knife, or staff
• Be brave when you face Zerkit
• Charm Edent, the Dragon
• Find Kizzy, the Dragon, and two missing eggs
• Refrain from giving an autograph to the Fair Folk who know your tales
• Plan a quick, surprise, outdoor wedding for Marian

Christy Waites 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.

Coinciding with Steam’s annual Summer Sale, we’re putting every Choice of Games title on sale in our webstore. You heard that right. All our games, on sale, up to 40% off their sticker price.

If you’re accustomed to buying your games on Google Play or in the iOS Omnibus App, you can still get these games on sale!

All you need to do is:

1. Purchase a game on sale through our website.

2. Restore your purchase! To do that:
a) Download the game’s app from Google Play.
or
b) Navigate to the game in the iOS Omnibus App.

then select “Restore Purchases,” and restore your purchase by logging in with your choiceofgames.com account (the one you just used or created to buy the game from our site.)

***
We’d also like to take moment to announce there are new edits to Zachary Sergi’s Heroes Rise games, with new options to play as non-binary or transgender! Heroes Rise is our most popular series of games, and as we mentioned, they’re all on sale right now! Check out Heroes Rise, The Hero Project, HeroFall, Redemption Season, and Open Season now!

We’re offering our fans a chance to pre-order our next game, Exile of the Gods by Jonathan Valuckas, the upcoming sequel to Champion of the Gods.

We’ll release the game to the public on Thursday, July 11th; you can buy it today at a discounted price. If you buy it here on our website, you’ll be able to play it on your preferred device when the game comes out.

Wield the chains of destiny, or shatter them?

In the great war between the gods, will you wield the chains of destiny, or shatter them forever?

Exile of the Gods is a 460,000 word interactive epic fantasy novel by Jonathan Valuckas, 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.

Our story begins twenty years after the action of the first game, 2015’s Champion of the Gods. Which ending did you get? Start this game as the Champion, a warrior born to serve the gods, and follow the holy destiny the Weavers have crafted for you. Or start this game as the Exile, enemy of the gods, and forge a new life for yourself in the faraway land of Khovros–where mortals are free to choose their own fates.

Champion and Exile alike must unravel a deadly conspiracy, and confront the brewing war upon their gods. Will you vanquish this invading force, or use its power to free your realm from its ruthless creators forever? Take revenge on the gods who exiled you, or steal this chance to prove your worth to the pantheon, and seize your destiny of glory?

The gods made you what you are. Now, you will show them what you are made of.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, or ace
• Take the role of your realm’s beloved savior, or that of a vengeful warrior living in exile
• Explore a world inspired by the myths of Ancient Greece
• Fight land and sea battles inspired by the military campaigns of antiquity
• Unravel a divine conspiracy that spans two realms, complete with shocking twists
• Use the power of Inspiration to endow your companions with unearthly prowess, or wield Rapture to stun your enemies with bliss
• Move the hearts of your foes with your sincerity, or harness the power of deception to spin a lie that suits your fancy
• Play the game in standalone mode, or import your skills and backstory from “Champion of the Gods” to unlock new storylines–and a terrifying bonus power
• Confront golems, fire-wielding mystics, and the armies of the dead
• Receive a horoscope for your character, based on their virtues and humors

How the pre-order works

Today: Anyone can go to our Exile of the Gods page, play the first part of the game for free on our website, and purchase the game at a discounted price.

But the rest of the game is not available to play today, even if you pay now. Everyone who pre-orders the game will get to play it when it becomes available to the public on July 11th.

iOS/Android: On July 11th, we’ll make Exile of the Gods available in the Choice of Games Omnibus app on iOS, and as a free app on the Google Play and Amazon App stores. Anyone can play the first part of the game for free on iOS and Android (or on our website). Once you reach the end of the free trial, the app will ask you to either purchase the game or “restore” your purchase.

If you’ve pre-ordered the game on our website, you’ll be able to restore your purchase on iOS/Android at no additional charge, unlocking the rest of the game.

Windows/Mac/Linux: After purchasing the game, you can email support@choiceofgames.com and we’ll send you a Steam key that will unlock the game on July 11th.