"Choice of Alexandria" — Save the ancient library as a heroic polymath!

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Choice of Alexandria

We’re proud to announce that Choice of Alexandria, the latest in our popular “Choice of Games” line of multiple-choice interactive-fiction games, is now available for Steam, iOS, and Android. It’s 34% off until June 17th!

Change the course of history! Can your scientific discoveries save the ancient Library of Alexandria? Will you defend the empire’s legacy, or your own?

Choice of Alexandria is an interactive novella by Kevin Gold, author of “Choice of Robots.” Your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based–90,000 words, without graphics or sound effects–and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

The year is 245 BCE; you’re a heroic polymath librarian, invited to Alexandria to tutor prince Ptolemy IV. The real Ptolemy IV fell under the sway of his evil advisor Sosibius, and brought the empire to ruin–but perhaps under your tutelage, things will turn out differently.

Or disregard your responsibilities to focus on inventions instead! With the help of Archimedes and Euclid, you can discover the steam engine, the germ theory of disease, or even robotic automata, thousands of years ahead of schedule.

Will you deplete the libraries of other cities to enrich your own? Achieve popularity for your scientific inventions, or protect the legacy of the empire? Will Ptolemy IV grow up hedonistic and selfish, or wise and just? Will you be ransomed by the pirate queen Nefertari, or can you win her over with your silver tongue?

The fate of the city of wonders is in your hands!

  • Play as a brilliant inventor, a gifted speaker, or a life-saving doctor
  • Make great discoveries while protecting Prince Ptolemy IV from manipulators at court
  • Save famed mathematicians Archimedes and Euclid from untimely deaths
  • Based on the real life of Eratosthenes, the ancient genius who calculated the size of the Earth
  • Save the Great Library and invent the steam engine two thousand years early!

We hope you enjoy playing Choice of Alexandria. 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. The more times you download in the first week, the better our games will rank.

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Is it weird that i was skulking around the chrome store waiting for this to come out :smiley:

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not really but to be honest i just keep my mind of the waiting for a release and check back in a great while later to see if any new things have come out

@avidreader

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I bought this yesterday. It isn’t bad but I’m having with getting certain achievements.

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I has been waiting for this one for a while. I am certainly not disappointed. Keep up the good work.

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I do have a question. Why does the Steam version have 4 fewer achievements than what are in the game itself?

Not that it is a big deal since it is small enough to go through :slight_smile:

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sometimes the steam version is not the same compared to the play store version on mobile/tablet

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A few of the achievements were added pretty late in development, and they’re being patched in as the hosting sites allow. A CoG editor can be more specific, but I think the achievements will match Real Soon Now.

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Yep, we’re on it–should be out soon.

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If you quit Steam and/or reboot your computer, the Steam achievements should now match.

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Yep, they popped up just fine! I enjoyed this, even if it is a much smaller work :slight_smile:

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Loved the game, although I am quite sad I can’t get good ole Archemedes to like me!

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11 posts were split to a new topic: Choice of Alexandria - Achievements & Other Hints

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Hey, I haven’t played it yet! :sweat_smile: I moved all your spoiler-y questions about achievements over to hints. We’ve also got these things you can use, which I encourage:
[spoiler] [/spoiler]

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Saw the announcement in my email and bought the game 2 days ago. I found a low-level bug in the scene:

When you approach young Ptolemy, he stops crying for a moment to hide behind his giant shield, so that it is covering him like a blanket. “Wh—what do you want, Eratosthenes?” he sniffles, looking over the rim of the shield.

My name wasn’t Eratosthenes.
I looked around a bit and wasn’t sure where I should submit bug reports so I’m posting it here.

Anyhow, this is an insta-buy for me since I enjoyed Choice of Robots immensely.

P/s: I see Kevin dropped his PhD title :wink:

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For anyone that has an iOS device, we’ve gotten a report that content that has been added in one of the patches has ‘disappeared’ after playing for a while. Has anyone has had a similar experience? (And if so, please send a message to either me or Mary.)

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I know thread necromancy is frowned upon, so will delete this post if asked…but my GF sent something my way she saw on a twitter thread.

I thought it was interesting enough to post it here, though I intend to do some real research for validity. According to this account, it was a lesbian love spell…one woman beseeching a higher power to gain the favor of another woman.

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Summoning ghosts to put a spell on the woman you love. I love it! Putting the “romance” back into “necromancy”.

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I was playing choice of Alexandria and I was wondering how I could give myself a good start with the stats. All the nicknames give boosted stats… except for naming myself after Plato. That
one appears to give no benefit. The coding doesn’t show the bonuses either.