"Choice of the Viking"—Forge a legacy in a land of gods and giants!

Announcements
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We’re proud to announce that Choice of the Viking, 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 25% off until Dec 22nd!

Forge your legacy in Iceland as it never was, a land of gods, giants, elves, trolls, and walking corpses! A game of politics and romance, battle and honor.

Choice of the Viking is a 310,000 word interactive historical fantasy novel by Declan Taggart, 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.

The year is 910. Countless Viking longships cross the icy oceans of northern Europe, seeking fortune, glory, trade, and land. Your ship, chartered by the King of Norway, has brought settlers to Iceland, where you and your clan have a chance to build something new out of the rugged land.

There are challenges at every turn. Defend your farm from a draugr, one of the walking dead, and then from the other would-be chieftains, just as hungry for glory as you. New faiths and old vie for the souls of the Icelanders, and for the political power that each religion can carry. The long dark winter bears down upon you, threatening hunger, disease, and more draugr.

Wield your magic to blast obstacles from your path and gain the spirits’ blessing. Earn honor and wealth through raiding, careful tending of the land, or savvy merchant trading. If you fail, the royal might of Norway will claim your land for their own - but if you succeed, you will find eternal glory.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, or aromantic
• Attend the great assembly of the Althing and shape Iceland’s politics for generations to come.
• Use the songs of the spirits to perform stunning feats of magic.
• Dedicate your land to the Christian church or honor the old Norse gods.
• Carve out your domain and lead your people to specialize in farming, trading, scholarship, or raiding.
• Grapple with the threat of the walking dead - perhaps even your own father!
• Walk with giants, negotiate with elves, and come face to face with mighty Thor!
• Negotiate with your neighboring chieftains to win their friendship - or become embroiled in deadly feuds.
• Rule your land as an autocrat, or guide Iceland towards democracy.

How will the sagas sing of your deeds?

We hope you enjoy playing Choice of the Viking. 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.

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I’m happy to be able to play this today.

Congrats on releasing a detailed historical adventure.

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What kind of portraits did you do… i need bleach ty.

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congrats!! excited play the game…was wondering if there were romance features?

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Not sure what you’re referring to here. If you don’t like character portraits there is specifically an option at the beginning of the game not to view them. You can toggle them on or off on the stats screen at any time.

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The artist is actually talented in creating stylish art of robots and the like

https://www.artstation.com/jereldye

Personally I dislike the human portraits of his as it conflicts with the general “vibe” of the games lately, but his artwork for “In the service of Ms. Claus” fit and felt appropriate in my personal opinion

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Tbh there’s constructive criticism and then theres just being mean-spirited in the holiday season, dont be a grinch

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It’s a bit too heavy on the supernatural and fantasy elements for me. My preference is generally for more realistic stories and as a history fan, I figured a story about Vikings would be more historical and realistic than fantastical, so that was a disappointment to me.

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Oh no I understood that I was just wondering if you can romance some of the characters in this game

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But I’ve figured it out already

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Lol she was replying to someone other than yourself, my friend xD

I felt the same way, but I believe this was the goal from the start as the author actually has a PhD in Scandinavian Studies. Honestly, the author seems very knowledgeable in the subject and seems to have taken more of interest in what you just described, as shown here: https://www.ucc.ie/en/cacsss/research/spotlight/pastpostdoctoralresearchersinthecollege/drdeclantaggart/
Crazy enough, the author already has a book called How Thor Lost His Thunder and the man describes the focus on his book

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In truth, I was expecting the same as you. But knowing all the background knowledge and what the author himself is most passionate about, it makes alot more sense now and honestly? Good on him. Man did what he really was passionate about and made a game about it.

My criticism is probably the marketing? I really was expecting more of a traditional norse adventure where we can vikingr from the tidbits of marketing given to us.

Still though, I recommend this game for folks who want an experience thats closer to “The Northman” than “Vikings”.

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sooo embarrassing lol thanks :grimacing: slowly crawls back into dark hole

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Hi! I wrote this game!

I never posted anything myself, but the forums here were a huge source of support when I was writing the game, especially when it came to technical aspects of ChoiceScript, so I wanted to offer up a general thanks to everyone on here. You seem like a great bunch.

I also wanted to say thanks to anyone who takes the time to play Choice of the Viking. I really hope you enjoy it.

If you have any questions about the game, please feel free to ask me about them here or to hit me up on Twitter (@dctaggart) or even on academia.edu.

I actually wrote a short doc on its historical authenticity (at least compared to the saga it’s based on), which some of you might be interested in too: (PDF) Choice of the Vikings: Historical Accuracy, Bibliography, and Acknowledgements | Declan Taggart - Academia.edu

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A lot of the game, including its more fantastical elements are actually based in Old Norse stories from the Viking Age or the early medieval period. Those elements of the story are not going to be very accurate to the actual reality of living in the early Iceland, but I hope some of them reflect how an early northerner felt the world around them operated. There are definitely elements of the game that are or feel quite modern though too :grinning:

My day job is 100% focused on research Old Norse myth, religion and legend too, as you point out, so it’s possible that a lot of that did creep in…

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@dctaggart - Welcome to the community.

Please let me or any of the mods if there is something we can assist you with.

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Thanks for stopping by!

I was one of the beta testers for this game, so I have played it several times and I’m excited to learn more about the historical and literary background. I think I actually suggested at one point that it would be interesting if the game had an author’s note about historical accuracy, so I’m very intrigued to see what you’ve written on the subject.

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That is actually making me more interested in the game.

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You did! I’d always wanted to write something about the relationship about the game with history and the old stories people in the North told each other about the past, and your note was definitely an encouragement to go ahead with it. Thanks for it as well as all your other comments. You were a great help!

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Dude, welcome!! I just finished the doc, and wow!
74hvph

Ah see, I felt that was the case. I’m no academic when it comes to it, but I’m a huge movie nerd. The Northman was directed with the express intention of depicting how the world would appear and feel to the people raised with Norse beliefs. The director, Robert Eggers, also directed The Witch, another period piece with the intention of creating a world that reflects what people of the time would interpret the environment around them as.

Your doc itself goes into detail on how this was a major focus for you when writing the game, and how you like anachronism, which ima have to be honest with, am really glad you wrote in the doc. I dunno, i think an author being upfront about it just feels more based and “sticking to yer guns!”

Finally, welcome to the forums my man, hope you have a wonderful time, and i hope you try out some of the other games, or even works in progress here! Theres some great viking-inspired works in here like Diaspora which honestly sounds completellllly your type of poison!

I think your expertise in history on Ancient Scandinavia will be really helpful and appreciated by people in the forums here!

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Congratulations on the release @dctaggart. It’s exciting to read a story that’s bled out from their work/research tbh.

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The game is just the materialization of all of your hard work and study of those mythos,and in the end is truly and Epic,I can see every paragraphs in a poem or epic of the time being wrote,even the betrayal of a certain character made me remember of the “et,tu brute”. I’ll be honest I found the begging very slow but after finishing the story I will play with more taste. Good work I hope you make a sequel or another game of this style I can a lot of potencial in this universe you created

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