Lies Under Ice—Lead a colony on a distant frozen moon!

Originally published at: Lies Under Ice—Lead a colony on a distant frozen moon! - Choice of Games LLC

We’re proud to announce that Lies Under Ice, 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.

Lies Under Ice is 33% off, and Trials of the Thief-Taker, by the same author, is 40% off until December 14th!

Lead the first settlement on Jupiter’s frozen moon, Europa! What alien life lurks beneath the ice? Who is sabotaging your mission? Who can you trust?

Lies Under Ice is a 200,000-word interactive science fiction novel by Joey Jones, 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 2079. Your mission is to build a settlement, explore Europa’s treacherous oceans, terraform the moon, and send findings back to Earth.

But political factions within your colony vie for dominance, constantly on the brink of open conflict. While they are technically collaborating on this mission, each one has their own goals for Europa. Will this colony be a site for new trade? A home for Earth’s ever-growing population? A clean slate where humans can break free of older social models? How far will each side go to get what they want?

With the most advanced science at your disposal—massive terraforming systems, gene splicing, AI therapy-bots, nerve-connected bionic prosthetics, and more—you can venture from the safety of your spaceship out into the hostile frozen world. Descend beneath the ice of Europa, pilot a submarine through frigid waters that no human has ever seen, and uncover ancient secrets of an alien world.

There’s definitely alien life here. But does it pose a danger to you and your fellow settlers, or is it the greatest opportunity that humanity has ever known?

  • Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, or aromantic; poly or monogamous.
  • Choose among six distinct professional backgrounds: diplomat, aerospace engineer, arcologist, asteroid miner, pilot, or marine biologist.
  • Manage the complex needs of an extraterrestrial base: prioritize the comfort of the workers, maximize scientific output, build luxury domes, dig mazes of ice tunnels, or engage in terraforming.
  • Navigate the treacherous politics of Earth’s squabbling factions from millions of miles away!
  • Interact with Europa’s alien ecosystem: will you release fish as a sustainable food source, bring along cats for companionship, or rely on synthetic creatures to avoid introducing invasive species?
  • Run for office in Europa’s fledgling government!

Delve beneath the ice, and reach for the stars!

We hope you enjoy playing Lies Under Ice. We encourage you to tell your friends about it and to 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.

36 Likes

Congratulations @jojo!

8 Likes

YESSSSSS, AT LASSSSSTTTTT!!!

I’ve been waiting for this one for so long. :sob:

(of course, it launches shortly after I’ve found out about Not Your Mother’s Shire, and on the same day as Rogue Trader, which JUST SO HAPPENS to also be a day where I have an afternoon-long meeting)

9 Likes

Congrats @jojo – I have been eagerly awaiting to have this in my library for a very long time.

6 Likes

I had so much fun beta testing this one. The amount of variation written into the narrative is truly impressive, making for a game that felt surprisingly fresh even after multiple playthroughs. The author’s research was obviously painstaking, but he avoids info-dumping in favor of weaving the science inseparably into the narrative. A broad cast of characters add interest and flavor to life in the Europan colony, and add the weight of human interest to the political intrigue. This is a solidly entertaining game with truly phenomenal replay value.

10 Likes

Huh, I wonder why Steam didn’t give me a notification.

Thanks everyone! I’m very excited for this to finally be out there.

11 Likes

And another 7,18€ away from my Balance.

Pretty sure the game is a good deal cheaper than that.

Lies under Ice 4,09€
Trials of the Thieftaker 3,09€
Total Sum 7,18€

5 Likes

Ooooh! This intrigued me, time to go and play! :heart_eyes: also congrats :clap:t2:

1 Like

Cant believe I wasted a playthrough with Florence.

1 Like

Haha, it might help you to know that if you split up with someone, you can still date someone else in the same playthrough.

6 Likes

Didn’t realize that, it’s cool though cause I don’t know many games that do that. So replay time.

Did… Did you already play through the game once? O_o

@jojo Is there a list of romanceables somewhere? Also, the description over the Steam page mentions poly, is everyone available for poly’ing or just specific combinations?

1 Like

I restarted once Florence pulled her bs lol.

You can romance Kosmo, Rheita, and F. Palmer.

5 Likes

The RO list are the people that are explicitly tracked on the stats page. A poly relationship is currently just one aspect of one of the romance routes. It’s not a major element. That said, I’m planning on releasing a little extra free side content in the months to come (I got loads of great feedback during the testing period but I had to heavily prioritise what I had time to add before the launch). A few more romance scenes are quite likely, and I’ve considered expanding the poly stuff.

10 Likes

Has there been a change in how the website reacts to phones or something? Usually when a new game comes out I play the first preview chapters on the website then buy it and continue playing straight through the website. This time it is forcing me to download the game app through the Play Store when I hit the “Buy it now” button.

EDIT: Which I’ve discovered also means I would have to replay the first few chapters again because it doesn’t transfer your.progress to the app version. I don’t think this is working as intended.

Palmer is a very nice… i really enjoyed how she cheated on my character… ty author.

4 Likes