New Hosted Game! The Saga of Oedipus Rex by Jac Colvin

Hosted Games has a new game for you to play!

Your name is Oedipus, Prince of Corinth: And you’ve just discovered your future has been cursed by the gods themselves. Travel back to a time of magic and monsters in ancient Greece. Can you successfully fight to free yourself? Or will you succumb to the fate that was prophesied? It’s 25% off until May 24th!

The Saga of Oedipus Rex is an epic 100,000 word interactive fantasy novel by Jac Colvin, 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.

• Play as Prince Oedipus, heir to the rulership of Corinth.
• Test your wits against the Sphinx.
• Immerse yourself in ancient Greek life.
• Remain in the country of your birth, or travel afar to Egypt.
• Will you appeal to the gods, challenge their decisions, or let fate run its course?
• With 8 distinct endings: Will you follow the future that has been prophesied or find your own way?

Jac Colvin 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.

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Anyone knows answer of riddles? Please send me a message.after you accept or refuse to take help you can’t even see riddle anymore.

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Hi @baahh.
That sounds like it is possibly a bug, you should be able to get hints for each riddle, and if you get it wrong the riddle will repeat until you run out of guesses. If you get it wrong enough times there should be a safeguard to stop anyone getting completely stuck where you can ask the voice for the right answer instead of a hint and get a second chance to answer again.

If that’s not happening, if it’s at all possible would you mind sending me a screen shot or two so I can see what’s gone wrong and try to fix it? (I can’t reproduce the problem on my android phone.)

In the mean time I’m happy to PM you the answers to the riddles. There’s 3 different sets, which one are you stuck on? (the old, the new or ones that the sphinx has made up herself? Or otherwise I can give you all the answers and you can work it out if you’re not sure which riddle you’re stuck on.)

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Also apparently some of the endings are tricky to get to. If anyone wants to get to a particular ending and is having trouble let me know I do have a walkthrough for anyone really stuck :slight_smile:

If I can ask a huge favour, if anyone sees any bugs or typos reported in the reviews on the apple app could they let me know? (I can’t see them so won’t know if there’s a problem there.)

And just because I’m curious, which mode did everyone play this game in the first time though?

  • The tragedy of Oedipus. (Original storyline.)
  • The fate of Oedipus. (Free choice.)
  • The escape of Oedipus. (Makes sure you avoid the original ending.)

0 voters

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I bought this and played it, sorry to say I was disappointed, I mean not much of a story and not that great replay value, sure you get minor changes but the story is largely the same. Rated 2.

Am I missing something? The game didn’t promise high replay ability. Large and complex branches are the exception, not the rule.

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Apologies, meant no offense.
Maybe i didn’t get what the game promised but
left me wanting

It’s alright jcury, you didn’t enjoy my others either but 2 stars is better than 1, so maybe I’m slowly getting there :slight_smile: . Seems I don’t have a writing style you enjoy, but not everyone likes to read the same thing in this world which is fine.

There is more branching in the second half of the game after it deviates more markedly from the original play (esp variations on the Egypt endings) if you are looking for more significant branching, but it was deliberately written as an interactive adaption of the original play. As Sam said, it’s not a very large and complex branching game. Your actions can have consequences, but those can sometimes be delayed and additive rather than having a direct branch per each choice (for example Athena’s court in Olympus, and the options that open up later much later in the game if you manage to save the Sphinx’s life and have not behaved in a way that grants you a one way trip to Hades. There is possibly a slight overcorrect taking on board critisim from my first game which had more wide branching but less playthorugh length per story, and many people commented they wished each story thread was longer per total word count (which I’ve done here), so sometimes it is hard to win and get a balance that suits everyone.

@Lys Not sure why you hid your comment (happy to delete this is you like) but you’re not the only one who has said that about Jocasta since it was released :slight_smile: The Greek Gods were known for being quite unfair with double standards at the best of times (kind of a do as I say, not as I do kind of thing happening there quite frequently.) Their main issue with Oedipus was actually that he’d killed one of his parents, even though they kind of set him up for it in the first place.

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Do not despair, i still gladly will support your efforts by purchasing
the games.

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Just throwing this out there, but it’s better for everyone involved (the author and the consumer) if the consumer is discerning with their purchases. Believe me, we appreciate when readers buy our games, but it helps if they read the demo and believe that they will enjoy the work upon purchasing it.

Automatically buying all games from an author to support them but then rating the games poorly when you dislike them is not fun for everyone involved. Sometimes a reader may just not like an author’s style, which is perfectly fine.

But it becomes a vicious cycle when they insist on buying that author’s works, expecting something radically different each time, only to be disappointed each time. Not saying that you do this specifically, but I do have one prolific reviewer, for example, who has bought all 4 of my games and left poor reviews on all of them. Some of her points I even agree with, but you kinda figure she would have realised she simply doesn’t enjoy works written by me after the second game.

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I just want to back up what you said here. Given the fact that there are free demos, people can actually give a CoG/HG a try to see if they like it. Needless to say I agree with your other points.

For the curious, I’ve actually only given just one bad review on a CoG. Even if I may not like a game overall, I usually find something to enjoy out of it…even if it is because an author finished it.

Then if I do have some problems with aspects of the game, then I will actually point out a couple of things say in a relevant thread (such as how in a superhero game the romances felt a bit unbalanced; while technically 3 male/3 female, one of the female relationship was next to non-existent).

Of course, a demo may not always give an overall impression. There have been a small handful of games where I felt the last 1/3 was definitely lacking compared to the demo part. This again is something I will mention in a thread but it isn’t enough for me to rate a game low.

You didn’t do anything wrong. I deleted it because I wasn’t sure how it would be taken…and I also gave some more thought on your authorial intent.

Obviously, I had no problem with your ‘traditional’ setting which basically cleaved to original story. I mean, it is nice to keep that in there.

The authorial intent comment was about Jocasta. As a reader, I figured if you did go with her, eventually she would develop feelings for the character, and as such in the more ‘free’ choice segment you could possibly prevent her suicide.

The reason I removed it was how some people on the forum occasionally reply to…problematic…relationships. Given how Jocasta/Oedipus would go, they might have a field day with it if there was an ending where they could be together..

I can already see those who would say ‘how dare a writer try to justify such a case.’ I mean it was those sort of responses that made me decide to remove a 17 teenager romance with someone who was say 20…even though this romance would be instigated by the player not the NPC. I mean, I would think ‘why would someone dare complain about it if it was player initiated’ but they do.

I like games that can allow one take a chance to explore interesting relationship quantities…but I am also more cognizant of the fact that sometimes it is just best to leave a few things out because of such headaches.

So in this particular case I figured you were side-stepping a can of worms on something which I think could have made for a rather interesting relationship…and in this regard I would certainly respect authorial intent.

Of course, I also understand that there could be other restrictions which would make you hesitant to explore it as well. In that regard, it wouldn’t be fair for me to comment on that part.

The bit about an MC calling out Zeus wasn’t directed at you, just a bit of a player wish-fulfillment I would love to see done by someone in a future game. It snuck in because your game helped bring up this desire… :wink: I mean, even if in a game my player was zapped by Zeus for their temerity to stand up to him, however brief, I still would fine cathartic.

In case it isn’t obvious @Jacic, I did like the game, and my biggest criticism was that I would have liked a bit more in a certain aspect of it. However, I removed my first post because as I said I wasn’t sure how it would be taken.

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I can understand where some people are coming from though, I know you should buy things you actually want so you don’t disappoint yourself, but I was just too hyped for Abysm’s Veil to not buy this to support the author, I mean I don’t dislike the demo but the purchase was mainly to support the author.

I guess what I’m trying to say is although an author’s writing style and ability matters, the theme of their upcoming games can also serve as a reason to support the author.

I actually liked the story so it turned out well for me, but I can see how people might hate an author’s writing style but still support the author if they are looking forward to a particular future release.

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Aww thanks @Starwish_Armedwithwi! I’m glad you still liked Oedipus even though is quite a different kind of story. Sounds like I really need to get a decent update happening on Abysm’s Veil as soon as I can get a little more time together :slight_smile:

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I have seen many of your posts particularly when I am lucky enough to see them within 24 hours before being deleted, and I can honestly say that I have always found your posts both insightful and helpful.

I have zero sympathy for anyone that objects to the MC saving the life of his wife and mother of his children.

Intolerance on the forums can be an issue. My response to that would be to note:

Choice of Games Is a Feminist, Egalitarian, Sex-Positive Company

Choice of Games strives to create and promote inclusive games, in which anyone can play and find themselves, including representation of all genders and sexual orientations. We strive to be sensitive to every community, and wish to keep our forum to the same standard.

The current result is that the game tells any consenting adults in such a relationship that their love for each other is “an offense against the laws of nature”, a sin, something of which to be ashamed, something for which to atone, and worse than falling in love with a murderous monster.

A relationship between a 17 year-old and a 20 year-old is basically a high school freshman and high school senior that have been in a relationship for 2 years. I would be surprised if that does not happen fairly often.

Agreed.

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Very short little quiz about the Sphinx. (I realised may have made some of the questions a bit hard! Easier one next time :slight_smile: )

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It is my belief that authors like @Jacic, who push the CS genre boundaries are very needed in our community.

@Lys has spoken on almost everything I would concerning this story.

Jaci is one of the most underrated authors we have writing here. Her stories are not as popular as some - I think that is ok. I love trying to help her when I can because in my eyes, she really helps makes this community and the Hosted Games library a better place.

For those who are desiring a more mainstream story from @Jacic bust still one that stretches the normal artistic boundaries of CS games, her WiP - Abysmal Veil (sp) should be just the game you are looking for.

I’ll quit now, but I fully support such a great friend as Jaci … :two_hearts:

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who are the romance options again? I forgot

Hey @Nerissa. The only main one is the Sphinx. (It’s not a heavily romantic options focused game I’m afraid.)

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How do you get the Sphinx turned mortal?

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@No_This_Is_Patrick You need to Leave Egypt without her.

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