"Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents"—Rewrite the shocking history of electricity!


We’re proud to announce that Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents, 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 30% off until May 19th!

At the dawn of the electrical age, can you outsmart Thomas Edison and electrify the world? Rewrite history with worldwide wireless power, alien contact, death rays and sapient machines!

Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents is a 225,000-word interactive science-fiction novel by Dora Klindžić. It’s entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

The man who invented the 20th century was a queer immigrant from Serbia. Nikola Tesla dreamed of distributing free energy to all of mankind but passed away in a New York hotel room alone and forgotten. What if it had gone differently?

In the year 1886, you join the eccentric Tesla as his laboratory apprentice. Notoriously bad at monetizing his inventions, but nonetheless ingenious at building them, Tesla needs your help with making a living wage as much as your help in the lab.

Fend off Edison’s spies, Wall Street bankers, electrical industry magnates and other unsavory types as you navigate real historical adventures involving electrocuted elephants, the Niagara Falls electric plant, pigeons, and that time Mark Twain had the mishap of soiling his trousers in Tesla’s lab.

Develop your own science skills, your social life, or opt to be more business-minded. Manage your mentor’s fragile mental state while balancing your laboratory’s checkbook. Love your work, your pigeon, or pursue a risqué romance with Edison’s daughter. Will you manage to maintain enough funding and influence to prevent the destruction of Wardenclyffe tower and perform the most esoteric of experiments? Bring free power to all, contact the aliens, or accidentally flatten a city. The history of the last great independent inventor, as well as the future of society, are in your hands.

• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, or asexual/aromantic.
• Achieve fame through spectacular inventions, people skills or cunning business.
• Change historic events such as the invention of the electric chair, the Chicago World Fair, the social unrest at the turn of the 20th century, and more.
• Monetize your inventions or uphold Tesla’s ideals of working for the betterment of mankind.
• Uncover secret societies lurking in the background of early-capitalist New York.
• Meet a cast of historic characters such as Thomas Edison and his family, George Westinghouse, Mark Twain, J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, Lewis Latimer, Charles Steinmetz, Lord Kelvin and many more.

The world awaits in darkness, ready for your electric light.

We hope you enjoy playing Nikola Tesla: War of the Currents. 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.

33 Likes

YaY… Just waiting for this, Nikola Tesla was one of my favourite inventors, Congratulations on the release… Dora Klindžić.

6 Likes

So excited it’s out so early! I can’t wait to purchase this- I loved the demo.

1 Like

Amazing to see this out! Congratulations @dklindzic!

1 Like

Gonna need to take some time to get a full take on this after my first run, but I will say this: this is a really, really good story. Definitely does make you feel like walking with giants while not warping the history around you.

5 Likes

Enjoyed it. Especially the sheer amount of individual times you can diss Edison to his face.

4 Likes

Congratulations on the release. I’m having a blast here. In my first playthrough, we were working on making contact with extraterrestrials but I ended up dying because I jumped in front of the bullet when that spy tried to kill Tesla. In my second playthrough, we did the same although this time, we were successful. I killed that little prick the first time I got the chance. And so it was, that I ended up leaving planet Earth to go live among the aliens with Tesla. I’m just working through all the Tesla endings first, before I start messing around with the other petty mortal squabbles.

2 Likes

Kind of a bug, but there is a scene where a place at the exhibit cost 70k. At the time my char had 74, but there was no option to buy a place

Please email bug reports to support@choiceofgames.com

The traits are also stat checks right?

I doubt they play a serious role. I actually like it this way, as it allows for flexibility. I’m pretty sure that an idealist can’t remain idealistic forever. They must have their off moments from time to time. On the other hand, I haven’t really investigated this thoroughly, but it seems that for the most part, your skill is what ultimately sees you through situations.

3 Likes

Oooh, I haven’t been this excited to get face-to-face with a notorious historical figure since Cliffhanger promised I could shoot Hitler!

2 Likes

Everytime i make a choice i always look at my traits to see if my choices aligns with it and its stressing me out xD

1 Like

Oh my gosh. I normally don’t write a comment on the actual announcement, but I never thought I would be softly crying in my bedroom because of a historical fiction about Tesla, Edison, Mark Twain, Marion Edison, etc. :sob: Wow. The characters were absolutely wonderful, and you pulled me in immediately into late 1880s New York. This has been an absolute wonderful read, and might be my favorite Choice of Games to date. About to go read through it a few more times because I just need a little more time with these characters. Wonderful job. This simply blew me away.

12 Likes

In the demo I tried romancing Tesla but it didn’t really work…? Is there a guide?

3 Likes

Is it supposed to be possible to romance Tesla? Most authorities think he was probably an aromantic asexual. He almost certainly died a virgin. I would be … beyond disappointed if that aspect of who he was, was disregarded here.

2 Likes

I haven’t played all through yet, but from the WIP thread the author said the relationship with Tesla ingame is aro-ace.

6 Likes

So the romantic approach would be like that of Sheldon Cooper and Amy or more conventional?

1 Like

I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be able to try to romance Tesla, but it will never work. He’s just not interested in people that way.

6 Likes

I hope you’re right about that.