Out now! "Cheerleader's Choice: New York Spirit!"—Be heroic! B-E heroic!

[system]

Originally published at: Out now! “Cheerleader’s Choice: New York Spirit!”—Be heroic! B-E heroic! - Choice of Games LLC

We’re proud to announce that Cheerleader’s Choice: New York Spirit!, 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 December 18th! Charli Battersby’s other Choice of Games title, Kidnapped! A Royal Birthday is 40% off for this week as well!

Be! Heroic! B-E heroic! When villainy rules the streets of New York, it’s up to you to grab your pompoms, lead the cheer squad, and climb to the top of the pyramid to save the city!

Cheerleader’s Choice: New York Spirit! is an interactive novel by former cheerleader Charli Battersby. Your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based, 295,000 words and hundreds of choices, without graphics or sound effects, fueled by the vast unstoppable power of your imagination. You’ll cheer and you’ll lead, in a game that you read!

As a member of one of New York’s fiercest cheer squads, you and your friends keep up the city’s spirits. New York desperately needs good cheer these days: masked vigilantes rule its chaotic dystopian streets, frightening locals and tourists alike. Can you turn this city’s frown upside down? Or maybe just turn yourself upside down, in high-flying stunts that wow the crowds!

Cheer your way from Central Park to Coney Island. (Can you win the hotdog eating contest and lead your squad to victory?) Will you B-E aggressive and fight off the villains? You can use your squad’s teamwork and cheerleading skills to solve mysteries, win dance-offs, and live a life of altruism, turning New York back into a utopia! Or will you become a pompom vigilante yourself? Either way, you might just be the cheerleader that your city needs.

• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; cis or trans; gay, straight, or bi; young or old
• Choose your position within the stunt pod: base, backspot, or flyer.
• Romance enthusiastic Wendi, glitter-loving Robbie, athletic long-time friend Pepper, altruistic flyer Bryttany, himbo Bryan, glamorous Rikki, sweet anxious Carrie, shy leader Johnny, or outgoing Larry.
• Choose your team’s name and signature colors, and design their uniform! Be classic, sexy, sporty, or bizarre.
• Climb the pyramid to become captain of your team, or storm off to form a rival squad!
• Discover the secret identity of the masked crime-fighter known as “The Spirit Stick.”
• Shatter every cheerleader stereotype! Or, like, embrace them? Like, sincerely or subversively?

We’ve got spirit! How about you?

We hope you enjoy playing Cheerleader’s Choice: New York Spirit!. 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.

[emelsi]

This was a delightfully weird game. The MC has a rich inner life, and the private way they see the world is quite funny. That, combined with the inner voice of doubt and insecurity, led me to think of my character as a Malkavian.

I went into this expecting something fairly grounded like CT:OS and it’s a delightful surprise to find that this story is extremely silly.

[Zanite]

“Just remember all those hours we spent practicing how to spell ‘go.’”

[dualistpirate]

I already have 6 hours in this fever dream of a game. I love it. That being said, does anyone know how to initiate the romance with the ROs? Can’t seem to figure out how to date anybody.

[AletheiaKnights]

I had the same problem during the beta, actually. Which character(s) have you tried to romance?

[dualistpirate]

Bryttany. I was able to get the dialogue choice that implies she likes you (during the scene when the Cool Kids invite Wendi and not you), but I can’t get any further than that. And I’m not quite sure how I did it.

Not sure if the game locks you out of other romances if you show interest in one RO, but there was one playthrough where I chose every answer that seemed flirty, but still ended up alone lol.

I’m playing a female MC, so I just assumed Pep was straight but there doesn’t seem to be anyone interested in the MC in any of my playthroughs.

[AletheiaKnights]

The one I tried to romance was Wendi, but I never got the option either, even though I spent as much time with her as possible and tried to be flirty.

[dualistpirate]

I’ve spoken to a couple more people who also can’t figure dating out. Could it be a bug? Idk. I’m confused what the romance aspect is supposed to be as it is now.

[emelsi]

I just did a quick search of the code for bryttanny_romance and it looks like that specific bool doesn’t appear after chapter 8 (of 19), where it is briefly used to determine how flirtatiously you say something to her. It’s set to true in chapter 7 when you make a slightly flirty comment to her and:

Summary

Bryttanny casts a glance towards the door, and whispers, “I’m not sure Bryan would go for that right now.”

Maybe you have to do something early on to break them up? I don’t know, I wasn’t really trying to romance anybody because the game is so surreal.

[dualistpirate]

That’s a lead, thanks a lot! How do you access the code? I wanna try figuring out how to romance everyone since it seems to be a problem.

[superviv]

I’m also a tad bit confused, I thought I was going to be able to romance Bryan as written in the blurb but after looking at the code, the only two Bryan_romance flags were in the first chapters. Was this intended?

[Mary_Duffy]

I think it’s fair to say the romantic elements were not really key components of the game, which is really more a dark political satire/really about cheerleading/also mocking cheerleading and its tropes. I didn’t emphasize the romance in the editing and it was probably not worth a whole bullet point in the descriptions of the game, in retrospect.

I’m sorry if that’s disappointing. I will discuss with the author/review with the rest of the team when we do our post-release discussion.

[botbot]

I did a search on the romance flags and I feel the bullet point about romances is misleading. There was one flag for Johnny and it’s basically an “I’m interested in you as a romance” option, like the very first step in an RO. And overall there wasn’t a lot of romance flags in general.

I loved the book and am so on board for the sequel, but there really isn’t enough romance to in this to have it as a selling point in the description.

[emelsi]

It depends on what platform you’re on. If it’s Steam, the code is just text files in the install directory. If it’s the web client, you need to use your browser’s dev tools to find the code URLs. It’s probably possible on Android, too, but I haven’t really investigated it.

[Otaku_King]

Using the android CoG omnibus app and it’s currently broken on this story (possibly other unpurchased ones too). The rotating ads seem to freeze the app and doesn’t register clicks, etc. Unable to even try the demo last minute because if it. It’s a red broken ad that freezes the app. I’d post a screenshot but your uploader doesn’t load my pictures for some reason.

[abbytrevor]

Can you write into support@choiceofgames.com? It’s easier for us to help you with problems like that there.

[Kiinoh]

I bought and really enjoyed this having started with the demo however I do think the author was disingenuous with this specific text;

“Romance enthusiastic Wendi, glitter-loving Robbie, athletic long-time friend Pepper, altruistic flyer Bryttany, himbo Bryan, glamorous Rikki, sweet anxious Carrie, shy leader Johnny, or outgoing Larry”

It is a known fact t hat many CoG and HG succeed partly due to romance and is a driving theme that people enjoy and yet there appears to be little to no romance in this. I have searched and read many posts by people also coming to the same conclusion.

Would I have still bought it if the author was honest and said no romance in this book but maybe book 2; probably but I also wouldn’t have read it thinking “have I done something wrong to completely miss the advertised romances"

[AletheiaKnights]

CoG authors don’t write their own blurbs.

[Kiinoh]

Maybe not but they all have extensive WiP threads where they discuss parts and those threads start with the blurb. At no point in the WiP thread which has the demo is it mentioned that these is actually no romance

[AletheiaKnights]

I just looked at the WIP thread, and there’s no blurb there. The only places I found the blurb were in forum announcements and the beta thread, in none of which it was posted by the author. Complaining that the blurb doesn’t accurately reflect the romance content of the game is fair. Calling out the author, specifically, for being dishonest, in something she didn’t write and didn’t post, is not.