Wield your magic sword against the undead that fill a mysterious tower, and uncover the secrets of the past!
Undying Fortress is a dark epic fantasy interactive novel by Yeonsoo Julian Kim, author of The Fog Knows Your Name.
For centuries, a mysterious fortress has floated above the kingdom of Serendal. Now it has fallen - and all of its secrets, treasures, and monsters are within reach.
You have fallen too: after expulsion from the Imperial Academy cut short your studies as an aspiring knight-scholar, you turned to the life of a mercenary. Wielding your familyâs legendary blade Wicked Fate has won you a certain degree of fame and fortune - but now the ancient fortress presents the opportunity to climb much much higher.
Enter the tower with a motley group of companions: fighters, spellcasters, and thieves; former friends and mentors from the Academy; even a prince of the realm. Within lie countless skeletons, shambling Afflicted, ferocious flying creatures cobbled together from bones, and more, all commanded by the fearsome Carrion Mother, an ancient deity long suppressed by Serendalâs rulers. Fight off undead monsters to protect Serendal; or learn to wield forbidden mortuary magic and get the creatures to do your bidding. Uncover ancient secrets that may shake the realm to its core, or keep them hidden and become the power behind a new throne. Win glory with your magic sword and prove that you are worthy of knighthood - or just gather treasure to come out of this the wealthiest mercenary who ever lived.
Email us, beta AT choiceofgames for access.
DO NOT POST ASKING WHAT THE BETA EMAIL ADDRESS IS. The first test to becoming a beta tester is inferring what it is based on how we describe it above.
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When you send your EMAIL, include:
- the game you want to test in the Subject line of the email.
- your forum-name
- your real name (first and last). Please indicate if your family/surname comes first as well. Beta testersâ names are listed in the gameâs credits, which are accessed with the âAboutâ link youâll see within the game. If you donât want to appear in the credits, or you want to be credited under a name other than your real one, please let us know.
Do not email us multiple times about joining a beta. If you donât email us as soon as we post a beta, you go into a queue. As we post new drafts, we admit more people from the queue. Eventually, we will get to you. Some beta processes last longer than others, and it may take up to a few weeks to reach the front of the queue.
When you have been admitted to the beta, we will send you a link, a username, and a password as a reply to your email.
When you have feedback to submit:
- Return feedback as part of the same email thread where you were admitted. Copying beta@choiceofgames on that email is the best way to make sure your comments are seen as soon as possible.
- Please send screenshots or copy/pasted quotes whenever you can; it helps us track down whatever observation youâre making. In particular, the author may see things that you donât, and/or the screenshot may contain more information than you realize.
- If youâre sending multiple screenshots/comments, please combine them into a single email. One email with five screenshots is much easier to manage than five emails with one screenshot each.
- If youâre submitting feedback using the Bug/Submit button in the game, make sure you include your handle/name in the body of the email. The Submit button obscures your email address, and I canât give you credit for feedback if I donât know who you are.
A few more notes:
- You cannot be testing two games at once. If you are already testing one game, send in feedback on that game before you apply to another. If you apply for multiple games at the same time, you will likely be admitted first to whichever game has testing slots open up first, and we wonât be able to admit you to the other one until you send in your comments for that one. (From an admin standpoint, itâs easiest if you donât apply to more than one game at once â applying to multiple games makes it more likely that weâll miss admitting you to one of them.)
- If youâre admitted as a tester but realize you wonât be able to send in feedback for that game, please let us know! You wonât be penalized in any way - weâll just take you off the list of testers for that game. But if you sign up to test a game and donât send comments or withdraw, it will affect your chances of being admitted to future betas.
- Thereâs no standard length of time for a beta testing period to last, and we usually donât know exactly how long a game will be in beta when it opens. The best way to know how long a beta will be open is to follow the thread for updates.
- Itâs fine to send multiple feedback emails, but if you have a lot of quick comments, itâs easier to keep track of them if you bundle them into one email.
Tips on How to Give Feedback
Weâre looking for âhigh levelâ and âlow levelâ feedback. Not mid-level feedback.
Low-level = typos and continuity errors. A continuity error is when a characterâs gender flips, or someone comes back from the dead, or you run into a plotline that just doesnât make sense (because itâs probably a coding error). For these low-level issues, screenshots are very helpful. If you see a problem, take a screenshot, or copy and paste the text that is in error, and email that.
âHigh levelâ feedback has to do with things like plot, pacing, and characters. âScene A didnât work for me because x, y, and z,â is useful feedback. âB character was entirely unsympathetic, because u, w, and v,â is also useful feedback.
âMid-levelâ feedback describes things like grammar, style, word choice, or the use of commas. As I said above, I do not want mid-level feedback. In particular, DO NOT WRITE TO ME ABOUT COMMAS.
âI had a great time and saw only a few spelling errors,â is not useful feedback. In fact, itâs the sort of thing that results in you not being given access to future betas.
Some examples of useful feedback :
- In Choice of the Dragon, you get to choose what type of wings you have: leather or scaled. Someone wrote in and asked about having feathered wings. Great suggestion! Done!
- In âThe Eagleâs Heir,â someone asked about Eugenie. They said that the romance moved too quicklyâbecause she only appeared in the last third of the gameâand wished they could have had an opportunity to meet her earlier. So the authors added an opportunity to meet her and start the romance earlier in the game (in a scene that already existed).
- In âDemon Mark: A Russian Sagaâ several people commented on how the PCâs parents were unsympathetic, so the authors added a choice or two to deepen the relationship with the parents in the first chapter, to help better establish their characters.
- Pointing out a specific choice and saying, âthis is who I imagined my character was at this particular moment, and none of these options seemed right for me. I would have liked an option to do X instead,â is also really helpful feedback.
- If you choose an #option and then the results of that #option donât make sense. Like, if you thought an #option might test one stat, but it seems to have tested a different one.