Choices: Stories You Play
A mobile library of choice-driven visual novels.
Choices: Stories You Play is a 2016 interactive fiction game developed by Pixelberry Studios. Players select from multiple visual novel-styled stories and choose actions for their characters via menus. The game was a major commercial success, consistently ranking among the top-grossing apps on the American Apple App Store and becoming the second most popular mobile game on Tumblr in 2018.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Pixelberry Studios
- Platform
- iOS, Android
- Genre
- Interactive fiction, visual novel
- Released
- August 2016
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Players read through visual novel-styled stories and choose what their character should do next. Most narratives are romance stories available within an app that acts as a library; when a player finishes one story, they can return to the app to find others. Many books offer character customization, while others have pre-established protagonists, and some mix both approaches. Players can spend diamonds, a virtual currency bought through microtransactions, to access premium choices—for instance, selecting a more powerful double-ended blade instead of a free short sword in a fantasy story. These premium options can unlock special scenes, such as longer interactions with non-player characters. The game also uses keys to unlock further story chapters; keys refill every two real-life hours, and players can hold up to two at a time.
Development
Pixelberry Studios, founded in 2012 and based in Mountain View, California, developed Choices: Stories You Play. CEO Olivier Miao co-founded the company with two former Electronic Arts developers, Keith Emnett and Wilson She. Miao noted that an earlier game he worked on, Surviving High School (2005), was originally planned as a role-playing game but shifted to a narrative focus, leading Pixelberry to emphasize story-oriented games. Unlike their previous titles, Choices offered multiple stories, each receiving new chapters at regular intervals. Toiya Kristen Finley described Choices as part of a wave of mobile visual novels that included Episode: Choose Your Story (2014) and Chapters: Interactive (2017). At launch, Choices had only three episodic books in romance, fantasy, and mystery genres. By 2018, it expanded to include science fiction, horror, and historical fiction. Miao stated the game initially targeted a female audience and added genres to attract male players as well. The game is monetized through a 30-second video ad at the start of each chapter and two in-app currencies—keys and diamonds—purchased as microtransactions.
Release
Choices launched in August 2016 as a free-to-play app with three episodic books. Within two years, its library grew to over twenty series of books, most with multiple installments. Pocket Gamer reported that the game consistently held a top-30 grossing position on the American Apple App Store since its launch. By 2018, it was available on both Apple's App Store and Google Play. Mobile research firm Apptopia found that in 2018, the biggest demographic for Choices, along with Episode and What's Your Story?, was teenagers: nearly 45% of players were aged 10–15, and 35% were aged 16–21, totaling 80% of the audience. Female players accounted for 78% of the audience for these three games. Tumblr's 2018 Year in Review listed Choices as the second most popular mobile game on its platform, based on likes, posts, and reposts. The game's popularity led players to create fan accounts on Instagram and Twitter, with fan art and fan fiction being common tribute formats.
Reception
Matt Suckley of PocketGamer.biz criticized the in-app purchases, stating that the currencies hurt the integrity of decision-based gameplay by forcing non-paying players into worse choices, though he acknowledged the format's difficulty in working otherwise. Somdyuti Datta Ray of Wired noted criticism of the game's lack of diversity in stories regarding race, gender, and sexuality. On June 15, 2020, Pixelberry issued a statement in response to Black Lives Matter protests, listing steps to increase diversity in book covers, stories about people of color, diverse love interests, and a diverse writer's room. Shortly before that, the company put Open Heart: Book 2 on hiatus. In 2020, My Two First Loves included a chapter depicting police brutality with an option to skip the scene. Academic Do Own Kim found that Choices and Episode employed a pay-to-play model that prioritized profit over play experience, requiring purchases not just for extras but to win or progress. She argued that the most rewarding choices were paywalled, and that the promise of freedom was illusory, as only socially appropriate options led to richer sequences or score increases.
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