The Golden Rose: Book One is OUT NOW!!!

You are a recent member of The White Company, a mercenary guild on the far side of the law. Your job consists of hunting artifacts and roaming ruins that the Church has forbidden to mention. One of your expeditions, however, leads you down a path that is much deeper than you ever anticipated.

"The Golden Rose: Book One" is a thrilling 1.2-million-word interactive fantasy novel by Ana Ventura, 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.

Juggle friendships, new alliances, and flames of romance in this epic adventure that will take you to an Europe where History took a different turn.

Do you believe in Destiny?

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The Golden Rose: Book One is out for you to play!

You can find it at the links below:

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1892950/The_Golden_Rose_Book_One/

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.hostedgames.goldenrose1&hl=pt_PT&gl=US

App Store Omnibus: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hosted-games/id1302297731

Choice of Games: https://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/golden-rose-book-one/

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I hope you enjoy it! 🌹

😄 She's actually one of the oldest developed characters of the Rose. I came up with her when I created her father and his dynamic with Alessa. 

I really, really like her. I'll be very nervous when I write her introduction — as I am with all the characters that have existed for years in my mind and it's time to pluck them from thought to paper. 

All I'm saying is that she's tied to two of your companions. The past Company gang...

You'll call her Bella (Bela in Portuguese) which means beautiful in Italian and Spanish. Romanus, as a Latin speaker, would naturally go for Bella, whereas 'Ysa' doesn't really sound very good in Romance languages xD

But Alain does call her that, and she'll be struck when you first say the endearment. 😊

I love that scene too 🤭

Yup! You just need high Corruption.

Surprisingly, she'd get along with Alessa swimmingly.

Absolutely. You'll bond over it.

"The Nine-fingers mates. We have length where it really matters," the Pirates quips, looping an arm around your shoulders.

*if Romanus is female "That doesn't make any sense," you protest, trying to shake his arm off.

"Shh. Just go along with it."

*if male "Little bit on the nose, don't you think?" you ask.

"Don't pretend you have class now."

You're actively romancing Hadrian but you haven't made anything official. There hasn't been any talk, after all, so you're not in a relationship. Although, at this point, Hadrian feels a kind of… possession over you.

This shows when others blatantly make passes at you right in his face.

He has never been in a romantic relationship before, so his mind is racing and he may be getting ahead of himself. If before he saw you with another, his heart would break, now confusion and resentment would also be a part of it.

With that said, no, it won't lock you from any other romance other than Alessa. It wouldn't be fair or, most importantly, it wouldn't be fun at all. 😋

The disgust on their faces reading this would look so similar, you'd gather these two probably spend a lot of time around each other - and who would've thought? They have.

"I'd have a better time gettin' hanged," Rafael would sneer.

Alessa would not speak. Her frozen disdain would do all the talking.

You can. But, at a certain point, redemption can only come in the form of self-destruction.

You'll meet her in the second half of Book Two.

Hello!

I'll have to check to see if I haven't written something like this before (I have a vague recollection that I have? At least, for Hadrian and Alessa) but, if not, then I'll write it for sure!!

If not this month, then the next ♡

Right now, I have two flings planned — one that is definitely happening because I've written the beginning of it in the Alpha and the other which is, for now, hypothetical.

I'm thinking of another but, to be honest, this one wouldn't so much as be a fling as it would be a minor romance. This character won't be able to accompany you in your adventures, but, if you don't romance anyone else, and you're invested in them, they'll appear in the epilogue by your side.

Hello!! I got into Interactive Fiction when I first read Choice of the Dragon and Heroes Rise all those years back. From there, I read more and more games and, eventually, found the Cog forum full of WIPS— at the time, Tumblr IF culture didn't exist.

The big game changers, however, were Choice of Rebels and Zombie Exodus: Safe Heaven. When I read those games, I was blasted with the full potential of this medium. Like a great, blazing wind hitting me in the face, I understood we can create worlds, weave narratives, and write characters as layered as the ones we read about in a traditional book.

Plus, you get a say in what happens!

I can't say exactly how different it is to write traditional novels because I never wrote a full book. Before the Rose, I wrote a lot of short stories. But, IF is extremely different from traditional writing because, most of all, the protagonist doesn't belong to you. The characters, even, don't belong to you. It's a two-way street of creating a story with strangers you'll never meet.

So, you must consider, always, the reader. Whether in traditional writing, my advice is that you shouldn't. Write for yourself, yes, but in IF, you can't do it 100%. Writing is a dialogue between myself and this metaphorical, all-encompassing reader.

The best thing is that in collaborative writing you'll come up with phrases, situations, and even characters you never planned. Beka, the Goliath, and even, to some degree, Lance, are all characters that would have been tiny footnotes if not for this internal reader that demanded: "Wait, but I want to know more about this person."

It's a lot of work. Right now, I'm in a bit of a slog where I have to write different conversations and, even, different start of scenes based on previous choices. It has made me slow down my writing speed considerably. Is it fun to go over a scene two, three, sometimes even four times? No. It's tedious. IF writing will have a lot of times where you'll just have to do something even when you don't particularly enjoy it.

But, when you do get to the parts you enjoy? When the text comes alive and the protagonist goes from this vague, silhouette-like blob in your mind to a fully-formed, distinct person? When the MC turned into Romanus and a city I saw on the map into Tarragona, or a bard who is secretly a spy deepened into one of my favorite characters I've ever written? Those moments make all the tedious ones worth it.

You gotta love it, that's my advice. If you don't, you'll never finish the project. No matter how many likes, asks, and fanart you get.

Alessa is so awkward when she's trying to open up and be vulnerable. I struggle right alongside her. Those feelings of shame and oddness, when you let your guard down, can make you bite your tongue and let what should be voiced be swallowed by silence.

It's almost cathartic to see her slowly overcome it.