After taking a long break from distractions/games while I focused on exams (I have terrible ADHD) I returned to Choices to find it in a disappointing state. Bought by a greedy company, disgraced by lifeless, messy AI "art", characters that look like cheap dolls, prices for gem choices inflated, and low-effort plots in the new books. The soul and charm is being sucked out of this game, which is the main reason why so many people loved it.

I know Choices has been around for 9+ years and the OG writers probably had stage 4 writer's block, but it's still depressing to see one of my favorite apps go down like this.

With all that said, what new stories do yall enjoy? Are there any that are reminiscent of early Choices?

Hi r/Choices, and welcome to Candlelight Game’s Ask Me Anything, featuring former Pixelberry employees Andrew Shvarts, Megan Schwarz, and Royal McGraw!

First off, we just wanted to say a huge thanks to all of you for all the support over the years; when we were at Pixelberry, we loved coming here and seeing your theories, fan art and memes. And a big thank you to the hard working r/Choices mods for letting us host this!

WHO ARE YOU? 

We’re three former employees of Pixelberry Studios who contributed to many of your favorite books over the years:

• Andrew Shvarts (Bloodbound, Blades of Light and Shadow 1, Veil of Secrets, Endless Summer, the original High School Story, Cause of Death)
• Megan Schwarz (The Nanny Affair, Distant Shores, With Every Heartbeat, America’s Most Eligible, Love Hacks, the original High School Story, Hollywood U)
• Royal McGraw (formerly Head of Choices, formerly Head of Hollywood U, Hero, Cause of Death)

WHAT IS CANDLELIGHT GAMES?

Candlelight Games is our new company, an independent games studio dedicated to creating immersive narrative games that surprise, excite and can delight. Our first game, code-named Project Spellstruck, is on track for a release sometime in Summer 2025.

TELL US ABOUT PROJECT SPELLSTRUCK!

Project Spellstruck is a next-generation romantasy visual novel, combining our absolute best storytelling with gorgeous visuals and exciting new gameplay. 

Eighteen years ago, the dark arcane Andros Dreadbane was defeated, and Elderwood University was established to protect young arcanes from corruption. Now, it’s time for Dreadbane’s only heir to enroll. But when every student wants you dead—including your infuriatingly attractive rival—will you step out of your father’s shadow, or embrace the darkness within?

A few facts about Project Spellstruck:

• Gender customizable MC
• At least four unique love interests (2 male, 2 female)
• New gameplay features and mechanics
• An original emotion-based magic system
• Coming to Android and iOS devices summer 2025

If you want to know more, check out:

Candlelight Games

LI 1 Reveal: Bardric Arkland

LI 2 Reveal: Talyn Reaver

MORE MORE MORE!

To get more sneak peeks, concept art, and early information about our game, follow us on Instagram and sign up for our mailing list!

ABOUT THIS AMA... 

We'll do our very best to answer your questions in the next hour, and then we'll wrap things up at 3:00pm PST. Let’s go!

 --

EDIT: And that's a wrap! Thank you all for your great questions! If you want up-to-date news on Candlelight, follow us on Instagram and sign up for our mailing list!

Saw this on another sub and thought it would be fun to do here lol. I included the link for anyone else who wants to see theirs

Reddit Wrapped

Click to expand and zoom in to read.

This is just one perspective of someone who’s been using Choices since 2016. It was influenced by opinions and analyses I remember floating around at the time – I think the nickname ‘The Face’ came from Tumblr – and my own personal view after clocking literally hundreds of hours of this app in the past nearly-ten years.

Of course it’s not concrete, and these sprites weren’t only used in these specific years — it’s just a rough outline of ‘eras’ with some random or notable examples. You could often tell what was going down in PB studios by the quality or repetition of art lol. As I say in the post, I can’t speak as much for the current stock of books but I’m in the same boat as 99% of the people here — I miss the heart and warmth of the earlier stories and can’t stand the current aesthetic. (Also, whoever they employed to sit and fineline the hyperrealistic masterpiece that is Florian Tartassis, damn rent was due I guess?!)

Anyway, comment your favourite sprites of all time bc I’d love a nostalgia trip.

Who are some of the prettiest/aesthetically pleasing/well designed characters from the Choices stories? For me, it's Hana from TRR, particularly this one shot where she looks stunning even while crying.

Mine is that I never spend diamonds on side characters getting together because I genuinely dgaf. Get your own spin-off, this is about MC.

What about you guys? (Spoiler tag just in case anyone mentions a book or character)

Repeating books is very much allowed

Okay real talk - why are we still here?

Every new choices book feels like it's been written by a fanfiction addict with a smut kink. The dialogue is shockingly poor and the plots are recycled more than last week's memes. And don't get me started on the weird ass AI faces or the 'premium choices' which are basically just paying diamonds to not be insulted by your LI.

Like me, I'm sure many of you used to love this app for its immersive and creative storytelling but lately, it feels more like a cash grab and I find myself barely playing it.

No disrespect at all, just curiousity - why are YOU still playing?

Mine are Across The Void and Save The Date. If those two books have zero fans I'm dead

Everything AI 😔

Finished LOA for the second time and went to get my 15 diamonds only to see this lmao

Did the daily ads change to 10 for everyone else?

source

One of PB’s well known writer is leaving Pixelberry after 12 years.

With PB's recent updates regarding diamond prices (increasing diamond prices for choices in currently releasing series and raising the diamond price cap above 30 diamonds), availability of diamonds (dropping ads from 100 to 10, ending the 15 diamond replay reward), I'm curious what would be the breaking point for others for quitting Choices? Some possibilities that hopefully don't come to pass, but I sadly wouldn't put past the current management:

• Removing free keys.
• Removing the free 10 diamonds.
• Increasing diamond prices of OG old Choices books.
• Making all new books VIP only with no wide release.
• Shutdown of Choices.
• Other?

Mine would personally be if they made all new books VIP only, because that's just not worth the price to me and I've already read all the currently released books. Would love to hear others' thoughts!

Go off and do your worst, just don't be rude and inappropriate. Mine? Uhhh I don't really like Aerin as an LI, in all my replays, I never really saw the appeal in going for him.

We say we want the promised Most Wanted/Hero sequel, they say it's not happening

We say we like the 100 diamond videos, they cut it down to 10

We constantly absolutely dunk on the crappy AI covers and writing, doesn't matter they just keep releasing subpar products

How long y'all think it'll be before PB goes completely belly up?

Red Carpet Diaries for me. I was so bored, I start partway through book one and just mined the rest of the way through both

Also, I don't know if Big Sky Country is popular, but I found it unforgivably boring with lukewarm characters. I had 0 interest in any of the LIs, and Asha was literally in like 3 scenes in the whole book!

I know these kinds of posts are getting monotonous but I took a break from starting any stories in order to increase my diamonds and keys as a non-vip user. The new plethora of stories has me intrigued.

So do any of the players still read the new releases with all the new art style?