Hosted Games vs Serania
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hosted Games
Explore a vast library of text-based interactive novels where your choices shape the narrative. Engage in diverse genres from horror and fantasy to romance and sci-fi, all powered by your imagination. Create your own stories using a simple scripting language.
- Vast library of interactive novels
- Text-based storytelling
- Choice-driven narratives
- Multiple genres available
- Create your own games
- ChoiceScript programming language
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The choice is yours! Joust for love and glory, solve an eldritch murder, find romance, or battle aliens with Magitek? "Hosted Games" is a magnificent library of interactive novels, written by authors like you. Hosted Games are entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination. Try a few of these fan favorites: • Zombie Exodus — Fight your way out of a zombie-filled city in this interactive horror story! • Fallen Hero — Step into the shoes of a telepath turned villain and explore the dark side. • Wayhaven Chronicles — Something stalks the shadows, and it's up to you to find out what! • Sabres of Infinity — Step into the boots of a Royal Dragoon in this tale of war in a fantasy world. • Golden Rose — Explore a medieval Europe where history took a different turn! • Soul Stone War — Fight for the future—your own, and the world's! Your fate is yours. • I, the Forgotten One — Can you defeat the rebellion in your kingdom before your past consumes you? • An Unexpectedly Green Journey — From birth to death, craft your orc's legacy. Are you destined for glory? • Fields of Asphodel — Join the ranks of the Underworld's misfit gods and make it your home! • Tin Star — Ride out into the Old West as a U.S. marshal and craft a legend. Authors just like you have developed these games using ChoiceScript, a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice interactive novels. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience. Learn more at https://hostedgames.org
Serania
Embark on a text-based role-playing adventure to uncover your past and escape pursuers. Make choices, explore a fantasy world, and engage in combat and skill development. The first part of the story is free to play.
- Engaging fantasy story with choices
- Explore a detailed story world
- Interact with characters
- Complete missions and improve skills
- Manage inventory and combat
- Uncover ancestral truth
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Escape the Blackblades and search for answers about your mysterious past in this new, fresh take on the text-based role playing genre. You can play the first 1/4 of the game for free. If the game is for you, you can buy access to the full story. FEATURES: * An engaging fantasy story, where you choose what to do * Freely explore the world of the story * Meet and interact with other characters * Go on missions, improve your skills, and fight deadly battles * Manage your inventory, use items, buy, sell or use in combat * Follow the clues and find out the truth about your ancestry! AWARDS: Best Narrative - Silver Winner NYX Game Awards 2021 Best Storytelling - Silver Winner NYX Game Awards 2021 PRESS: “... a stunningly well-written and enthralling text adventure.” - GameBookNews "Serania: Path of the Scion is a Must Play if You Like Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Books" - GameSpew "Serania – Path of the Scion excels as an engaging narrative experience that you can enjoy anytime, anywhere, with a streamlined interface that seamlessly integrates all aspects of the game naturally." - IndieHive
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Serania at none against Hosted Games's shown. Serania also leads on iOS requirement (9.3 vs 17.0). Hosted Games's advantage is ratings volume (956 vs 157). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Hosted Games sells 33 one-off in-app purchases and Serania sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Hosted Games against 4.6 for Serania. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hosted Games has 956 ratings behind it against 157, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 77% of Hosted Games's written reviews are positive against 83% of Serania's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hosted Games | Serania |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (956 ratings) — better | 4.6 (157 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 77.4% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 956 — better | 157 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 10 days |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 9.3 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 94 MB | 110 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Hosted Games LLC | Peter Ravnholt |
Customer experience
Hosted Games
Serania
Bugs and requests
Hosted Games
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Serania
Reported bugs
10 issues- Combat options disappear
- Enemies can dodge while 'paralyzed'
- Life doesn't fully restore upon leveling up
- Stuck in temple ruins without a boat option
- Final boss is impossible to hit/beat
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- Choices are arbitrary, leading to death and reverting to checkpoint
- Constant misses in combat, reliant on RNG
- Difficulty spikes significantly at the end
- Hint doesn't provide enough information for progression
- Continue button sometimes delayed with voiceover
Requested features
19 requests- Add a dodge button
- Add a defense button
- Add more combat options (e.g., quick thrust, sideways cut)
- Fix bug with disappearing combat options
- Make the next game free
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- Add more choices to the story
- Add a boat option for crossing the lake
- Create a Serania part two
- Allow revival in the story
- Add more sound effects for combat
- Expand the story after claiming the throne
- Add a freeplay or challenge mode after main story
- Add hidden areas with new enemies/weapons
- Implement New Game + with increased difficulty
- Add a gender option other than man and woman
- Loop music tracks and add more scene-specific music
- Add a map for better navigation
- Make the full story free
- Allow watching ads to progress instead of paying
In-app purchases
Hosted Games
- Dragon of Steelthorne$2.99
- Side Stories 21-30$2.99
- First Bull Run$2.99
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- Tokyo Wizard$2.99
- It Takes Three to Tango$3.99
- Divine Ascension$4.99
- Samurai of Hyuga$4.99
- Keeper's Vigil$5.99
- World War II Armored Recon$5.99
- Life as a Lich$5.99
- Velocity: The Race Begins$6.99
- Keeper of the Sun and Moon$6.99
- Samurai of Hyuga Book 6$6.99
- Fallen Hero: Rebirth$6.99
- Hero or Villain: Genesis$6.99
- A Kiss from Death$6.99
- Kitsune$6.99
- Whiskey-Four$6.99
- Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One$7.99
- The Soul Stone War$7.99
- Leas: City of the Sun$7.99
- The People's House$7.99
- Scales of Justice$7.99
- Tale of Two Cranes$8.99
- Breach: The Archangel Job$8.99
- Wayhaven Chronicles: Book Two$8.99
- Saturnine$8.99
- The Golden Rose: Book One$11.99
- Diaspora$11.99
- Wayhaven Chronicles Three$11.99
- Fallen Hero: Retribution$11.99
- An Unexpectedly Green Journey$11.99
- Fields of Asphodel$11.99
Serania
- Access to the full story$3.99
