Think Visually
Twine lets you organize your story graphically with a map that you can re-arrange as you work. Links automatically appear on the map as you add them to your passages, and passages with broken links are apparent at a glance. As you write, focus on your text with a fullscreen editing mode like Dark Room. Rapidly switch between a published version of your story and the editable one as you work.
One of the nifty things is that it can export a plain text file that I can turn into a Ren'py file. (Cuz I am weird code head that likes making text parsers)
There is a Windows Version and a Mac version. There is also a command line version called twee which doesn't do the pretty graphics, but does turn the text file into a web playable game.
Susan
" It's not at all important to get it right the first time. It's vitally important to get it right the last time. "
— Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
That's an impressive looking tool, could come in really handy. Thanks for the share!
One of the nifty things is that it can export a plain text file that I can turn into a Ren'py file. (Cuz I am weird code head that likes making text parsers)
Heh. I'm developing a text file parser for scripting visual novels in Game Maker from a (very) simple home-made scripting language, and I can kind of see the appeal. There's a perverse kind of fun in it.
Completed: Tell Her a Story (Nano12), In This Dream of Ours, The Mishka Effect (Nano14), Saving Zoey (Asylum Jam 2014), Fairly Dangerous (Nano15), Palette Swap (Nano16)
Oh, this is just perfect. I had been looking for something like this before I started my second visual novel, but then I gave up and just decided to organize everything in WordPad. Thanks for posting this!
*The Glasskitten, who never really got on well with digital writing aids for some reason, downloads Twine anyway out of curiosity*
*Stares at the program*
*Stares at the interface, help thingy, etc.*
*Tries to figure out how it can be useful to the Glasskitten's own work*
UNEXPECTED EPIPHANY! The Glasskitten had been wondering how to structure a Flash adventure puzzle whatsit game codewise. It can pretend le game is an Interactive Fiction thing except with doodles instead of words! There is a world of tutorials on how to build Interactive Fiction! At last there is a viable direction to take in programming the puzzley whatsit. ;v;
*The Glasskitten bids thankings to the cat who is Susan*
Grand list of things not officially canceled: Salt -- the heartwarming story of brain-eating space worms Tangent -- an epic poem and/or novel about a borderline-autistic Martian imp and her relationship with God Kittens of the Darned -- a grimdark soap opera about sexy catgirls (Indefinitely postponed until I learn to draw and color realistically) The Other Mary -- the most perfect fic about the most perfect Mary Sue EVER Rockheart -- a short story about a monster who kills everyone Corrupted -- a completely different short story about a monster who kills everyone (late Worst Visual Novel Ever) Checkpoint 36a -- the transcription of a short multi-ending dream about time travel and undead schoolgirls In Which the Princess is Kidnapped -- an entry in the "ordinary girl ends up in an alien universe and tries to save it" genre Pictogram Scramble: Magical Friendship Bunny Ivy -- a Flash game about a magical girl making friends (Indefinitely postponed until I learn how friendship works)
I have 53 scenes and growing in the current game, many of which will be non-linear, so I think it would be very difficult for anyone else to follow the chaos without Twine.
"We must teach them through the tools with which they are comfortable."
The #renpy IRC channel is a great place to chat with other devs. Due to the nature of IRC and timezone differences, people probably won't reply right away.
If you'd like to view or use any code from my VN PM me. All code is freely available without restriction, but also without warranty or (much) support.