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Author Your Own Adventure With These 5 Must-Try Free Tools

by ObyteDecember 6th, 2024

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Too Long; Didn't Read

Interactive fiction is a way of storytelling where you, as the reader or player, get to make choices that affect how the story unfolds. By using a specific type of software, writers create these branching storylines and design different paths and outcomes based on the reader’s decisions. Depending on the software and the potential outcomes, writers don’t even need a huge amount of technical knowledge. There are several open-source and free tools to do this.

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There are many ways to create wonderful stories, and using software (besides words) is one of them. Interactive fiction, for instance, is an interesting way of storytelling where you, as the reader or player, get to make choices that affect how the story unfolds. It’s often like a mix between a book and a game. By using a specific type of software, writers create these branching storylines and design different paths and outcomes based on the reader’s decisions.

Depending on the software and the potential outcomes, writers don’t even need a huge amount of technical knowledge. Plus: they don’t need to pay for anything, because there are several open-source and free tools to do this, available to everyone. If you enjoy them as a reader or decide to use them as a writer, remember that you can always contribute to their creators via Kivach.

Kivach is an Obyte-based platform that enables users to make crypto donations to open-source projects on GitHub that can be automatically redistributed to multiple similar projects —if the recipients decide to do so. This time, we’re going to explore some interactive fiction (and related) software that is available for free and could benefit from your donations.

Twine

Have you seen/played “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” on Netflix? Well, it was partly made with Twine, without coding. This is a free tool created by Chris Klimas, first released in 2009. It’s designed to help users build interactive, nonlinear stories without needing to know how to code. Twine is especially popular for creating text-based games and branching narratives, allowing authors to create stories that change based on the reader's choices.

One of Twine’s key features is its user-friendly interface, which visually maps out how different story parts are connected. You can start with simple text, and if you want to expand your story later, Twine supports adding variables, conditional logic, and custom styling through CSS or JavaScript. This means creators have a lot of room for creativity, with Twine allowing them to publish their work directly to HTML, making it accessible on the web.

Twine is primarily supported through donations, with Chris Klimas receiving funding via Patreon and donations made to the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation. Of course, you can also donate them some coins via Kivach, even directly to the authors. Other notable works made with Twine include Howling Dogs (2012) and Depression Quest (2013), as well as stories like Chloe Is Home (2022) and I Gave You a Key and You Opened the Darkness (2023).

Ren’Py

This is a more visual alternative. Created by Tom "PyTom" Rothamel, Ren'Py was first released in 2004. It’s primarily designed to make visual novels (often romantic), allowing users to tell interactive stories using images, sounds, and text. Ren'Py's name is a combination of "ren'ai," the Japanese word for romantic love, and Python, the programming language it’s built on.

One of Ren'Py's strengths is its simplicity paired with powerful customization options. The basic scripting language is easy to learn, enabling creators to manage large storylines effortlessly. For more complex projects, users can add Python code to handle sophisticated game mechanics. Ren'Py supports multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, with additional support for animations, transitions, and save systems to enhance the gaming experience.

Ren'Py is funded primarily through community support, with donations coming from its Patreon page and sponsorships. As a project available on GitHub, they can also receive donations via Kivach. Some notable games developed with this program include Vera Blanc (2010), The Royal Trap (2013), and Doki Doki Literature Club! (2017), each showcasing the engine’s versatility for both narrative depth and creativity.

Fungus

Released by Chris Gregan in 2014, Fungus is designed to help anyone create interactive storytelling games within Unity, even without coding experience. It’s particularly popular for visual novels, point-and-click adventures, and educational games. The software simplifies game development with its easy-to-learn interface, making it ideal for writers, illustrators, and animators who are new to Unity. It also supports more advanced developers by offering Lua scripting for additional customization.

One of Fungus’ standout features is its visual scripting system, which allows users to manage complex dialogues, characters, and game logic without writing code. Fungus supports both 2D and 3D games, making it versatile for a variety of projects. It integrates smoothly with Unity’s features, allowing for the easy management of audio, camera controls, and internationalization of dialogue. This flexibility and simplicity make it a go-to tool for creating immersive and engaging story-based games.

This tool is funded by community support, as it’s free to use by anyone. If you use it and find it useful, you can consider donating to its team via Kivach. Some well-known projects created with Fungus include Sky Call (2015), Hotel Sara Belum (2015), Banished (2016), and Hack_It (2016).

Text Adventure Development System (TADS)

This one is likely the grandpa of Interactive Fiction. First released in 1988 by Michael J. Roberts, TADS has gone through three major versions: 1, 2, and lately 3 —a complete rewrite of the original engine. Anyway, it’s still a powerful tool designed to help people create their own interactive stories, but it requires some degree of programming knowledge to do it.

TADS provides a programming environment, making it ideal for those who enjoy coding, but it also aims to simplify the creation process, enabling authors to focus on building engaging stories. The software is packed with features like multimedia support for adding images, sounds, and even animations to enrich text-based games. TADS uses a programming language similar to C++ or JavaScript, which makes it appealing to experienced programmers.

TADS is entirely free and open-source, sustained by a passionate community of interactive fiction enthusiasts. If you want to help with their support, you can send them some coins via Kivach. Some renowned games built with TADS include Uncle Zebulon’s Will (1995), 1893: A World’s Fair Mystery (2002), and The Elysium Enigma (2006).

Trelby

Scripts are also important to build some fiction, and here’s Trelby to help with it. It was initially released as "Blyte" in 2003 by Osku Salerma, but after its commercial sales faltered, the software was open-sourced in 2006. In 2011, developer Anil Gulecha revived the project, giving it a new name, Trelby, and adding modern features. Its main function is to provide screenwriters with a powerful, simple, and customizable tool for writing and formatting screenplays.

Trelby offers many useful features, including an intuitive editor that enforces proper screenplay formatting, auto-completion, and spell-checking. It runs on both Windows and Linux, providing identical output across platforms. Trelby supports multiple views for drafting, allows easy comparison between script versions, and includes a database of over 200,000 character names. It also has extensive import/export options, including support for popular screenplay formats like Final Draft and Fountain, and offers a built-in, customizable PDF generator.

As an open-source and free-to-use project, Trelby relies on community contributions for development. This makes it a valuable tool for writers interested in collaborative projects. For authors of Interactive Fiction, this could be an appealing resource for structuring narratives or screen-based storytelling projects, bridging the gap between traditional screenwriting and interactive narratives. Interested in donating? Use Kivach!

How to donate using Kivach?

First of all, developers and authors should have a GitHub account. Beyond this prerequisite, they don’t even need to know that you’re donating. Not at least until the moment of withdrawal, which is done with an Obyte wallet. From their side, donors only need to type the GitHub repository name on the Kivach search bar, click or tap ‘Donate’, and select the amount and coin preferred. And that’s it!

Just remember to tell the recipients about it, so they can claim their funds. By using Kivach, it’s possible to donate cryptocurrencies to any project available on GitHub —and they’re in the millions by now. You can explore them by yourself too, or check our previous episodes in this series!