The very best totally free tools for narrative video games

We noticed that narrative game engines and toolsets were popping up as we compiled our coverage of free and affordable tools for game production. We even produced a TikTok that used some of our favourite tools, such as Twine, Narrat, and Ren’Py.

This is a broader update to that, including many more free tools for making interactive fiction and role-playing games. Many of these tools were made with IF authors in mind, while others are well-suited to the production of visual novels, role-playing games with extensive dialogue, experience games, or any other medium where the use of words and the ability to choose between alternative texts is central to the experience. Many of them are perfect for aspiring designers or storyboard artists/writers on a tight budget who are trying to broaden their skillset.

Tabulation:

• Twine
• Inklewriter
• Notify 7
• Narrat
• YarnSpinner
• Ren’Py
• Decker
• FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
• Neighborhood Suggestions

Twine

When it comes to creating interactive fiction, Twine is among the most popular programmes available. It’s a free, open-source tool that doesn’t require any coding experience to get started, making it great for people who want to try their hand at game development for the first time, writers who want to branch off into an interactive format, and really anyone who wants to write a story where the player chooses along branching courses. You can customise the tool to your liking by adding features.

A quote right out of Twine:

Adding variables, conditional logic, photos, CSS, and JavaScript to your stories is optional; Twine’s story creation process is code-free.

Twine’s direct HTML export makes it easy to share your stories almost anywhere. Whatever you create from it can be used for any reason, including profit.

There is a large community of people who use Twine, and the website has resources like a Discord and the Twine Reference and Twine Cookbook to help programmers of all ability levels get started.

Twine is available as a desktop application for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, or it can be used entirely in a web browser.

Inklewriter

The user-friendly interface of Inklewriter has made it popular among those who want to create interactive stories. What we learn from the studio’s official website

The inklewriter allows you to write the story as you go by selecting various options and then putting them back together. It keeps track of what you’ve finished in class and what you still need to do.

Nothing separates you from the white space on the paper; there’s no need to sketch out a plan or utilise any specialised tools. There is zero fee associated with making use of it. Once your stories are written down, you can share them with anybody you like.

It’s made to get you up and running as a writer quickly as possible, and it comes with a handy lesson when you emerge. The technology is not limited to the smaller, more intimate tasks that Inkle Studios has used it for (the Banner Saga is included as an example job on the page).

Any modern web browser will work with the programme.

Notify 7

The Notify 7 natural language editor allows for the creation of interactions of almost infinite depth. It is commonly used for prototyping and has been dubbed a “style system for interactive fiction,” but it can also be used on its own to build elaborate worlds, scenarios, and any flavour of IF you can imagine for video games.

Since Inform is more of a language than a programme like the others on this list, it may benefit from a more extensive set of standards to get it off the ground. There is a series of videos on YouTube by Professor Dennis G. Jerz that covers the basics of Inform and how to get started with it.

Narrat

Narrat is a tool for making narrative adventure/RPGs in the style of Disco Elysium. It has a wide cast of characters and “voices” for the player to engage with, as well as faith statistics and the ability to contact dice rolls “under the hood” with a chance of success revealed by way of text to the gamer.

This is an excerpt from the Narrat website:

Narrat is a robust framework for developing interactive story video games.Enhance your video game’s functionality by learning the Basic programming syntax. It supports Abilities with check rolls and features a Products inventory and a Quests system.The robust scripting framework enables a wide variety of branching options, functions, variables, and conditions.

The Narrat page provides a variety of sample jobs that new developers can test out to acquire a feel for the tool and its own flavour.

The tool also comes with a very useful how-to guide for new users. Any desktop with node.js16 or greater installed is capable of running Narrat, or you may give it a try in the browser.

Yarn Spinner

Check out our page on no-cost game development tools for more details about Yarn Spinner. In a nutshell, Yarn Spinner is a free tool that integrates with Unity and enables writers to prepare up discussion and scripts in a very writer-friendly format (Yarn scripts feel a lot like movie scripts), and it is easy to get up and running while maintaining strong documentation, tutorials, and other local resources.

Ren’Py

I won’t go into great into on Ren’Py here because we already covered it in our post on free software for making video games. If you’re a programmer interested in creating visual novels (or other experiences with visual components and conversation) with little to no coding (or a lot if you’re interested in learning Python), then Ren’Py is the open-source software for you. You can get started with it right away by following the site’s “quick start” tutorial, and it won’t cost you a dime.

Decker

• With Decker, you may make your own hypercard-like experiences, including video games of any kind, to play on your computer’s desktop or in a web browser, for no cost. Decker, as displayed on its page at itch.io:

  Decker is a multimedia content production and distribution system that supports scripted actions, audio and video, and hypertext. The modern “no-code” or “low-code” creative apps Twine and Bitsy served as major inspirations. Decker is like a stack of post-it notes, and Jupyter Notebooks is like a digital lab notebook.

  Decker can be used to make:

  Discussions

• E-Zines
• Choose-your-own experiences
• Visual books
• Calculators
• Individual databases
• Noise boards
• Prototypes
• Point-and-click video games
• And far more!

The itch.io page for the tool not only describes the many possible applications of the programme, but also provides access to a multitude of additional educational and social media sites. Decker is a versatile tool that can be used in your browser or downloaded from itch.io and installed on your computer running Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: What should you think about when choosing a narrative video game engine?

Video game advancement assistance

You should check the tool’s documentation and support options to see if you can get help if you get stuck using it. You can get an idea of how different types of assistance are offered by clicking on the links provided in each entry. There is robust documentation and user bases for all of these products.

Video game advancement toolset

You may find that a certain engine’s set of functionality is more suited to your workflow than that of another. Is your goal to write interactive fiction where the focus is solely on the text and the choices presented to the reader? Twine may very well be the finest option (it even has various visual and sound extensions!). Do you wish to design a video game with complex puzzles and storylines? Perhaps Notify 7 will meet your needs. In what ways would you like to see supplemental gaming mechanics introduced into Visual Novel or forum format? When it comes to scripting, both Yarn Spinner and Ren’Py are up to the task, but they’re also flexible enough to be utilised for more basic games. While you’re writing, think about your objectives and the kind of story that would help you achieve them.

Video game export Tools, publishing and platforms

Once you’ve developed a video game you’re proud of, it’s time to release it to the public via an online shop or another distribution method. Make sure you read the fine print on licencing and publishing, but most of these story tools have lenient restrictions for independent programmers.

Like our last article, we hope this one will evolve over time, and we welcome suggestions for additional free story tools from other designers.

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