inform7-ide VS RenPy

For those looking for Linux packages instead of compiling themselves, there's a github build project of an earlier version this year https://github.com/ptomato/inform7-ide/actions/runs/19915523...

Inform 7 is a domain-specific language for creating parser-based works of interactive fiction (i.e. old-school "text adventure games"). It does the heavy lifting of parsing and maintaining the consistency of the world model for the programmer.

Inform 7 takes this to the extreme, allowing code such as "A distance is a kind of value. 5 miles specifies a distance."

Pure parser-based games have become niche, but they are still out there and, like others mentioned, have continued to evolve (see Inform 7). You no longer have to "guess the verb".

Neat. Have you ever seen Inform? http://inform7.com/ Might offer some inspiration on future features. It's a pretty cool language that's been around for a long time and has the same use case.

Ren'Py - Visual Novel Engine. Python, Cython, C

Here are 2 interactive story game engines: * https://www.renpy.org/ * https://twinery.org/

###################################################### Credits label credits(): $ credits_speed = 20 scene black show text '''{b}Blabla:{/b}\n\n{i}Me{/i}\n\n\n {b}Clacla:{/b}\n\n{i}You{/i}\n\n\n {b}Dladla:{/b}\n\n {i}He{/i}\n\n\n {b}Hlahla:{/b}\n\n{i}She{/i}\n\n\n {b}Brrr:{/b}\n\n{i}Grrr{/i}\n\n\n {b}Drrr:{/b}\n\n{i}Hrrr{/i}\n\n\n\n\n Made with {a=https://www.renpy.org/}Ren'Py{/a} v[renpy.version_only]\n\n\n{b}Ren'Py License:{/b}\n[renpy.license!t]''' at Move((0.5, 1.0), (0.5, -1.0), credits_speed, xanchor=0.5, yanchor=0) with Pause(credits_speed+4) return init screen about(): tag menu add "main_menu" use game_menu(_("Credits"), scroll="viewport"): style_prefix "about" fixed: xalign 0.5 yalign 0.5 viewport id "vp": draggable True mousewheel True has vbox: spacing 3 textbutton _("whattheheeeeellll") action Jump("credits") init -1 style about_label is gui_label init -1 style about_label_text is label_text init -1 style about_text is gui_text init -1 style about_label_text: size gui.label_text_size

You can also check https://www.renpy.org/

I can't speak for in-game stuff, but I encourage anyone who wants to to try making a visual novel! It's way easier than you'd think it is. The only tools I really used were Ren'Py (the engine), CSP and Paint.net (for the art), and KKT (for the models).

If you want full creative control, I would suggest going your own way and making indie games. The visual novel engine, Ren'py, is free to use and fairly easy to learn. They have a lot of helpful resources including Lemmasoft Forums, which is a great place to ask questions and find talent such as artists (we found our sprite/CG artist, BG artist, and GUI artist here, along with one of our voice actors).

Make your text game, but not "within ChatGPT". Instead, make a game. You could use Ren'Py or really anything.