articy:draft X vs Yarn Spinner
articy:draft X
articy.com
Yarn Spinner
yarnspinner.devSide by side
| Figure | articy:draft X | Yarn Spinner |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | €5.83/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 7 | 2 |
| Spec score · Game Narrative Design Software | 9.4 (#1) | 8.6 (#4) |
| Company headquarters | Articy identifies its main office as Bochum in Germany’s Ruhr district. | The company is based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. |
| Headquarters | Bochum, Germany | Hobart, Tasmania, Australia |
| Localization | Localization includes project languages, state tracking, Excel import/export, voice-over workflows, reports and optional DeepL translation. | Localization exports dialogue strings with unique IDs, supports runtime language switching and can use Unity Localization. |
| Purpose | articy:draft X is a narrative design and game writing tool for creating and managing interactive stories. | Yarn Spinner creates narrative game tools for writers, programmers and game designers to plan, write, integrate and test game dialogue. |
| Rating on itch.io | 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings | 5.0 out of 5 from 16 ratings |
| Security statement | Hosted environments use SSL connections, per-user project access, certified EU data centers and daily external backups. | The privacy policy says transmitted data uses HTTPS, access is limited to necessary team members and software is kept updated. |
| Support | Support resources include downloads, a help center, tutorials, training and consulting, community links, and technical support. | Support is available by email, with replies usually within a few business days, and through a community Discord server. |
| Unity integration | The Unity importer provides automatic data import, object/property access, customizable flow traversal, script evaluation, localization support and Unity components. | Yarn Spinner for Unity includes a Dialogue Runner and components for loading and delivering dialogue to game UI. |
| Unreal integration | The Unreal importer supports dialogue and entity import, Blueprints, automatic dialogue traversal, custom editor elements and Unreal localization. | The Unreal Engine integration is described as an alpha release with Blueprint and C++ support. |
| What it does | articy:draft X is a visual database and narrative design tool for organizing storylines, characters, variables and branching interactive content. | Yarn Spinner provides tools for planning, writing, integrating and testing branching dialogue in games. |
Plans
articy:draft X
- articy:draft X FREEFree
- articy:draft X FREEFree
- articy:draft X Monthly subscription€6.99 a month
- Single User Monthly subscription€7.98 a month
- Team bundles€56 a month
- articy:draft X Annual subscription€69.99 a year
- Single User Annual subscription€79.99 a year
In their own words
articy:draft X
articy:draft X is a narrative design and game writing tool for creating and managing interactive stories. Its visual Flow Editor lets writers build branching, non-linear stories and nested flows. A Game Object Database keeps entities, assets, and related project content together, while scripting uses variables, conditions, and instructions to shape choices and game flow. Localization tools track project languages and translation status, with spreadsheet import and export. Unity and Unreal integrations connect the tool to those game engines; JSON, Excel, Word, and XML exports are also available. Multi-user licenses provide simultaneous project access, version history, and SVN or Perforce support, but not Perforce Stream depots. The free edition supports unlimited projects, though a project locks after it passes 700 objects until content is removed or the project is upgraded. The free plan is free, with a free multi-user collaboration trial lasting 14 days, requested through sales. Single-user subscriptions cost €7.98 a month or €79.99 a year. It runs on Windows, macOS, self-hosted environments, and through an API.
Yarn Spinner
Yarn Spinner is a set of tools for planning, writing, integrating, and testing dialogue for games. Its human-readable Yarn scripting language supports interactive conversations and branching narratives. Official integrations are available for Unity, Godot with C# or GDScript, and Unreal Engine with Blueprint or C++. The free, open-source Visual Studio Code extension adds syntax highlighting, error checking, a graph view, and an in-editor dialogue preview. Dialogue strings can be exported with unique IDs, and the system supports runtime language switching and Unity Localization. Voice-over features include audio asset management, synchronization with localization, and playback timing. Ready-made add-ons include speech bubbles and dialogue wheels; Text Animator is part of Yarn Spinner+. Try Yarn Spinner offers a browser-based space to write and run scripts without setup, but its scripts remain in browser storage and are not backed up or synchronized. The core is licensed under MIT. The Free plan costs nothing; Yarn Spinner+ for Unity costs 75.00 USD or more, once.