ink and Inky vs Narrat

ink is a text-first scripting language for branching game narratives, with logic and code placed within the story text. It is designed mainly for professional game development, though it can also be used to write and share choice-based interactive fiction. The companion Inky editor lets writers create, test, and export stories in one app. Its play pane updates while a story is being written, it highlights errors as they appear, and it can jump from a divert to its target. Inky exports stories as JSON or as a web page ready for customisation. The editor runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. For Unity, an integration plugin recompiles ink files during editing and provides a previewer inside the Unity Editor; the maker also points to Inkpot, a container for using ink within Unreal Engine. ink, Inky, and the Unity plugin are free under the MIT license. Help is available through Discord and GitHub Discussions.

Narrat is a game engine for creating narrative games, RPGs, visual novels and interactive fiction. Authors use a scripting language with branching choices, functions, variables and conditions. Built-in systems cover skills and checks, inventory, quests, achievements, save and load, audio and notifications. The engine supports interactive visual screens, character portraits and poses, animations, and video backgrounds. Its interface can be themed with CSS and configured through editable YAML settings; built-in localization includes string syntax and a language switcher. Developers can extend it with TypeScript code, Vue components, custom commands, menu tabs, data stores and lifecycle hooks, and documentation lists a Godot 4 integration plugin. Games can be built as static websites or desktop applications for Windows, Mac and Linux; Steam build support is experimental. Mobile delivery is through HTML5 web games. Narrat is free and open source under the MIT license, with personal and commercial use permitted without restrictions. Documentation, troubleshooting resources, a community forum and Discord are listed for help.