For game developers
inklewriter is a strong tool for roughing out and testing interactive content. inklewriter is already being used by several projects, including Stoic Studio’s The Banner Saga (read about how here).
You can export story data in an easy-to-parse JSON format for use directly in a game. For those with Unity projects, however, we recommend ink, our fully open-sourced scripting language, which comes with a C# runtime and full documentation.
If you would like to migrate from inklewriter to ink, you can start by converting your inklewriter story to ink using our converter page.
Getting started with inklewriter JSON
To access the raw data of your inklewriter story in JSON format, simply append .json to the end of your share URL. For example:
https://writer.inklestudios.com/stories/zrbj.json
If you're comfortable with parsing JSON, you should find that the format is pretty self-explanatory.
A word of warning: while we love to hear that game developers and authors are using inklewriter, we're afraid that in the majority of cases we're not able to offer support for it. We're primarily game developers rather than tools developers, and don't have much time to support the site. Sorry!
FAQ
How much does inklewriter cost to use?
It's free, although we appreciate the credit if you decide to use it!
How do I make an app? How do I make an app like Sorcery! or 80 Days? Can you make an app of my story?
Outside of the writing itself, our apps and games take months of work on the art, design and coding. Each one is a bespoke creation. So we're afraid it's not straightforward.
If you want to create an app or game yourself, you'll need to be a developer, or you'll need to hire one!
My game has a lot of content. What do you advise?
If you have a lot of scenes, you probably want to start creating a new story for each scene. If they share conditionals or markers, you won't be able to test that directly in inklewriter - but you'll probably need to test everything in the game engine itself anyway.
I have multiple writers. Can they work on the same stories at once?
No. inklewriter doesn't support multiple logins or merging, and be warned, if you try it, you may end up saving over each other's' work. Either give writers separate logins, or be very very careful.
Will you add support for multiple writers?
Almost certainly not. One author writing a branch while another simultaneously unlinks it from the tree is just too confusing. Apologies!
Can you add feature X or Y?
Sorry, we don't have much time to spend on inklewriter these days - we're very busy designing and creating our latest game projects!
Will using inklewriter make my game content available to the public?
No. At least, not unless you choose to share the story link somewhere public. Google won't index inklewriter stories unless they appear on the open web, and we don't index them anywhere.
What are the copyright implications of using inklewriter?
There aren't any. (Note: one caveat - if you infringe someone else's copyright and they ask us to take your story down, we probably will. To date, this has never happened.)
inklewriter is used in schools. Does that mean my content has to be age-appropriate?
No. See the answer to "is my game content public"?
How do I integrate the story with source control?
The best way is to save off the .json files and store them. Note that it is possible to reload a json file back into inklewriter if something goes wrong, although it's a bit fiddly. If you need to know, get in touch and we'll talk you through it.'
How can I use the .json data in Unity, or another game engine?
The first step is to find a JSON library to read the data, or use your engine's built in JSON support if it has it.
We don't have any specific game engine SDKs - but if you felt like writing one, there's a lot of people that'd be grateful!'
Is there any documentation on your .json format?
No, sorry! Hopefully it should be fairly easy to work out though.
My question isn't listed here!
Feel free to get in touch!