So I’ve got an idea I’m really in love with, but have no idea how to put it to game.
I’m attempting Twine again, but it’s format has changed massively and I have no idea how to create variables to keep track of.
Should I stick to Twine? Switch to Ren’py? Or is there another novel maker that’s better?
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Twine has two main branches (that I know of, I don’t use it): Sugarcube and Harlowe. From what I’ve seen Harlowe is easier to get into but Sugarcube offers more flexibility, particularly with saving games and having multiple save files.
Renpy is a lot more accommodating to the “visual” part of “visual novel”, but does rely a lot more on visuals as a result with the majority of the screen being dedicated to it. There’s probably ways or 3rd party plugins to reconfigure Renpy into being more text focused, but having never used it (there’s a theme here) I don’t know for sure.
As for other engines, the only one I know of is Quest (I also haven’t used it, shocker), although that can be temperamental and only works on Windows. It’s primarily suited to text adventure games rather than novels, although I have seen games that are just the same branching path choices you’d see in a Twine game. Hopefully someone with actual experience in these engines can chime in so I’m not accidentally giving poor advice.
Also @betatoybox that’s an RPG engine, not a VN engine
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Ren’py, Choose Ren’py.
You should keep using Twine
imo.
twine sugarcube is for a coder who wants to create a visual novel.
twine harlowe is for a writer who wants to create a visual novel.
ren’py is for one of two people.
either someone who already knows some python and wants to create a visual novel
OR someone who already has art and visual design skills who wants to create a visual novel.
I’ve never looked at or used quest myself.
If you end up stick with Twine, I’d strongly advise against Harlowe. Sugarcube beats it in most areas, and is still fairly easy to learn. Harlowe has some very problematic issues, and it’d be pretty difficult to switch to Sugarcube in the future if you ever decided you wanted to. I personally think people are giving Harlowe too much credit when comparing the two engines, because it has some genuinely bad things about it while offering pretty little in return.
If you want to learn/re-learn Twine, just bite the bullet and use Sugarcube. It gives so much more freedom, and comes with some really nice features straight out of the box.
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