ink, the open-source scripting language that powers the branching narratives for Inkle games like Heaven’s Vault, Pendragon, and many others, is now out of beta with a handful of new features to show for it.
That big milestone means that ink now includes the ability to both switch between and track the impact of multiple, simultaneous in-game conversations on one another, along with some smaller features like a dark mode, improved syntax highlighting, and improvements to Unity integration.
Even with ink now at version 1.0, Inkle says that it’ll continue to be usable for free as long as they’re able to support it.
Inkle released an open-source beta version of the tool back in 2016, aiming for the free-to-use project to act as “Word for Interactive Fiction,” in Inkle’s words, and allow IF writers to craft narratives in a more fluid way than other options allow.
“Branch when you need to, rejoin the flow seamlessly, track state and vary what’s written based on what came before – without any need to plan, layout, or structure in advance. Organise your content when you know what shape it wants to take, not before,” explains a blog post.
That blog post, found here, traces ink’s evolution over the years which includes highlights from its community-led feature development and how Inkle itself has shaped ink during its time in beta.