bic

bic

Good and bad tools for creating branching dialogues

Hello everybody :slight_smile:

I’m making a tool with the goal to help creating branching dialogues for game development. I want to make it easy to use and intuitive with the ability to export the story into different output formats. So far I think I have a solid foundation: 2 basic views for story display, very structured and scalable clean code, basic functionality to add or delete story elements.

Now I’m a little stuck because I’m not a domain expert :slight_smile: In other words I haven’t worked with dialogues for games yet (except for looking into yarn spinner, playing around with unity and unreal engine for a while and testing twine). Basically my issue is that I don’t know what tools are great and what tools are less so. Knowing what works and what doesn’t for experts would help me out a lot in figuring out what feature to implement and how to make it as intuitive and helpful as possible. The goal is to make a tool that doesn’t stand in the way of the creative process.

Maybe some of you can kick my butt in the right direction? I would greatly appreciate that :slight_smile:

And thank you in advance!

Most Liked

AstonJ

AstonJ

Hey Bic, welcome to devtalk :023:

It’s not an area I’m personally familiar with but what about looking at these:

  • Twine
  • Yarn Spinner
  • Ink (by Inkle)
  • ChatMapper

Also I’m not sure if it’s worth looking at books from @Paradox927 and @herbert, which might also contain some useful info…

Eiji

Eiji

Maybe consider my Elixir package:

With a simple and extensible DSL you can write any story and easily translate it using po files. In recent release there is lots of extra code for a session management and so on. This way you can easily write a simple game or presentation by generating a new Phoenix (web framework) based project, adding your LiveView pages and of course using the DSL and optionally translating the content.

I have even created a simple project to demonstrate how a video talk have been transformed into a presentation. You can use for example a Rust NIF to do the GUI or use wxWidgets bindings for Erlang language or even Scenic for embedded devices.

Working on HTML-based game at the very start should be simplest option and it’s also worth to mention that we have a LiveViewNative project. Let me know how that sounds for you.

Scarlet

Scarlet

You’re off to a strong start—clean, scalable code and a solid UI foundation already put you ahead of many early tools in this space. To kick you in the right direction: focus on how writers think, not just how devs structure logic. Look into what makes Twine fast for prototyping, why Ink by Inkle is praised for writer-friendly syntax, and how Yarn Spinner handles conditionals and variables intuitively. Key features to prioritize: non-linear navigation, variable tracking, previewing dialogue flow, and export options to JSON, Ink, or Yarn formats. Talk to narrative designers if you can—nothing beats real-world pain points to guide what not to do. You’re building the bridge between creativity and code—just make sure it’s one they want to cross.

Where Next?

Popular Game Dev topics Top

New
AstonJ
I’m beginning to think the Series S is going to be game-changer for Microsoft and figures for the gen ending up with a lot of people buyi...
New
AstonJ
This post by @Paradox927 and all the excitement in this thread got me thinking - what kind of game would you make if you got into it?
New
AstonJ
This makes me want to watch the Mandalorian!
New
RobertRichards
Waste Racer It is a waste disposal game application. The game involves collecting roadside garbage and putting them inside a moving bin....
New
mattygames
I created a game that you can play on your phone in your browser. No downloads, no ads, no subscriptions and other nonsense: just click t...
New
fatpossum
Hey everyone, I’m 36 and just wanted to introduce myself. Years ago, I dabbled a bit with batch code and GB Studio. Around 2023, thanks t...
New
tehnewb
Hello everyone! I’ve been developing a 2D game engine since October or something like that and the goal is to just make something simple,...
New
Zatellia
I am currently making a game using UE, and the game is about fighting monsters using modern weapons but not all monsters are able to be k...
New
MMORPG2D
Date Started: 6th august 2026 → Mid Beta Needs alot of work still but has the foundation (just need feedback) Runescape Skills/Attack st...
New

Other popular topics Top

Devtalk
Reading something? Working on something? Planning something? Changing jobs even!? If you’re up for sharing, please let us know what you’...
1063 24245 395
New
New
Margaret
Hello everyone! This thread is to tell you about what authors from The Pragmatic Bookshelf are writing on Medium.
1147 29994 760
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Author Spotlight Rebecca Skinner @RebeccaSkinner Welcome to our latest author spotlight, where we sit down with Rebecca Skinner, auth...
New
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Build modern server-driven web applications using htmx. Whatever programming language you use, you’ll write less (and cleaner) code. ...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Get the comprehensive, insider information you need for Rails 8 with the new edition of this award-winning classic. Sam Ruby @rubys ...
New
AnfaengerAlex
Hello, I’m a beginner in Android development and I’m facing an issue with my project setup. In my build.gradle.kts file, I have the foll...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Explore the power of Ash Framework by modeling and building the domain for a real-world web application. Rebecca Le @sevenseacat and ...
New
AstonJ
Curious what kind of results others are getting, I think actually prefer the 7B model to the 32B model, not only is it faster but the qua...
New