Inky

Ink is an interesting scripting language used to produce interactive scripts, a language that puts text first, while code and logic are inserted within. The language is designed around the idea of making pure-text with “flow,” as well as with redrafting in mind.

Considering its unique nature, Ink is a perfect scripting language for narrative-driven/text-graphic/adventure games (usually the types of dialog-based games where the player’s choices have a big impact on the unfolding story). In fact, Ink is actually the scripting language behind some relatively popular game titles such as Heaven’s Vault, 80 Days, and Sorcery.

That said, if you’re interested in using Ink for your in-game story development, then you should definitely check out Inky, a bespoke editor that allows you to efficiently play and test your stories.

The main advantage of Inky has to do with its dual-pane layout. The app makes it possible for you to play as you write since the “play pane” automatically refreshes and instantly reloads all inputs made in the editing one.

Inky boasts real-time error highlighting, a basic word counter, and a nifty jump-to-definition feature (ALT+click on a “divert” to jump to the specified target). Another great thing is that Inky allows you to export your projects to JSON (the app’s intermediate compiled format), as well as to the web (by allowing you to generate a web page that can be fully customized according to your needs).

Last but not least, we should talk about the Unity integration. While this feature is not something that comes by default with Inky, it can be enabled via a plug-in. The Ink-Unity integration plugin can be downloaded from GitHub, and it basically recompiles Ink story files as you edit them, and lets you play them directly within the Unity Editor without having to write a single line of code.

To conclude, Inky is the official editor (it can also be considered an IDE) for authoring ink scripts and really the best way to get the most out of the said scripting language.

Even though getting started with Ink might seem a bit difficult for users lacking experience with these types of languages, Inky is a remarkably user-friendly app that should make up for most of these alleged drawbacks. Just write your scripts on the left side, and preview them on the right. It’s as simple as that.