Version 2.0.0 Released

Version 2.0.0 of the Elm Narrative Engine is now available!

What is in this version?

Most of the changes in version 2.0.0 are around the new data structure for storing and defining story rules, as designed in my pairing session with Even.

I also wanted to work in a few fixes and new features for this release:

Progressive narration

The new version of the engine allows you to set a list of narrations per rule. Each time that rule matches, the engine will show successive narrations, repeating the final one. This is very similar to how Inform 7 allows for displayable text, and gives the opportunity to add more variety and a deeper narrative texture to your interactive stories.

Story “roll-back”

In any game, especially one with branching paths, players often want an “undo” button. The new engine allows not only to undo your last move, but to “roll back” the story to any previous time in the story history, allowing players to go back and try alternate routes.

(See how I implimented undo in the code.)

See the full changelog.

Up next

As outlined before, my next steps will all be towards preparing the code to run in a visual story editor. This will involve some serious breaking changes, but will open up the options not only for an easier way to write interactive stories, but advanced ways to customize your stories to make something truly fantastic.

I am always open to feedback and feature suggestions, and if you make any stories with this engine, contact me if you would like to include it in my list of sample stories.

See you next time. Adventure calls.