Introduction

Learn what we're about, and get started!

Moontale is currently in an 'alpha' state; expect a lot of bugs! Add your issues and feature requests on GitHub

This documentation represents the intended feature-set of Moontale. Not every feature listed has been implemented at the present time; these instances will be marked with the 'under construction' symbol: 🚧

Moontale is a Twine story format that uses Lua as its scripting language. In addition to writing Lua code directly in your passages, you can convert your entire story to a single Lua file, which can be run by any "host" that supports Lua. You can also test and play your stories right in the browser, or publish them to HTML, just like any other Twine format.

Quick start

https://hamish-milne.github.io/moontale/format.js

From the Twine 2 editor, go to Formats on the sidebar, then Add a New Format and paste in the URL above. Make sure to select Moontale from the format list!

# An example Moontale passage

I can use all the standard formatting: **bold**, _italics_ and so on.

Even lists:
1. First
2. Second
3. Third

To link to another passage, the standard Twine syntax works:
* [[Go forward->Passage 2]]
* [[Passage 0<-Go back]]
* [[More information]]

To add Lua code, I can use a script block like this: {$
  x = 2
  print(x) -- This will write to the debugging console
$}

If I've set any variables, I can use them in the text. The value of X is $x!

For more complex expressions, I can use the expression syntax:
2 + $x = <$ 2 + x $>

The '< >' means that the result will be displayed.

Some variables/expressions, called 'changers', can be applied to content in the passage:

$If(x == 2)[Yes! My logic is sound.]
$Else[The walls of reality are collapsing!]

Motivation

It has always been possible, in theory at least, to use the output of Twine (and Twee) in non-browser applications. A number of other projects achieve this to some degree: Cradle, and my own Spool library. However, these solutions are hampered by their reliance on existing browser-focused story formats, which make developing and using these solutions difficult at best.

I created Moontale to help make Twine even more useful in all stages of game development - from prototyping to production.

Who is this for?

  • Developers of text-driven or narrative-heavy games using Unity, Unreal, LÖVE, or any other engine that supports Lua, who would benefit from the use of Twine as a development tool.

  • Developers interested in using their creations in unconventional ways, who will benefit from Lua's embeddability and extensibility.

Who is this not for?

  • Projects that singularly use Twine, and do not intend to integrate with any other engine. Any one of the browser-based story formats will be inherently easier to work with for these tasks.

  • Developers intending to take advantage of complex browser-based features: media playback, CSS and so on. For any feature, if it's not in TextMeshPro's Rich Text then Moontale probably won't support it in the browser.

  • Developers who like the 'mutable' model used by other formats: hiding/showing parts of a passage, changing words from one to another when the user clicks something and so on. See the section on Immutability for more details.

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