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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34931
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I am using **[Ink by Inkle Studios.](https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/)** It's writer-oriented and open source. They have a free editor/compiler that exports an elegant web version, and they have a Unity plugin. The syntax feels more sophisticated than other tools I've tried. Ink has evolved over a few versions, and was used on the game **80 Days** which is the best branching narrative game I've seen.

Rather than a flowchart or mindmap, Ink is more like coding in HTML – it uses markup syntax to handle the interactivity. Story sections are defined by index names, and typically end with several choices which redirect the reader to other index points in the text. At it's basic level, Ink is similar to the CYOA books except you don't "turn to page 23" you jump to an index point by name. This makes writing more intuitive for non-programmers.

Ink is also designed to exhaust the choices, so the next time the reader returns to a section the option he picked last time is removed. This works within the text as well, for instance changing the dialog or descriptions the second and third times through. The options can also be randomized, or only appear once conditional variables have been satisfied.

Original score: 5