Twine vs Quest?
Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 6:45 pm
So I wanna dig more into the text games. But I am not talking about regular interactive stories, I want to try making more versatile games where the NPCs would show some decision making capabilities, and scenes would be at least partially map independent.
I know about two game engines which I like so far, both open source. Twine boasts being free as in freedom as well, though I didn't compare the licenses...Quest has MIT License which is basically "do whatever you like".
So this is what I got so far:
Twine 2 (Sugarcube 2)
Lets you manipulate passages/pages. Each passage may represent a room, or simply a certain point in narration. Makes normal storytelling rather easy, however apparently the system can be used for a dungeon exploration style game as well.
Javascript and jquery in particular, apparently you can import any other javascript library as well.
You have to format your text with macros, however you can create your own macros too. You can pretty much script anything you like with JS as well.
Source code in JavaScript and HTML, which means I can just upload it wherever I like and It's gonna be playable - in any (modern) browser, on any OS.
Quest 5
You operate on the level of rooms and objects.
The game has pre-made user interface, which on one hand means I do not have to write one on my own, and on another hand means it might be hard to change it in case I have to?
Supports Javascript scripting and customization however I do not know to what extend I can customize it? What if I want to create a completely new object type and call it "SCENE" - can I do it within the default customization options or do I have to bother with the source code for this?
Source code in C#. Now, I know C#. And it probably means that the editor probably won't lag too much at least...
So, what engine would you recommend? Maybe you have tried coding on one or both of them? Maybe there are other engines you like? I heard about RAGS but it's commercial and not opensource so I am kind of suspicious about it.
I will try doing some small games on Quest just to see if it is as smooth as I want it to be, but I am really bothered about the customizability...does anyone know if it is easy to tinker it the way you like or it would be a problem?
I know about two game engines which I like so far, both open source. Twine boasts being free as in freedom as well, though I didn't compare the licenses...Quest has MIT License which is basically "do whatever you like".
So this is what I got so far:
Twine 2 (Sugarcube 2)
Lets you manipulate passages/pages. Each passage may represent a room, or simply a certain point in narration. Makes normal storytelling rather easy, however apparently the system can be used for a dungeon exploration style game as well.
Javascript and jquery in particular, apparently you can import any other javascript library as well.
You have to format your text with macros, however you can create your own macros too. You can pretty much script anything you like with JS as well.
Source code in JavaScript and HTML, which means I can just upload it wherever I like and It's gonna be playable - in any (modern) browser, on any OS.
Quest 5
You operate on the level of rooms and objects.
The game has pre-made user interface, which on one hand means I do not have to write one on my own, and on another hand means it might be hard to change it in case I have to?
Supports Javascript scripting and customization however I do not know to what extend I can customize it? What if I want to create a completely new object type and call it "SCENE" - can I do it within the default customization options or do I have to bother with the source code for this?
Source code in C#. Now, I know C#. And it probably means that the editor probably won't lag too much at least...
So, what engine would you recommend? Maybe you have tried coding on one or both of them? Maybe there are other engines you like? I heard about RAGS but it's commercial and not opensource so I am kind of suspicious about it.
I will try doing some small games on Quest just to see if it is as smooth as I want it to be, but I am really bothered about the customizability...does anyone know if it is easy to tinker it the way you like or it would be a problem?