Both GDC talks about Heaven's Vault have been fascinating. It is a superb game with some of the best video game storytelling I've seen, and this writer-first approach to how the game was built is clearly why
Ink is wonderful! I've been playing with Inkle Writer a bit and it's a very intuitive syntax. I have HV on Switch, and I do see some wonky bits in the interactivity. I love the story but it does feel clunky sometimes. I'm wondering if the control issues stem from just a small team taking on an ambitious project as their first 3D game or if it is inherent in using Ink for control of game flow. I'm not sure, but I did love the game.
Whish I saw this video sooner as binding a game to the text engine is something that is almost never discussed. It does feel like those extensions are tagged on, like they are organically grown. It's a pity that the question at the end about multiple entry points wasn't answered. Ink doesn't seem to have a syntactical grouping structure like a scene, sequence or act common in screenplays. Like an actor jumping into a scene the game jumps from a world into narrative, but where to jump to seems unclear. It may be that they use separate files for scenes (or more fitting acts) and thus avoid jumping in somewhere halfway the page. Oh well, it works for them I suppose.
@@Folkemunne That's fascinating! We only see Ink used in 3D environments in this video so I didn't realize it would also work in 2d, where there are only images and no space to move around in.
Using this tool? Yes, it’s a very powerful tool for 3D, 2D and pur-text narrative. As a game? I doubt it; we’ve learned from Telltale that presenting what amounts to a VN with even quite simple 3D gameplay actually gets quite expensive. It seems the future of VNs has a lot of integrating into existing game genres; explorers, in the style of Sunless Seas/Sunless Skies/House of Many Doors, or into roguelikes, in the style of Crying Suns.
How do I use the extra syntax demonstrated in the video? A lot of the shorthands I can't find in the documentation, I take it they're custom? Are they open source as well?
It looks like the additional stage directions like "(to Six)" and ":)" are parsed in Unity outside of Inky. Ren'Py has similar features built in by default, though.
Really stoked to see that, unfortunately, the github of the local editor is pretty much dead. The language and the unity integrations are still maintained tough. Just a warning. There are Visual Studio Code plugins tough, so together with unity you can still get a complete experience
For newer readers, since this is an old comment: as of Aug. 18, 2023, the most recent Inky editor release was in October 2022, and the most recent main branch update was March 2023. It's alive and well
![YoungBoy Never Broke Again - Missing Everything [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dTYeMZGzOzw/mqdefault.jpg)
Both GDC talks about Heaven's Vault have been fascinating. It is a superb game with some of the best video game storytelling I've seen, and this writer-first approach to how the game was built is clearly why
1:47 Ink
3:04 Presenting Heaven's vault
4:40 Interactive film scripts ?
7:17 Demonstrate example1.Ink
8:41 Dialog
11:30 Movement
14:59 Interaction
18:36 Narration and structuring
23:30 Summary
24:40 Questions
between stuff like this and trevor mocks video i got my 3d fps bussin using ink. love ink.
I had no idea ink had this functionality - definitely going to give it a go!
I didn't know something like this existed ! Thanks for sharing 😉
Ink is wonderful! I've been playing with Inkle Writer a bit and it's a very intuitive syntax.
I have HV on Switch, and I do see some wonky bits in the interactivity. I love the story but it does feel clunky sometimes. I'm wondering if the control issues stem from just a small team taking on an ambitious project as their first 3D game or if it is inherent in using Ink for control of game flow. I'm not sure, but I did love the game.
This is really intriguing
Whish I saw this video sooner as binding a game to the text engine is something that is almost never discussed. It does feel like those extensions are tagged on, like they are organically grown.
It's a pity that the question at the end about multiple entry points wasn't answered. Ink doesn't seem to have a syntactical grouping structure like a scene, sequence or act common in screenplays. Like an actor jumping into a scene the game jumps from a world into narrative, but where to jump to seems unclear.
It may be that they use separate files for scenes (or more fitting acts) and thus avoid jumping in somewhere halfway the page. Oh well, it works for them I suppose.
Impressive creative. 🙏👍🏻👍🏻
This is basically a different form for a Visual Novel, isn't it? I wonder if VN's might all look like that in the future?
They definitely won’t all! If it becomes the norm, there will be nostalgia for 2d visual novels for sure :D
Dream Daddy was written in Ink! So yeah, it’s definitely a good tool for text-heavy, story-first games.
@@Folkemunne That's fascinating! We only see Ink used in 3D environments in this video so I didn't realize it would also work in 2d, where there are only images and no space to move around in.
Using this tool? Yes, it’s a very powerful tool for 3D, 2D and pur-text narrative.
As a game? I doubt it; we’ve learned from Telltale that presenting what amounts to a VN with even quite simple 3D gameplay actually gets quite expensive.
It seems the future of VNs has a lot of integrating into existing game genres; explorers, in the style of Sunless Seas/Sunless Skies/House of Many Doors, or into roguelikes, in the style of Crying Suns.
How do I use the extra syntax demonstrated in the video? A lot of the shorthands I can't find in the documentation, I take it they're custom? Are they open source as well?
It looks like the additional stage directions like "(to Six)" and ":)" are parsed in Unity outside of Inky. Ren'Py has similar features built in by default, though.
Really stoked to see that, unfortunately, the github of the local editor is pretty much dead. The language and the unity integrations are still maintained tough. Just a warning. There are Visual Studio Code plugins tough, so together with unity you can still get a complete experience
It's fine; we just haven't pulled together a release package for a while. But you can build latest from the main development branch.
For newer readers, since this is an old comment: as of Aug. 18, 2023, the most recent Inky editor release was in October 2022, and the most recent main branch update was March 2023. It's alive and well