twine

Twine is an open-source software tool for creating interactive fiction and nonlinear stories. It emphasizes text-based storytelling in which readers navigate through passages by clicking links, choosing their own path through the narrative.

In Twine, stories are built from passages, each containing text and links to other passages. The editor displays passages as nodes connected by a graph, making it easy to visualize branching structures. Story formats define the scripting language and UI features; common formats include Harlowe and SugarCube. The Twine 2 editor runs in a web browser, and the final product is a standalone HTML file that can be opened in any modern browser without a server.

Twine was created by Chris Klimas in 2009 and has evolved into a widely used platform for interactive fiction, education, and rapid prototyping of narrative-driven experiences. Its open-source nature has fostered a diverse ecosystem of formats, templates, and community-contributed stories.

Key features include support for variables, conditional logic, and macros through different story formats, as well as CSS customization for presentation. Projects can be imported and exported, and publishing typically produces a self-contained HTML file suitable for online hosting or offline use. Twine works across major operating systems and requires only a browser or a lightweight desktop wrapper.

Twine’s accessibility and flexibility have contributed to a broad community of creators, enabling hobbyists and educators to design and share branching narratives quickly. The platform remains focused on making interactive storytelling approachable while allowing for a range of complexity through customizable formats and code.