articy:draft
Articy | Discover articy:draft X, the leading narrative design tool and game writing software for creating interactive stories with ease
ink (inkle)
Visit ink (inkle) →ink is inkle's narrative scripting language, used to author Heaven's Vault, 80 Days and Sorcery!, with the Inky editor for writing and testing branching stories and official Unity integration.
Our take
Last updated 9 November 2026
ink is inkle's scripting language for branching narrative, the same tech behind 80 Days, Heaven's Vault and Sorcery!. Writers work in plain text with light markup, test in the Inky editor, and export JSON that the official Unity plugin (or the community Inkpot plugin for Unreal) runs in-game. It is MIT-licensed and free. It is not an AI writer; it is the structure that holds your dialogue together.
Best for Narrative designers writing branching dialogue for Unity or Unreal games.
Pros
- Free and MIT-licensed.
- Writer-friendly text-first syntax.
- Proven in shipped commercial games, with a Unity plugin.
Cons
- You still write every line.
- Unreal integration is community-made.
- Needs engine-side code to display UI.
Written from the vendor's official site and docs, not a hands-on benchmark. How we review tools.
| Category | Game Design & Prototyping |
|---|---|
| Pricing | Free and open source (ink, the Inky editor and the ink-unity integration are MIT licensed); optional paid official user's guide — official pricing |
| Website | https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/ |
| Last checked | 2026-11-09 |
Description taken from the tool's official website meta description; pricing from the official ink page (MIT license).
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