New blog: VisualInk Tutorial Videos
blog.mavnn.eu/2026/03/13/vis...
Basically what it says on the tin, but if you have videos you'd like to see, or comments on what is there, this is a good place to leave them.
The official news and updates account for the VisualInk project.
Learn to create your own visual novels, and then share them with friends.
VisualInk allows you to build #visualnovels quickly and easily, but like any tool you do need to know how to use it.
To make getting started easier, we've started releasing short videos (all under 10 minutes) on how to use #ink to build your own #interactivefiction .
We'll be posting more videos, and at higher quality, as we go along but we wanted to get these out as soon as possible after some members of our live course yesterday weren't able to join in due to technical issues. And at that point, it seemed mean not to share them with the rest of you!
VisualInk allows you to build #visualnovels quickly and easily, but like any tool you do need to know how to use it.
To make getting started easier, we've started releasing short videos (all under 10 minutes) on how to use #ink to build your own #interactivefiction .
1
Some days, the internet is a wonder of technology giving access to opportunities and contacts that would be impossible otherwise.
Other days, the internet is watching two members or your group of five unable to access the video chat that worked fine last week, and two others able to join but not hear anything.
So, courtesy of Zoom's technical issues this afternoon, over the next few days y'all can look forward to some short videos on conditional and non-linear #interactivefiction content in #ink , because I'm not letting people down on the course content just because video chat decided not to work.
Some days, the internet is a wonder of technology giving access to opportunities and contacts that would be impossible otherwise.
Other days, the internet is watching two members or your group of five unable to access the video chat that worked fine last week, and two others able to join but not hear anything.
1
So excited! After just one session with Ink, one of our under 11 students has started producing multiple #visualnovels. Bearing in mind he's not been shown anything but 'diverts' and 'knots' (ways to jump to named parts of your script) they are pretty solid. I'm going to be sharing more of them later, but I was excited enough I wanted to share at least one straight away 😁
Even great stories start from humble beginnings. In the first session of a new round of Coding Games with a Story, some of our authors (9-11 year olds) successfully got a story up and running with a scene, background music, images of the person speaking... and a decision point.
![VAR speaker = "Narrator"
VAR scene = "Cafe"
VAR music = "Piano"
-> start
=== start
~speaker = "Elly"
What would you like to drink?
+ [Coffee] -> coffee
+ [Tea] -> tea
-> END
=== coffee
~speaker = "Eddy"
I'd love a coffee!
-> END
=== tea
~speaker = "Eddy"
A tea, please!
-> END](/data/uploads/01KADR90Y8MARZA72STN46Z1W2/images/01KJ5RCTX4KXVKKD97EN8A0PG9.png)
VisualInk now lets you swap seemlessly between cinematic and our new illustrated screenplay format while you're playing your #visualnovels . This allows readers to quickly check the history of the story so far, and authors to view parts of the story with context. And it just looks pretty snazzy (in our opinion).
You can play through the exercise that's shown in the screen shot here: visualink.mavnn.eu/published... . Use the menu at the top to switch between the two types of view.
VisualInk now lets you swap seemlessly between cinematic and our new illustrated screenplay format while you're playing your #visualnovels . This allows readers to quickly check the history of the story so far, and authors to view parts of the story with context. And it just looks pretty snazzy (in our opinion).
1
Starting next week, we'll be hosting a writing club for under 18s doing something a bit different: writing interactive fiction. This is a space for people who want to actually write a piece of interactive fiction, so it does assume you'll be putting in time between sessions so that we can all share our progress each week.
More details at thinkersmeetup.com/service-p...
Prototyping a new view for allowing readers to view their history, and authors to quickly got an overview of the script.
It's not quite ready for release yet, but it is starting to get there. Just needs a bit more love to get it formatted more like an actual movie script, and to include scene change markers for when the background changes.
Know someone 9-18 who loves stories? Week starting 23rd February is the next round of "Coding Games with a Story", a five week introduction to creating #visualnovels using our very own VisualInk. We're also hoping to host a writing club for under 18s who have decided to build a full game now that two cohorts have already gone through and enjoyed the course (writers using other #interactivefiction tools are also welcome to join the writing club).
Read more about the person leading the courses and their content at thinkersmeetup.com/scholars/...
Now that's the kind of content it's heart warming to see as a developer!
I’ve become sidetracked by the Visualink system. It’s very promising for students to edit and offers just enough asset options to give choice without overwhelming.
One more session to go on the current round of #interactivefiction writing courses, and the older teens have asked for the final session to be a deep dive into expanding a conversation because they felt it didn't have enough narrative depth.
So that's pretty awesome. And now I get to have a play with dialogue rather than the very different process which is #writing examples of functionality which are interesting but small enough to not obscure the thing being taught.
Hello people who enjoy #writing! I've had some interest in a 5 week online course for adult non-coders to try their hand at #interactivefiction - i.e. stories that include branching narrative based on the readers' choices. The course would cover some of the mechanics, but also advice on structuring interactive plots with managable complexity, looking at emotional hooks that work better or worse when readers have active agency, using interactive fiction tools to capture options to show editors and beta-readers in non-interactive works, and some examples of expanding existing writing into an interactive experience.
If you like this idea, I'm putting together a mailing list of potential course members who are keen enough they'd like to have a voice in the scheduling of the course. Send me your email via DM or email me at [email protected] and I'll let you know when there are updates on the course and nothing else; this is not a general purpose "get spammed by Michael" email list. Costs will likely run at around 55 GBP per person.
If you're interested in the course but don't want to give your email away, just follow this account and I'll post when public tickets become available. Just be aware that by that stage time of day and dates will already be set.
Hello people who enjoy #writing! I've had some interest in a 5 week online course for adult non-coders to try their hand at #interactivefiction - i.e. stories that include branching narrative based on the readers' choices. The course would cover some of the mechanics, but also advice on structuring interactive plots with managable complexity, looking at emotional hooks that work better or worse when readers have active agency, using interactive fiction tools to capture options to show editors and beta-readers in non-interactive works, and some examples of expanding existing writing into an interactive experience.
If you like this idea, I'm putting together a mailing list of potential course members who are keen enough they'd like to have a voice in the scheduling of the course. Send me your email via DM or email me at [email protected] and I'll let you know when there are updates on the course and nothing else; this is not a general purpose "get spammed by Michael" email list. Costs will likely run at around 55 GBP per person.
1
VisualInk
boosted
On a totally related note, if you're looking to get into coding or fine tune your skills I'm currently able to take on a few more people/small groups teaching web programming (frontend and backend), basic game development with #godot, or narrative game creation for non-coders. I've got enough experience with the UK school system I can also help you present evidence to the local authority for home educators.
VisualInk
boosted
I've started doing some mentoring with general coding skills as well as the online VisualInk courses, so to avoid any privacy concerns (waves at current world situation) we now have a private code server where mentees can share their code (using #forgejo).
Given I now have the server, it also makes sense to start moving the rest of my open source code there. The first public repository? VisualInk itself: code.mavnn.eu/mavnn/VisualInk
1
VisualInk
boosted
I decided to try out an experimental design for ordered data in Ink, and learn more about the run time in the process.
I've blogged about the results with a bunch of examples, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Been looking for ways to include prioritization or limited resources like magic runes in Ink? This might be a good inspiration.
