Choice-Based Story Engine — Template

A lightweight Twine alternative for developers who just want HTML, CSS, and JS.

Drop-in single-file engine for building branching interactive fiction — no framework, no build step, no dependencies. Open index.html and it runs, in any browser, anywhere. Ship it straight to itch.io as an HTML5 project.

What you get:

• A clean passage/choice engine (a passages object → auto-rendered scenes with choice buttons)
• Stat tracking (affection meters, trust scores, karma — anything you want) that choices can nudge up or down
• Stat-gated branching: unlock choices dynamically based on accumulated stats
• Multiple endings with automatic "endings found" tracking via localStorage
• One-slot save/load out of the box, documented so you can extend it to multiple slots
• Dark, neutral, easily re-skinnable UI (all colors are CSS variables)
• A short 5-passage / 3-ending demo story showing every feature working together, ready to delete and replace with your own writing

No React, no Twine runtime, no Ren'Py install, no compiling — just edit a JavaScript object and write. Perfect for game jams, visual novels, narrative prototypes, or teaching branching-narrative design.