Talebench

What’s new

What changed in Talebench, a section per day, newest first.

Dice Duel has a new table: Captain Aldric fights the way we expect most dice battles to be played. · 41 changes

Updates that day: A new opponent: the standard dice fight · The things you use most in the top bar · Defend die against die · Foes ahead in the crawler · Dice battles that show who attacks · Made for desktop or phone; calmer battles · Languages on the title screen · Settings like a game’s · Menu pages with icons · An inventory screen like a game’s · The bag in your style, the slots on the figure · A game-like inventory · Demo buttons in their game’s letters · Your reply stays in view · Endings found as cards · A calmer ending and a clean picture · Cleaner options and fewer false warnings · A story map you can read from far out · 24 dungeon tiles in the library · Dungeon tiles made with AI · No dead ends in the dark · The view stays while a trap waits · Victory in sight · Bumping into walls · A larger dungeon map · Foes that belong in the corridor · Bells, altars and wells in the corridor · Traps in plain sight · The crawler’s screen in one frame

Writing

  • New in Settings: Made for — Desktop and phone, Desktop, or Phone. The test play then shows and checks only those screens, so a desktop game no longer hears about phones; on a phone it says once that it is made for a larger screen.
  • Zoomed far out, the story map keeps the titles of passages and chapters readable, and “Fit to the window” now shows the whole story.
  • The library has 24 seamless dungeon tiles made with AI by Talebench, free to use: walls of stone, brick, cave rock, planks, brass, bones, ice, hedge and more, floors, ceilings and doors. Pick them under “Make tiles” → “Your own pictures”, or find them under “Dungeon tiles” in the library.
  • Under “Make tiles” → “Your own pictures”, the ✨ beside the wall, floor, ceiling or door makes four seamless tiles from a description in your game’s picture style (with AI switched on for the workspace); the one you keep becomes that tile. Every tile is checked to repeat without a seam.
  • In the dungeon editor, a cell’s “Looks like” draws what stands there as a bell, a desk, a statue, a fountain, an altar, bones, a barrel, books, a sign, a well, a brazier, crates or gears when the dungeon is seen from inside, each in pixel art with its picture beside the choice. Deepwatch’s shrine is an altar now and the Clockwork Halls’ red lever a bell.
  • Under Settings, the slots stand on a figure: drag each to where it sits, move it with the arrow keys, or start from Hero or Simple.
  • After a battle the playtest no longer warns “Text cut off” when nothing is cut off, and “Show all options” no longer scrolls the passage’s panel.
  • Esc closes the topmost side panel, and Ctrl/⌘+K opens “Go to passage”. The help’s list of shortcuts now names these and copying, pasting and duplicating passages on the map.

Look

  • Bag and figure now opens as a wide screen of its own: the bag with its empty places and filters (All, Gear, Usable …) beside the hero, whose slots stand in two columns with lines to where they sit; an empty slot shows the outline of what goes there. The card shows the name on a coloured band and each value a thing would change with ▲ or ▼, and the hero’s values show the change too.
  • Bag and figure has its own style: the size of the squares, the figure (a silhouette, the member’s own picture, or none) and the most squares in a row; style rules reach a thing’s square, a slot and the card.
  • New in the look, under Things and equipment: Bag and figure. The menu then shows each member’s figure with its slots beside a bag of square icons; drag a thing onto a slot, or tap it and then the slot that lights up. Only fitting slots take it, and the card shows what it would change. Works with a mouse, on a phone and with the keys; Crystal of Aster uses it.
  • The Ember Road’s buttons and battle commands are now set in the carved capitals of its titles, and Deepwatch’s buttons, menus and status line in one clean face, like a crawler’s screen.

Playing

  • The top bar now leads with your character, your things and the map, each one tap away; going back, Skip, Auto and Hide text stand quieter beside them (on a phone Skip and Auto are in Settings). New projects start without going back a choice; switch it on under Settings, Player options.
  • Endings found now shows a card per ending: the ones you found with their picture and name, the others as locked cards, so you see how many are left. The same on the title screen, in the menu and under an ending.
  • A dark dungeon cell whose way back is shut (after a one-way drop) now lets the party feel its way on instead of leaving nothing to choose, and the view in the dark is black. In Deepwatch’s Cisterns a party without light could get stuck there.
  • On a dungeon crawler’s screen, a foe walking the floor is now drawn into the corridor itself, in the same coarse pixels and torchlight as the walls, instead of a painting laid over it; what lies at your feet hides less of what stands ahead.
  • On a dungeon crawler’s screen, a trap or check that waits before your next step now shows its name, what you need and its Roll button right in the message line under the pad, and afterwards tells how it went.
  • In a dungeon on the crawler’s screen, the view, the party, the compass, the pad and the message line now stand together in one dark frame in the dungeon’s colours, with a larger view and a message line that no longer jumps in width from step to step. On a wide screen the party, the pad and the message line stand beside the view, as in classic dungeon crawlers.
  • In a dungeon seen from inside, foes walking ahead now show up to three cells away, as tall as a figure and smaller with each cell, lit so they never vanish in the dark or behind a chest.
  • A game in more than one language shows its languages on the title screen, each in its own words; one click plays the game in it.
  • In the settings, every yes or no is now a switch in the game’s colour, the volumes fill their slider, and under Text speed a line shows how fast text will appear.
  • The menu’s pages now show an icon above their names, in even rows; on a phone every page is in view instead of a row that scrolled sideways and hid Saves.
  • Carrying a thing to the menu’s top or bottom edge scrolls it, so a chest or saddlebags out of view can be reached.
  • After you answer with your own words, the story now scrolls on so the new lines and Continue are in view; Continue was left under the window’s edge.
  • While a line is still appearing, Continue stands dimmed (pressing it shows the whole line) and lights up once the line is complete.
  • Notices that come in a row (a thing gained, a codeword, a new entry) now share one box, a line each, instead of stacking over the picture; the same thing twice reads “+ Torch ×2”.
  • The ending screen no longer shows Skip, Auto and Hide text, which do nothing there.
  • Hide text now shows the scene’s picture alone, without the dark panel behind the text.
  • The row of carried things over a scene appears only where an option uses a thing.
  • On a phone, a dot, diamond or arrow before the options now stands alone and centred; the option’s number showed beside it as well.
  • When a trap or check waits on a dungeon crawler’s screen, the view now stays in sight together with its Roll instead of scrolling away.
  • After a battle in a dungeon on the crawler’s screen, the victory and what each one won now come into view instead of staying below the dungeon’s panel.
  • In a dungeon seen from inside, a key toward a wall or a way that is not open now gives the view a short bump instead of doing nothing (not with “Reduce motion”).
  • The opened map of a dungeon floor now fills the screen on a wide window: a small floor is drawn with large cells instead of a little grid in the middle.
  • On the crawler’s screen the view stays in sight after every step instead of the page following the options, the screen fits a low window with the first option under it, and a party of four stands in two even rows on a phone.

Battles

  • Dice Duel has a new table: Captain Aldric fights the way we expect most dice battles to be played. Four dice aimed high, middle and low, a weapon and a shield on each side, and a defence throw against every blow.
  • New rule for dice battles, Die against die: when you defend, your dice are set against the attack’s one by one — drag each onto the attack die it should meet (or tap, or use the arrow keys), see what gets through each pair, then Defend. The Fencing Master in the Dice Duel fights this way.
  • In a dice battle the fighters’ cards now say who attacks and who defends, whose turn it is stands out, a foe’s attack from the turn before is marked as the last turn, and a defence throw is named as one with its outcome in large type.
  • Die against die with hit zones: each defence die you set against an attack die now guards that die’s zone, and the columns name the zone (the die set aside counts for nothing).
  • Die against die: your defence now rolls in and lies as thrown, so pairing your dice well is your move.
  • Battles, dice battles too, now start at a calmer pace for new players; Normal and Fast are in the settings for those who know the game.

In a dungeon seen from inside, a chest, a lever or a trap on the cell the party stands on is now drawn at the foot of the picture, so you see what you are standing at. · 34 changes

Updates that day: Your own wall pictures in the preview · The small map in its corner · What lies at your feet · Make camp from the message line · Finds in the message line · Your own pictures for dungeon walls · Battles in the corridor · Make your own dungeon walls · Your party beside the corridor · Things in the corridor · Textured dungeon corridors · A crawler’s pad and compass · The whole map, also from inside · Every field named · Chests worth opening · A cell’s own things first · A dungeon map that explains itself · A diary at hand

Writing

  • Under “Make tiles” in the dungeon editor, “Your own pictures” takes a picture for the walls, the floor, the ceiling or the doors; in play it is drawn in place of the made one, in perspective and light. A square picture that repeats well works best.
  • In the dungeon editor, “Make tiles” makes the walls, floor and ceiling of a dungeon seen from inside: choose stone, bricks, cave rock, planks, metal, hedge, ice, crystal or bone, two colours, how much moss, cracks, damp and soot, torchlight or cold light, and pixel art. A corridor beside it shows it as players will see it; “Another one” draws a new pattern.
  • A chest in a dungeon can hold several things, each with how many, and you can make a new thing right from the chest by typing its name.
  • In the dungeon editor, a cell’s words and what stands on it come first in the side panel; the walls, doors and gates around it follow, so a gate’s condition no longer pushes them out of view.
  • Under the dungeon editor’s grid, one line names every mark used on the floor, so no icon needs guessing.
  • A thing the players carry can sit on the game screen: tick “Show on the game screen” and a button beside Menu opens its pages, or uses it, with one click. A dot on the button tells of a new page. Off unless you tick it.
  • The corridor preview under “Make tiles” now shows the pictures you picked under “Your own pictures”, as players will see them.
  • An area of a dungeon can have walls of its own, a mossy grotto in a cave.
  • A new dungeon look, “Forest”: hedges for walls and the sky above.
  • The steps are on the pad, so the options below keep only what is not a step: a chest, a way out, the passage’s own options. Prefer the old layout? Choose “Story” under Screen in the dungeon’s settings.
  • In the dungeon editor, “Make a dungeon” names its numbers on screen: seed, floors, width and height.
  • An area’s words say how they are used: once on entering, for a room; on each cell, for any other area.
  • Opening a chest can also change values, such as gold, so a chest is worth opening in a story without things too; without Things switched on, the chest says where to switch them on.
  • A teleport or a pit names the column and row it sends the party to; a spinner just says it turns the party where it stands.
  • Foes that walk a dungeon have their own mark, 👣, with a dot on each cell of their round; the crossed swords now mean only a battle.
  • A small floor fills the editor at a readable size and sits in the middle; zooming in goes further than before.
  • In the printed book, a dungeon room bigger than one cell is drawn as one space, with a line telling the reader how to cross it.

Playing

  • In a dungeon seen from inside, a chest, a lever or a trap on the cell the party stands on is now drawn at the foot of the picture, so you see what you are standing at.
  • On a crawler’s screen, where the party may make camp, “Make camp” waits at the end of the message line under the pad, right where your thumb is.
  • On a crawler’s screen, what you just found or what just happened is told in the message line under the pad too, until you take the next step.
  • On a crawler’s screen, the party stands under the view: each member’s portrait, name, health and what they hold in their hands. A click on a member opens their equipment.
  • Seen from inside, what stands in a dungeon is drawn as a picture in the corridor: a chest, a lever, stairs, spikes, a pit, a campfire, a way out, lit like the walls around them.
  • Dungeons seen from inside now have textured walls, floors and ceilings: stone blocks with moss and cracks, crypt bricks, cave rock, planks, metal plates, darker the further they are, warm by torchlight or cold. Every look is made for you, no pictures needed.
  • Dungeons seen from inside get the screen of a classic crawler: a compass that turns with the party and a six-way pad under the view to turn, step forward and back, and step aside. Q and E turn, A and D step aside, W and S walk.
  • In a dungeon seen from inside, “Map” opens the whole floor again, large and in the middle of the screen; it had shrunk into the screen’s corner, and in Firefox it stayed empty.
  • In a dungeon seen from inside, the small map now sits in the picture’s top right corner on wide screens too; it stood beside the picture.
  • A spinner lies on the floor as a ring instead of standing like a portal, and the game says the floor turns there.
  • The words of the cell you stand on sit in a framed line under the pad.
  • Foes walking a dungeon stand in the corridor as their battle picture, so a wolf looks like a wolf, smaller the further away it is.
  • After stepping back, the options and the view now keep the way the party faces.
  • Seen from inside, a chest or a foe one step ahead stands in the middle of its cell instead of far down the corridor.
  • In the example “The Ember Road”, the courier’s diary stays at hand once you take it, and a page appears in it at Emberfall’s gate.

Battles

  • A battle met in a dungeon seen from inside is fought before the corridor where it was met, when its encounter has no picture of its own.

Help

  • A new help article explains dungeons step by step.

Crossing a room in a dungeon, the party walks the shortest way through it: a trap, a battle or a scene on the way happens where it stands, before the party gets where it was going. · 41 changes

Updates that day: Walking through rooms · Rooms bigger than a cell · A roomier dungeon editor · Foes that walk the dungeon · Deepwatch, a dungeon crawl to play · Spinners, pits, pressure plates and dungeon sounds · The whole dungeon map, and moving by hand · Dungeons from inside, on paper and with secrets · Dungeons to explore

Writing

  • A dungeon area can be one room: players walk into a hall as one place, open what it holds and leave by its doorways, one choice each, and its words tell its size and ways out. Tick “One room” on an area; a room painted with Ctrl, and the rooms “Make a dungeon” builds, are rooms at once.
  • The dungeon editor fills the window: the grid fits its space, the tools show icons and keys with a hint for the one in hand, and the dungeon’s settings live in the side panel, each with its name.
  • Dungeons can have foes that walk: a patrol paces its round one cell per step, a hunter comes for the party once it sees it, and meeting them starts the battle. Players see them on the map and hear where the nearest one is.
  • Dungeons get the classic tricks: spinners that turn the party unseen, pits that drop it a floor (a check may let it hold on) and pressure plates that open a gate only while someone stands on them.
  • Dungeons can be seen from inside: walk forward and turn, the corridor ahead drawn in the dungeon’s look, a small map in the corner. Or tell them in words only, without a map.
  • Dungeons: switch them on under Features and a passage can hold a grid of cells. Players walk it cell by cell, seen from above, with the ways offered by themselves and the arrow keys; locked doors, keys, chests, levers and gates, stairs to other floors, battles and places to look at.
  • “Set Gold to +3” now adds three: the row becomes “Change Gold by 3”, with a note saying so.
  • “Edit the dungeon” is a proper button now, and a click on the small dungeon picture on its card opens the editor too.
  • Clicking a cell to look at it no longer counts as a change.
  • A dungeon’s save stones count as save points when a game saves only at save points.
  • A map found in a dungeon can show the whole floor, the parts not yet walked drawn fainter.
  • Dungeons can have their own sounds for a step, a turn, a door and a door that will not open.
  • Pictures, music and values used only inside a dungeon now count as used: they are published with the game, and renaming a value updates the dungeon’s conditions too.
  • The ✎ beside a dungeon’s words in the playtest opens the dungeon editor on that cell. A way out of a dungeon can lead to a new passage made on the spot.
  • Secret walls that are found once something holds, traps with a check to avoid them, teleports, dark cells that need light, one-way passages and a place to camp. Every step can change values and pass time.
  • The dungeon editor paints areas with their own words, zooms, draws straight lines with Shift and can be used with the keyboard. Make a dungeon builds rooms and corridors from a seed, and Play from here starts on any cell.
  • Dungeon is a kind of passage, and its floor shows small on the card in the story map.
  • Gamebooks print a dungeon as a map with numbered rooms, each room a section of its own.
  • The dungeon editor: paint floor and rock on graph paper, set walls and doors on the line between two cells, the start and what stands on a cell; floors as tabs; cells nobody can reach are hatched.
  • Screen effects when an option is taken: a shake, a flash, a tint or the weather on the way, not only in a passage.
  • A reply is written like a passage’s line: with formatting, values and the big window.
  • A value says what it means under its name, and the problem count names only the kinds there are.
  • Long lists of versions and comments show the newest first, with a button for the older ones.

Look

  • Rain and snow fall in layers with depth, and their loop no longer jumps.

Playing

  • Crossing a room in a dungeon, the party walks the shortest way through it: a trap, a battle or a scene on the way happens where it stands, before the party gets where it was going.
  • A new demo, Deepwatch: choose four of six adventurers and take them down five floors of an old watch-hold to light its beacon again — keys, secret walls, traps, a spinner, levers, a found map, a camp and a boss. In English and German.
  • In a dungeon, N opens the whole map with every floor as far as it was explored. A click on the next cell walks there; on a phone, swipe or use the arrow pad.
  • Seen from inside, a room looks like a hall: its floor goes on to the sides instead of looking like side passages.
  • In a room the arrow keys take its way out on that side.
  • The Deepwatch example’s armoury and well room are rooms now.
  • In Deepwatch, a bone patrol and a hungry crawler now walk the deepest floor.
  • A dungeon told in words only no longer shows its map. The way back in a dungeon is now called “Go back”, so it is not confused with the top bar’s “Step back”.
  • Games with dungeons load faster: their engine is about 50 KB smaller.
  • The demos walk dungeons: the Crystal of Aster’s galleries with secrets and traps, the Sunken Choir’s crypt from inside, the Iron Hill’s old workings in words.
  • Stories without dungeons load as fast as before dungeons came.
  • The Crystal of Aster: the Old Galleries below the Hollowdeep, a dungeon on two floors.

Battles

  • Special throws: a weapon can grant a move paid with a set of dice, such as 1 · 1 · 2, so low rolls count too. The Dice Duel’s Ember Blade shows it.
  • The battle simulator works for games where the party is chosen while playing: it fights with the characters who can join.

Testing and publishing

  • Test runs count the dungeon cells they reached and name chests, traps and other things on cells no run came to.
  • While playtesting, ✨ beside a line or an option sets a screen effect and shows it at once, without playing again.

Other

  • When something on our side fails, the editor says so and no longer blames what you typed.

When saving a version, renaming or deleting a file, a comment, a note or a style does not go through, the editor says so and keeps what you typed. · 27 changes

Updates that day: Clearer when something goes wrong · Losing need not end the game · Lines in any order, names that read · Settings that fit, weapons that count · Quicker pages, sturdier library · A library that stays quick · A readable menu in every look · Clear dice over any scene · A steady sidebar · Tab when you type fast

Writing

  • When saving a version, renaming or deleting a file, a comment, a note or a style does not go through, the editor says so and keeps what you typed.
  • A new option whose destination you have not picked yet counts as an open end, not as a problem, and the Problems list counts the open ends it shows. Escape closes it.
  • “Fit to the window” keeps the first card clear of the buttons over the map, and empty lists such as Decks say what they are for.
  • An ending names the way that leads to it, such as “⚔ lost”, and opens that way’s own field. The Defeat ending says where to let the story go on instead.
  • A way that leads back into its own passage now shows on the map as an arrow around the card.
  • In the dialogue editor, a reply’s lines change their order: drag a line by the grip under its portrait, or press Alt+↑/↓ in its words.
  • A card you paste or add deep in a conversation comes into view, below its level’s heading.
  • Publish with open ends now shows them right away instead of opening the form first.
  • A click on the lowest entry of the sidebar opens it every time: the “More below” row no longer comes under a click already pressed, and scrolled to the end it keeps its place, so the entries never jump.
  • A new option added from a passage’s menu on the map keeps what you type even when you press Tab right away; its new passage takes the words.

Look

  • Speakers’ names and option numbers on boxes read clearly in every look.
  • A library picture that did not load while you scrolled quickly loads again by itself.
  • The library and the ready cursor sets now load their pictures as you scroll to them, so Use copies a file at once however much creators have shared; a copy that cannot get through tries again by itself.

Playing

  • The menu shows a character’s list by its entries’ names; on a fixed screen a battle no longer shows a strip of the scene below it.
  • On a phone, the settings fit the screen in every language: a long label puts its control on the line below. Buttons and dice in a dice battle are big enough to tap.
  • In the game’s menu and settings, the open tab, the group titles and the paler secondary text now read clearly in every look, also on a light grey page with a dark style.

Battles

  • A lost battle can lead back into the story: on the map, drag the end of its “⚔ lost” arrow onto any passage, also the one where the fight starts, to fight again. Moving an arrow’s end no longer asks anything, and the battle stays.
  • The dice rules name the value an attack is thrown against, and experience points only show while levels come from them.
  • Dragging from a battle’s option onto a card asks whether that card follows a won or a lost battle, instead of replacing the battle. The same goes for checks.
  • When a lost battle leads on while the fallen stay down, so the next battle would be lost at once, the editor says so under the battle, with a button that lets everyone get up after a battle.
  • The checks for dice battles count the weapons your party can wear: a foe only a good sword can beat is no longer called unbeatable, and a villain’s values no longer count as the party’s.
  • In a battle over a picture, the dice, their tray and the buttons show in full colour: the picture behind the battle had lain faintly over them, which made “Throw for who starts” hard to read over a bright scene.

Testing and publishing

  • Errors in the test play, the look’s previews and the library are said in plain words, never as a technical message or an address.

Help

  • The First steps of a new choice story follow the help’s Your first game, step by step.

Other

  • Publishing and the library wait less and recover better when something is slow.
  • The start page, the changelog and published games answer about three times as fast under many visitors.
  • Security updates for the parts Talebench runs on, and tighter limits on what pages may use.

The story map of a long story opens again in seconds: with hundreds of passages it could stay on “Placing the passages…”. · 24 changes

Updates that day: Big stories stay quick · Fairer armour hints · Conversations as deep as you like · Every line readable · Portraits as you framed them · Safer translation scripts · Translations and files through the API · Planned battles fit a laptop; decks checked more closely · No two of the same name in your lists · One click for two of the same name; Strength shown in the throw · Pictures in any language; two versions of one person stay apart

Writing

  • The story map of a long story opens again in seconds: with hundreds of passages it could stay on “Placing the passages…”.
  • Options inside replies are no longer limited to five levels: nest a conversation as deep as your story needs, in the dialogue editor, the player and the book.
  • Typing a name another character, enemy or thing already has shows a hint under it, with a button that gives this one a name in your lists (e.g. "Dura (2)"). Players still only see the name in the game.
  • When two characters, enemies or things share their name, the warning now gives the second one a name in your lists with one click (e.g. "Dura (2)"), ready to rename.
  • Pictures made with AI now understand descriptions in German and other languages too: the description is turned into an English picture prompt first.
  • Older projects keep the names of their stages and list items when they are opened: a stage called "yes" stays "yes".
  • Add option with a new passage moves the story map to the new passage, as New passage here does.
  • Decks: no false warning for cards a deck offers as its second or later option; an offer on an option with a hotspot or a thing to use is pointed out, with a fix.
  • A character or thing made from a picker, the battle way or an example gets "(2)" in your lists when its name is taken.
  • The full view shows under a made sound or picture what was sent to the AI, when it differs from your description.
  • Two characters with the same name no longer swap in the script view: each line keeps who speaks it. Give one of them a name in your lists to tell them apart everywhere.

Look

  • A choice you made, a check’s result and choices shown as links stay readable when your own page colour does not suit the style’s accent.
  • A dialogue box in the story shows the speaker’s portrait exactly as you framed it, not a strip from its middle.

Playing

  • Deep into a long story, each new line comes at once again.
  • Skip read text also skips the sound of a way taken before; holding Ctrl skips it too.

Battles

  • In dice battles where a value like Strength adds to each throw, the Armour hint and the warning about a foe that blocks almost every throw now count that value.
  • A planned battle with many foes fits a laptop window: Play the round stays in view, cards in rows no longer cover each other, and a foe's intent is never cut.
  • A value added to a dice throw is named in the battle log ("14 + Strength 2") and printed in the book; the armour warning counts it.

Testing and publishing

  • Opening the debug panel in the playtest keeps the screen size it found.

Other

  • A language a script adds through the API starts hidden from players; you offer it in the Translations panel once it is done.
  • The public API reads and writes a language's translations, with the same checks as the editor's import, and takes files in and out (counted against your storage, with short-lived download links).
  • A key may now upload 500 files an hour, enough to bring in a whole project at once.
  • An upload that never finished stops taking room in your storage after an hour instead of a day.
  • The book: the "not twice in a row" table has a way out when only one card is left, and camp marks count cards drawn as a visit and options inside replies.

Sounds made with AI now understand descriptions in German and other languages: the description is turned into a short English sound prompt first, so heavy rain sounds like rain and not like footsteps. · 38 changes

Updates that day: Sounds from a description in any language · See every visit in the preview · One tap shows the whole line · Only if a choice was made · Play takes the keyboard into the game · Undo that says what it undoes · Copy, a level in between, and where an option leads · Dice battles that hold still on a phone · The dialogue editor as a grid · Dice battles that stay in place · Combinations with a look of their own · Dice effects shown as intended · Game cards that tell more · Tidy game cards · The start page knows you · Health that only counts down · Dice battles that read cleanly

Writing

  • Sounds made with AI now understand descriptions in German and other languages: the description is turned into a short English sound prompt first, so heavy rain sounds like rain and not like footsteps.
  • The text preview shows how a passage reads on the 2nd, 3rd or a later visit, and “Another draw” shows other picks for the random parts. Without test states, a link leads to making one.
  • The Add change list no longer jumps back to the top while you scroll it.
  • A conversation can be four levels deep. At the limit, the dialogue editor now says why and how to go on: let the option lead to a new passage.
  • Only if … has a new kind: Has chosen. Pick an option from the list (grouped by passage and conversation), and the question or option appears only after the player chose it, or only if they did not.
  • Deleting an option that a condition asks about now asks first and names where it is used. In the printed gamebook the reader ticks a codeword when taking such an option.
  • Undo and Redo name their step (“Undo: option “Ich hätte gern ein Bier” moved”), and after each a short notice says what happened, with Redo or Undo in it.
  • History begins with your recent steps of this session, newest first: click one to go back to just after it; the newer ones stay greyed until you redo them or make a new change. The saved versions stay below.
  • In the dialogue editor, copy an option with everything after it (Ctrl+C, or Copy in its menu) and paste it anywhere (Ctrl+V), also into another dialogue of the project.
  • Insert a level here, on a reply, puts a new option between it and the options it offered, which move one level deeper.
  • Every card’s Then … line is now a choice: the same options again, back to the options before, back to the start, options after this reply, or leads to a passage, a new passage or an ending.
  • The dialogue editor lays out its options as a grid: each level a column, and the options a reply offers start level with it. Drag a card anywhere — up or down, into another column, under another reply — and Ctrl+Z takes it back; “Move to…” in its menu does the same by keyboard.
  • Adding is at hand: “+ Option” under each column, a round + at a card’s edge for the options after its reply, and “+ Insert here” between two cards.

Playing

  • Text that appears word by word: one click or tap on the story shows the whole line at once, and the next one goes on. A double-click shows the line without skipping past it.
  • Hide text now hides the dialogue box and its frame too, so nothing covers the picture.

Battles

  • A battle says whose turn it is in words: “Round 2 · Wren’s turn · then Rat, Slime”.
  • Dice battles can be switched on in the simple view, with the number of dice; everything else about them stays in the full view.
  • A dice battle no longer scrolls by itself: only where it is taller than the window, at most once a turn and never while dice fly; Attack stays where it is once you can press it. The first fight fits a phone whole.
  • A foe’s skill names itself (“Crown Smash hits Wren for 6”), a blow without a defence says why, and an outcome that seems to contradict its numbers explains itself. Kept dice are lifted with a lock, the tip to keep a pair only comes for a pair worth keeping, and fewer landing thuds play.
  • Dice Duel’s tavern remembers your evening: beaten tables are marked, the barkeep names the next one, and after a loss the same table stands first. A fallen foe gets a short last beat before the result.
  • The battle no longer jumps while dice fly or land, the latest line puts the outcome first, and the foe’s blow stays readable while you decide. With hit zones each blow is one line that adds up, and a hit is never followed by a miss.
  • Hold back says what it does, a skill paid with a die says so (“Fireball — pay a die of 5+”), the foe’s damage rises from its dice, and after a battle a short recap names the rounds and your best throw.
  • Dice Duel starts easier: the first fight gives a tip (“Keep your pair, throw the rest again.”), Pip has less health, each table cheers in its own words, and the champion’s ending counts your evening.
  • A combination can have its own colour and sound: set them under its effects in the dice battle (full view), for the battle, a defence set or a foe’s own set. In Dice Duel the Dice King’s three of a kind glows crimson and rings a bell.
  • A clash has its own crack and its dice bounce apart; a defence one die short of a combination says so (“One away from a run (Footwork)!”); a combination’s name no longer stands on a die.
  • In published games the dice tray’s effects, the combination’s name and the Combinations table now have their full look again: their styles had been held back by the browser’s security rules.
  • In every battle a hit’s health number now holds its old value until the hit lands, then counts down to the new one. It no longer jumps above the old value for a moment, and two hits close together count on from what is shown.
  • The battle’s lines no longer stand twice, in the story above and in the battle: while a battle shows, they are only in the battle (screen readers and Story so far keep them). This holds for every battle, with dice or without.
  • The tray tells nothing before the dice land: what the attack would do appears with the last die. The foe’s hit stays in the battle’s lines while you decide, and the round keeps saying whose turn it is to the end.
  • Throw to defend throws at once and goes away when pressed, so a defence round is about a second shorter. Fighters stand side by side on tablets and wide screens, and your turn’s buttons keep one order on every screen.
  • The health count ticks three to six times, a little lower each time, with a soft thud at the end; a foe’s count ticks too. When your move comes, your name in the round’s header glows with Attack.

Testing and publishing

  • After Play (in the bar, from a passage, Play the passage in the dialogue editor, Restart with changes) the keyboard is in the game: Space reads on and a number picks an option, no click needed. Shift+Tab takes you back to the editor.
  • A playtest that loads while you type no longer takes the cursor from your text.

Help

  • The help names the right buttons for changes, and says where background sound and music are added.

Other

  • Game cards show their facts, creator, stars and plays in one line.
  • A game card on the start page and in the library names its creator (a link to their games), its stars once 5 players have rated it, how often it was played once that is 100 or more, and New for its first 14 days.
  • A game card on the start page and in the library shows at most three lines of its description, so a long one no longer stretches the grid; the whole text is on the game’s page.
  • Signed in, the start page and the library no longer ask you to log in: they show My projects, New project on the start page, and your name as a menu with your games, the games you follow, your account and Log out.

Dice battles come alive: the dice tumble into the tray, knock into each other and settle with a wobble; you hear the shake, the roll on wood or felt, the clacks and a sting for every combination. · 38 changes

Updates that day: Faster, smoother dice rounds · A steady story map · Clearer dice battles on every screen · Dice that roll on a tray · Your saves in your account, combinations in defence · Fairer and clearer dice battles · A tidier dialogue editor · Dice that feel real · Your turn in the dice tray · Weapons and shields, a dialogue editor · Dice that land one by one, and skills paid with a die · Aim high, middle or low · Counter attacks

Writing

  • Long conversations get their own editor: "Open as dialogue" shows a passage's options and replies as a tree from left to right, with a colour per speaker, conditions on the cards and exits at the edge. Write right in it (Enter, Tab, Ctrl+Enter), reorder, turn an option into a passage, and play from any level.
  • Adding an option with a new passage keeps the story map’s zoom: the map only slides to show the new card, in a straight line, without dipping out and back in. Only Show everything fits the whole map in again.
  • A new option’s empty passage goes again when the option is pointed elsewhere, and a teammate’s notice names the passage they changed.
  • For writers: the new combination set is the default, with momentum, dice shown, tells and a boss mark in the full view, the simulator shows how long a fight lasts, and the help starts simple. Dice Duel is rebalanced.
  • The dialogue editor is tidier: "Only if" opens inside its card with one close button, long conditions wrap, conditions read "Met Elin: no", every option says where it leads (also a deck or a map), target names are no longer cut, the arrows are clean, and the title, saved state and problems stay in view at the top while the tree scrolls.

Look

  • In the look: "Dice effects" (full, light or off), dice sounds, screen shake and vibration on phones. Reduced motion, the battle speed and muted sound always win.
  • Dice styles: plain, wood, bone or pixel ("Dice style" in the look). Dice Duel throws wooden dice.

Playing

  • Players can sign in from a game’s menu: their saves are kept in their account and wait on every device. Saves already in the browser can be taken along. My games in the library shows where to continue, your ratings and what you follow. Creators can switch it off per game in Publish.
  • Games without dice battles load less: the dice code now comes only with games that use it (about 42 KB less for the engine and 23 KB less for the player).

Battles

  • Dice battles come alive: the dice tumble into the tray, knock into each other and settle with a wobble; you hear the shake, the roll on wood or felt, the clacks and a sting for every combination. A combination lights up and names itself, a critical shakes the screen, attack dice fly at the foe, and in a defence the two rows clash. The deciding die rolls a little longer.
  • In dice battles the menu under the battle is gone: your turn happens in the dice tray. Attack is the main button, Hold back gives up your attack for a stronger defence, Skills and Things open their lists right there, and ⋯ holds Flee and the rest. Keys: Enter attacks, H holds back, S skills, I things, R throws again. Battles without dice keep their menu.
  • Weapons and shields in dice battles: a weapon changes your dice (the Axe makes a pair count double, the Spear reaches high, the Greatsword throws one die more), and a shield guards one place — you move it after seeing the foe's dice. Pick yours in Dice Duel's new Armoury and try the Shield Wall.
  • The dice of a throw now land one after another, and the combination shows once the last one lands. A click or Space shows the rest at once; "Dice appear" "All at once" in the look brings back the old way.
  • A skill can need a die: "Fireball: a die of 5 or more". You pay with that die, and it leaves your throw, so your best die goes either into the skill or into the attack. The skill menu shows the condition ("5+"), and foes pay with dice too. Try Wren's Fireball and the Dice King's Crown Smash in Dice Duel.
  • With "Aim at top, middle, bottom" each of your three dice hits its own place on the foe: you put the dice on top, middle and bottom before attacking, and each meets the armour there. Flying foes cannot be hit low, small ones not high, and a helmet only guards the head. With four dice one is set aside.
  • With "Counter attack when every die wins" a defence that beats the attack die by die stops it and strikes back at once with a free attack ("Wren beats every die: counter attack!"). Foes can do it too; a counter attack is never countered. On for the Fencing Master in Dice Duel.
  • A foe’s round takes about four seconds instead of five or six: no more waiting while nothing moves, and your next throw starts while the foe’s hit is still counting down. Both sides throw for who starts at once.
  • Health counts down from the old value to the new one, with a soft tick per point, and never jumps back up. With Reduce motion nothing moves, but the battle still pauses long enough to read.
  • The combination’s name sits on the tray’s rim instead of on the dice, the defence line names both sums (“9 against Wren’s 19”), the round says whose turn it is, and Throw again no longer looks like the main button. Commands show their key on focus and in their tooltip.
  • Shield keys follow the language (O, M, U in German), hit zones are called zones, and tablets show the fighters side by side. A die that misses a combination by one wobbles once more.
  • Hit zones are aimed in the tray itself, where the dice were, and start in the best order for your target; swap two only when you disagree. The dice show once, not twice.
  • On a phone the turn sits right under the words: Attack across the whole width, then Hold back, Skills, Things and more in one row; tricks scroll in one row. The latest line in the battle takes two lines instead of being cut off.
  • The dice tray says what it is waiting for (“move your shield, then take it”), names what parries (“a run or three of a kind”), labels your own throw when another lies above it, and lists your weapon’s bonus in the Combinations table. Screen readers hear your throw with its dice and sum.
  • Dice Duel’s first fight is simpler: tricks are handed out at the tables that teach them. In German the words are tidier (“ein Paar”, “Fertigkeiten” everywhere), and the top bar’s values have clear gaps between their words.
  • The dice roll on a tray of their own (felt, wood or stone, by dice style) and stay on it: they no longer fly over buttons, words or the fighters. They slow down as they roll and settle without a jolt, and the page no longer jumps while they are in the air.
  • The throw for who starts shows its dice before the story says who starts. A click on Attack while the dice still land now lands them and attacks, and Enter always works. Your turn’s buttons wait until the dice are down, then Attack glows once.
  • Every combination has its own colour and sound, the last die slows down only when something rare can come, a hit lands on the fighter and a blocked throw bounces back, and big moments stay a breath longer. The cup fits the dice and takes their colour.
  • Combinations count in defence too: Brace, Footwork, Riposte, Disarm and Perfect guard, by default after holding back. When both throws show a combination, they clash. A foe can have a set of its own; the book prints the defence table.
  • Two dice no longer count as a run; a run needs at least three. A defence that turns an attack away stays a moment longer, and a defence without armour no longer shows "+ armour 0".
  • Every combination now does something of its own: a pair ignores 2 armour, a run deals +2 and keeps the initiative, three of a kind is a critical hit, two pairs cost the foe a die and four of a kind deals double damage. Hitting in a row builds momentum.
  • The dice tray explains itself: a Combinations table with the chance of each, a preview of what your attack will do, what a parry needs, "One away from a run!", and the shield placed on your best die as a suggestion.
  • A foe that throws face down shows one of its dice, and foes can give their dice away with a tell ("Crown Smash ready: needs a 6"). The cup now covers only the hidden dice.
  • After a run you can "Extend the run": throw one more die, and if it continues the run it grows and hits harder.
  • A fight can use the game's dice rules, its own, or no dice; the editor shows how often a foe's Armour blocks, and warns when no combination is on or a foe blocks almost every throw. A value such as Strength can be added to every throw.
  • Fixed: during "Throw for who starts" the story's choices stayed clickable under the battle and could leave the fight. Also fixed: a die spent on a skill no longer hits its zone, and with hit zones a counter attack is won zone by zone.
  • Try it in Dice Duel against the Wyvern and the Rat King. Optional: dice battles without it play as before.

Other

  • Printed books of dice games now print the dice rules, the combinations, Armour, hit zones, reroll boxes, tricks, weapons and shields.
  • The demo games keep their links when they are updated.

In dice battles the foe's throw now lies in the dice tray: while you throw to defend you see his attack above your own dice, and afterwards both stand side by side with the result ("14 vs 10 + armour 2: 2 damage"). · 50 changes

Updates that day: A run of three · See the throw you face · Hidden dice · Replies that stay, found at once · Options to passages you already have · Dice tricks · Real dice, and who starts · Defend with your own dice · Gentler critical throws · Your own throw in the log · Dice battles to try · Lighter games, keys for your own tools · Games that remember, pages that invite · A lore book that fills itself · Fights that end without a fall · Fights that belong to their scene · Larger text on large screens, quicker shared links · A map that stays put, and a first game without surprises

Writing

  • Under a passage's options, "+ Reply in this passage" adds an option whose reply plays right there, then the same options come back, with no new passage. In "Choose where this leads" "Reply and stay" now stands first and says what it does.
  • Under a choice's options, "Add option to a passage…" adds an option that leads to a passage you already have: type to search, pick it, write its text. The search beside every passage picker now shows from two passages on.
  • A value can be "Kept across playthroughs": what you unlock stays unlocked when you start again, so a second playthrough can know the first. In Beneath the Iron Hill, the miners' book counts your descents and opens a stair you could not take before.
  • A collection can be shown on the game's page ("Show on the game’s page"), with "All entries" or "Only entries I choose": people who have not played yet find "Explore" on the title screen and meet the heroes, foes or places before they start. The Crystal of Aster shows its bestiary and journal.
  • Select a word while writing and choose "Mark for the lore book" (or Ctrl+Shift+L): describe it once in a list, and the story need not explain it. The first mark offers a "Lore book" that fills itself as the player reads.
  • The story map looks the same after you reload, switch the language or the view: cards keep the places you saw, and no card ever lies on another. A card that grows pushes the ones below it down.
  • In the writing view, "-> Name" of a passage or ending that does not exist yet offers to make it ("Make the ending “Name”") instead of an option that leads nowhere; options that lead nowhere count as problems.
  • A long picture name or caption no longer makes the passage panel wider than its column: long text wraps or is cut, with the whole of it in a tooltip.
  • A line without text is no longer shown in the game (no empty box, no extra click), and the editor warns about it: "This line has no text: it is not shown in the game.", with "Remove the empty line" as a quick fix.
  • The story map keeps where you placed its cards with the project, so another computer shows the same map.
  • In the full view, an entry can be marked "Every time it appears", and "Find unmarked" lists the places that name it without a mark. The printed book sets marked words in small caps with a sign and prints the lore book whole at the end. The Ember Road has one: "Lore of the Road".
  • A new option made from the map's menu starts empty, and its new passage takes the option's words until you name it yourself.
  • "Before this" in the writing view also finds deck cards, map places, the camp and dreams, with the words the player chose.
  • The writing view uses a reading font, and its help names your own characters.
  • Time, Weather and Camp pages are laid out like the others, deck cards show "Only if" only when you add a condition, and a companion who does not fight shows no battle values.

Look

  • On a large monitor the story column and its text grow (from about 1600 px wide), so a game no longer reads small in the middle of the screen.
  • On a phone the text box follows right under the scene's picture instead of waiting at the bottom of an empty screen.

Playing

  • Games load faster: the game engine is smaller for every game, and stories with a journal or a clock now load the small story engine, about 150 KB less.
  • Playing, a marked word opens a small card with its entry by tap, click or Enter, without stopping the story; a short note tells you when a new entry was added. The look decides how "Marked words" show: underlined, dotted, framed, coloured or not marked at all.
  • Games that keep values offer "Forget progress across playthroughs" under the saves, to start truly fresh. The printed book gets an "Across adventures" box to keep when you begin again.
  • A shared game link opens faster, also when many people open it at once.
  • The player's top bar stays one row with "Make camp" shown, the camp's things are in one column, and the Stats page shows a value like the status line.

Battles

  • In dice battles the foe's throw now lies in the dice tray: while you throw to defend you see his attack above your own dice, and afterwards both stand side by side with the result ("14 vs 10 + armour 2: 2 damage"). Hidden dice show their backs. A look can turn it off with "Show the opponent's dice".
  • With "Hide the attack dice" a foe's attack lies face down while you defend: you throw your defence without knowing what you face, then both are revealed. New tricks: "Peek at one die", "Peek at the whole throw", "+ to your dice" and "− to the opponent's dice".
  • Skills and things can now change dice in dice battles: throw one die again, turn one up or down, turn one to six, add a die, stop the opponent from throwing again, or make the opponent's combination not count. Use them on your own throw before attacking, or on a foe's attack while it waits ("Take it" lets it land).
  • The dice in dice battles now look like dice, with pips. A look can show numbered faces instead ("Dice": "Pips" or "Numbers" in the look's battle settings).
  • With "Throw for who starts" a dice battle opens with a throw you make yourself: the higher sum takes the first turn, so a fight never begins with a blow you could not answer. On in Dice Duel.
  • Dice battles can use "Defence throws": the defender throws its own dice, and an attack must beat that sum plus the armour. With "Parry with a rarer combination" a better combination stops the attack completely, and "Counter damage" hits back. With "Throw to defend by click" you throw your defence yourself when a foe attacks.
  • A first version of dice battles: with "Attacks are dice throws" every attack throws 3 or 4 dice against the defender's "Armour", and combinations add to it: a pair cannot be blocked, a run hits harder, three of a kind is critical and wounds. Rerolls let you keep dice and throw the rest again.
  • Try it in the new demo "Dice Duel": four fights with different dice settings, from the first throw to the Dice King. In the editor, "Dice battles" sits in the battle rules (full view) and shows each combination's chance beside it. Optional: every other battle plays as before.
  • A foe can have "Morale": scaring, bargaining or a scene action lowers it, and when it runs low the foe flees, gives up or joins your party. A battle can then go on its own way: "When a foe gave up", "When a foe joined you", "When the foes fled". In the Ember Road, the Cinder Imp gives up when you choose "Hold up the Sealed Ember".
  • A wound can outlast its battle: a status set to last "After the battle" stays until the next rest or until something removes it, shows in the party menu, and a companion who "Sits out battles" waits until it heals. In the Ember Road the wolf's bite leaves Rhea wounded until the camp.
  • An encounter can offer up to three actions written for its scene ("Cut the chandelier rope", "Throw river mud on its embers"): each takes a turn, may be once per battle or need a condition, and prints in the book as its own choice. In the Ember Road and the Sunken Choir.
  • A foe can announce its next move in words ("The bruiser draws back his club"), so you answer it instead of guessing; the line is translated, in the voice script and read out before each round in the printed book.
  • Dice battles can count any three dice in a row as a run, with four dice too (1-2-3-6): "A run needs" "Three in a row" instead of "All dice in a row". The editor shows the new chance beside it. On in Dice Duel's Four Dice fight.
  • Dice Duel is back with all its fights after an update had left it out.
  • Try it in Dice Duel against the Masked Gambler, with Wren's Glass Eye, Lucky Charm and Hooded Lantern. Optional: dice battles without it play as before.
  • Foes cheat too: in Dice Duel the new Cheating Croupier rerolls your pairs and spoils your throws, and Wren carries a Loaded Bone and a Steady Hand. In the editor a "Dice trick" is an effect of a skill or a thing (full view); battles without tricks play as before.
  • Try it in Dice Duel against the new Fencing Master: four dice on both sides, parries and counters. All of it is optional; dice battles without it play as before.
  • In dice battles a critical throw now adds 50 % damage instead of doubling it, so one lucky throw no longer ends a fight at once. A writer can set the extra percent per combination; other battles are unchanged.
  • In dice battles your own throw now stands in the battle log like the foe's ("Wren throws 1 · 2 · 1: a pair — cannot be blocked, 4 against armour 8: 1 damage"), and a throw that does not beat the armour says "blocked" instead of "misses".
  • A value can fill up during a fight ("Refills in battle"), a little each round and more when defending, so big attacks have a price you pay back by waiting. Tomas in the Sunken Choir has Focus for his "Harpoon Volley".
  • All three are optional and in the full view: battles without them play exactly as before. The printed book has a morale box beside the foe and boxes for wounds on the adventure sheet.
  • Both are optional: battles without them play exactly as before. The editor has them in the full view: "Scene actions" on an encounter, "told as" on an enemy's behaviour row.
  • The battle in three steps: "Hard" is really harder than "Fair", and a fair first battle is one a fresh hero usually wins. A defeated hero is no longer asked for a target.

Help

  • The help panel closes with Escape, and its Ask button stays in view.

Other

  • Workspace owners can make "API keys" for their own tools (imports, spreadsheets, voice studios): "Read only" or "Read and change", for all projects or only chosen ones, with an end date. A key is shown once, can be revoked at any time, and every change it makes is in the project's history.
  • The changelog page opens faster.
  • The manuscript of one chapter links only to what it contains, and its German notes read naturally.
  • AI tools connected to Talebench are told which actions change your story, so they ask before changing it.

The writing view shows names instead of internal codes, and in the simple view conditions and changes read as sentences ("only if Mira trusts you"); a click shows the formula. · 53 changes

Updates that day: The writing view in your words, and a book you can play · Games that pick up where you left them · Writing that never loses a word · Projects come first, and come back · The map keeps still · Saved battles go on · Help for the new ways of writing · Writing on, faster

Writing

  • The writing view shows names instead of internal codes, and in the simple view conditions and changes read as sentences ("only if Mira trusts you"); a click shows the formula.
  • Formula mistakes are explained in plain words, and a misspelled name gets a suggestion: "Did you mean gold?" — a click puts it in.
  • The story map no longer rearranges itself when you add a passage: every card stays where it stands, and a new one takes the nearest free place beside the passage it comes from. Copies stand beside their originals. Re-layout (unpin all) tidies the whole map when you want it.
  • Write shows what came before, to write on from it: the passage that leads here (Before this) and the option the player chose (Chosen). It has the spell check of your story’s language, and a double-click on a passage’s card opens it.
  • Kind of passage at the top of a passage: Normal passage, Start of the story, Camp, Dream, or Turn into an ending. Camps and dreams carry their sign on the map.
  • A written narration line can be given a speaker ("Give it a speaker"), and narration after a spoken line is marked as narration.
  • Two options on one arrow: a double click asks "Which option?", and the field is readable at any zoom.
  • Translations get larger fields for long texts, and an empty voice script says so instead of downloading an empty file.
  • Saving is safer: when a change cannot be saved, the editor keeps everything else and says which places were taken back; "Not saved" means your edits wait and go out with your next one, never lost.
  • Undo no longer overwrites a teammate's words typed into the same text since; restoring an older version starts a fresh undo history.
  • The checks of your story keep working after an unexpected error instead of stopping until a reload.
  • Values has a search, and "used 3×" lists the places with links; Add change has a search too.
  • Opening a part of the editor whose feature is off says so, with "Switch it on".
  • After Add option with a new passage, the map shows the passage and its new one.
  • Deleting a passage also takes away the options inside conversations that led to it, and says so before it deletes.
  • Copies of several passages leave the voice script’s line numbers behind, so recordings stay with the lines they were made for.
  • New chapter here near the map’s edge stays in view, the panel keeps still when the kind of a passage changes, an undone Turn into an ending opens its passage again, and the map’s tools keep to one row on a narrow window.
  • Right-click on the map: New passage here, New ending here, New chapter here; on a card: Playtest from here in full size, Add an option with a new passage, Add an option with dialogue. The menus stay on the screen.
  • One click on an option’s arrow opens its passage with that option ready to edit; the line or option you work on is framed; a trash can on the selected card deletes it, and the options that led to it go with it.
  • A new option’s passage stands in the same chapter, below its passage. What a passage takes from its chapter (background and more) is folded into As the chapter.
  • Decks: a draw can leave out the way back (Come back here after the card off), for cards that go back to their place themselves; Yarn Spinner’s node groups come over that way.
  • Long words stay inside the cards on the map.
  • The map’s menus: inside a chapter’s frame too (its new passage joins the chapter), by keyboard (Esc closes), and a right-click no longer opens the panel over the card. A click on an arrow’s words opens its option; removing an arrow says so, with Undo.

Look

  • Chapters with a fixed screen of their own keep their page: text, picture and choices lie on the paper again.
  • Pixel fonts are larger in story text, your own name in a speech bubble is readable, and on a phone thin hotspots are large enough to tap.

Playing

  • Continue after closing the page goes on at the line you were reading, with the scene's picture behind it, and replies you already asked stay asked.
  • Route planning on a phone uses the game's own buttons, the zoom covers no names, and "No way leads there." stands right by the place.
  • A save made at a question or a character's creation still loads after you change and republish the game.
  • A number too large to show now shows as 0 in the game instead of a strange word.

Battles

  • Planned turns say whose plan you make ("Planning: Aldo"), show each action's time, keep one layout, and Play the round has its own key (P); on a phone everything fits and every card is large enough to tap.
  • A game saved in a battle goes on after you switch that battle between taking turns and planned turns: the round in progress ends as it began, the next one follows your change.
  • The party's bars beside a battle follow the fight; a fighter felled at the end of a round no longer counts its statuses down.
  • Levels: the experience for enemies is a simple number, "XP per level of the enemy".

Testing and publishing

  • The playtest in a short window folds its controls into one line, "Size and start", so the game and the debug panel get room; the playtest stays open when you reload.
  • Changing a line while playing in a translation changes the translation, never the original text.
  • The Log names every event in plain words, the debug panel can mark places on the maps as found, and test runs report a camp entered without making camp.
  • Sound in the playtest: the sound of the first way and a sound or voice in the first passage are heard; Skip read text skips the sound only on ways taken before.

Help

  • The help explains the map’s right-click menus, the arrows, Write with Before this and Chosen, deleting a passage and As the chapter.
  • Numbers in the editor follow your language, translated texts are checked like the main ones, and the glossary explains 14 more words.

Other

  • The printed adventure sheet starts empty where the book asks you to roll or choose, the printed sentences are whole, "What do you do?" stays with its options, and the page estimate matches the book.
  • Your own projects now stand first on the projects page, under "Your projects"; the examples follow.
  • AI pictures and sounds are kept more safely: a short hiccup no longer loses a paid result, and the monthly limit holds even for requests sent at once.
  • "Publish now" and "Share preview" show their result in view, Withdraw asks first, and a tester's note shows the line as it was read.
  • A deleted project can be brought back for 7 days: "Undo" right after deleting, or "Recently deleted" on the projects page, then "Restore".
  • You can leave a workspace ("Leave this workspace") or, as its owner, delete it ("Delete this workspace") in the workspace settings.
  • On a phone the top bar keeps the workspace switcher and puts everything else in a "Menu" with large buttons.
  • Opening a project from another of your workspaces now switches the top bar to that workspace.
  • Your account page can change your name and your password ("Change password").
  • The new-project dialog fits a smaller window, with every look visible, and asks for a title if you leave it empty.
  • Upload errors say plainly what is wrong, a refused file leaves no empty card behind, and the file picker offers only the kinds of files Talebench can use.
  • Sign-up says up front that it is by invitation, and a used password-reset link says so as soon as you open it.
  • After a wrong password, the login says how many seconds to wait.
  • German: sizes with a decimal comma and clearer wording on the projects and workspace pages.

An option that draws from a deck can Show as options: up to a number of fitting cards appear as options of their own, each with its Option text. · 30 changes

Updates that day: More from a deck · A steadier test play · Every look, clean at every size · Decks and lists · Recordings from the studio · Options that scroll show it · Planned turns and combos · Finished looks and “I want…”

Writing

  • An option that draws from a deck can Show as options: up to a number of fitting cards appear as options of their own, each with its Option text. The Lantern Keeper’s talk by the fire works this way.
  • Decks: put passages on a deck as cards, and an option can Draw from a deck — The best fit or By chance, cards used up or drawn again, and where to go If no card fits. Good for town talk, encounters on the road and anything that should not come in a fixed order. The Lantern Keeper’s tavern and quay use them.
  • Lists: a value can be a list that keeps the order things were added and may hold one twice — rumours heard, places visited, a queue. Add, take off the first, ask if it has an item, how many, which came first or last. In the full view.
  • Recordings from the studio: drop the recorded files on the voice script and each one attaches to its line by the number the script gave it; a list shows first what attaches, what replaces a recording and what does not fit and why, and one Undo takes it all back.
  • Not twice in a row: a deck drawn by chance never gives the same card twice in a row. The Lantern Keeper’s walk on the quay uses it.
  • The best fit now prefers the card with more conditions that hold, so a more specific card wins; each card shows how many conditions it has.
  • In a Script, -> deck: Name draws from a deck, and Yarn Spinner’s node groups come over as decks.
  • In the book, a deck shown as options lists its cards to choose from, and a deck that never repeats tells the reader to roll again.
  • The Stats page preview shows a list with the entries it Starts with, by their names, and a state by its name.
  • Voice script: every line keeps its number, so recordings from an older script still go to the right line. A line rewritten after its recording says Recorded for another text, with Still fits to keep it.
  • The problem count says Checking… until your story has been checked, instead of No problems.
  • In the book, a deck drawn by chance prints as a dice table and one that takes the best fit as a list.
  • The voice script numbers each speaker’s lines through the whole story, so a chapter’s script keeps the story’s numbers.

Look

  • Titles keep their lines on a large screen and never break inside a word; a cover cut to a band keeps what it shows; a narrow column, the values in the top bar and the side bar grow with the window.
  • Complete looks: a few finished looks for each kind of game, chosen when you start a project or at the top of Look; Keep my colours and fonts keeps your own.
  • I want…: tell Look what you want (“a smaller picture”, “bigger text”, “no title screen”) and it takes you to the setting, shows the change and offers to do it; where your layout cannot, it says why and offers one that can.
  • On a phone, options follow right under the box; snow, fireflies and other particles stay behind options and buttons; a name in the box sits beside the picture at every size.
  • The look preview no longer takes the keyboard away from the editor while it redraws.

Playing

  • Buttons with words fit on one row on a phone, and the menu button no longer says its name twice.
  • Games load a little faster: the game engine got smaller.
  • Boxes that come in with a movement stay drawn afterwards, even on a busy computer.
  • When a game’s options do not all fit their place on a small screen, the last visible one fades at the edge instead of being cut in half, and scrolling shows the rest; with the keyboard, the chosen option always shows whole.
  • Cleaner screens in many looks: bars and titles stay inside the window, Continue stands by its text, options close up before they scroll, names stay readable on light and dark pages.

Battles

  • Battles with their windows at the bottom show each foe with its gauge, and the commands take the foes’ window’s place while you choose. On a large screen fighters’ pictures and numbers grow with the window.
  • Planned turns: a new turn order in Battle rules. Each round, players plan a chain of actions for every fighter within a time per round, see what the foes intend, then Play the round; one fight can be planned while the rest of the game keeps its turn order.
  • Combos: a skill can follow another (the fighter’s own or an ally’s) for a bonus when it comes right after it. The Sunken Choir’s fight in the choir loft is planned: strike on Sera’s note.
  • A skill gets a time on its page; the win-rate check and the book understand planned battles.

Testing and publishing

  • The test play and the look preview no longer stop with an error when you reload, restart or load while the story is moving on by itself.

Other

  • The Lantern Keeper calls you Traveller with a capital letter.
  • Updates no longer show an error for a moment while the app restarts behind the scenes.

Look in pictures: every area of Look — picture and layout, text, title screen, battles, top bar and menus, sounds — starts with a few pictured choices; a line on top says how your game looks in plain words. · 38 changes

Updates that day: Look in pictures, a battle in three steps · Conversations inside a passage, and a manuscript · A book that always prints · Updates you do not notice · Battles that fit, a full-screen test play · What you test is what players see · Battles on every page layout · Cleaner screens at every size

Writing

  • Conversations inside a passage: a reply can offer options of its own, up to four levels deep, and Reply and go back returns to the options before.
  • Export manuscript: your story as a Word or Markdown file to read, edit and share, and back again; a voice script lists every spoken line by speaker, also as a spreadsheet.
  • Texts in formulas: join texts, count their letters, write them in capitals or small letters, and ask whether one contains another.
  • The story map keeps its cards clear of the zoom controls.

Look

  • Look in pictures: every area of Look — picture and layout, text, title screen, battles, top bar and menus, sounds — starts with a few pictured choices; a line on top says how your game looks in plain words. The single settings stay in the full view.
  • Look → Dialogue starts with four pictured choices — speech in the story with a picture, a box at the bottom, speech bubbles, plain text with the name. The preview plays three lines, so you see what happens after a click, and a setting that makes speech lose its box is named with its fix.
  • Look → Dialogue shows only its four pictured choices in the simple view; the single settings stay in the full view.
  • Titles no longer break inside a word, an open-book title screen keeps its cover on the left page, and screens fit low windows.
  • Title screens and pages no longer scroll when everything fits, and frames show on all four sides.
  • Title screens: a long title shrinks to fit its box, and the buttons never cover it or wrap their labels.
  • Cursor sets made with AI say so plainly, without technical names.

Playing

  • The Sunken Choir has a frame of worn, sea-stained stone with bronze studs.
  • Long games stay quick: a new line appears at once again, also with hundreds of lines on screen.
  • Options never cover a character standing in the picture or their name; on wide windows they stand beside the picture, otherwise below it — the picture keeps its size when they come, also on a phone held sideways.
  • The echo of the option you took stays in the story’s column, and Undo last choice lines up with the options.

Battles

  • Add a battle in three steps from a passage: who fights, against whom, and how hard — then the battle is in place, with how often your hero wins in plain words.
  • Battles fit the window in every layout, also after a long story: every fighter, their names and the commands in view, nothing under a bar.
  • In battles with the windows at the bottom, the commands sit in one box beside the party’s window.
  • A fighter’s numbers stay on one line, also on a phone.
  • Battle buttons keep their labels on one line; a button that does not fit moves to a second row.
  • On a fixed screen whose picture is small, like the gamebook page, a battle now takes the page’s free room, so every fighter shows with name and bar.

Testing and publishing

  • Full screen in the test play: your game at its chosen size over the whole screen, the same moment going on.
  • The test play and the look preview start at a laptop’s size and say which size they show, so your game looks as it will when published. Open as published shows the same moment in a window of its own.
  • The test play keeps its game area large when it shows how to make it readable.
  • The test play starts at the largest size it can show readably, and All sizes appears only where its views are big enough.
  • All sizes: watch your game on a phone, a laptop and a large screen side by side; a choice in one plays in all, and problems are listed per size.
  • Export PDF includes the change you just typed.
  • The test play at its own size no longer reports screen problems you did not ask for, and each screen warning says how to fix it.

Other

  • Export PDF always makes a book: foes met and beaten and the mount you ride become boxes on the adventure sheet, numbers worked out while playing become sums or a die roll, and what has no paper form is left out with a note for the reader.
  • Updates run without a single failed page: a page that loads during an update waits a moment instead of showing an error.
  • Updates publish the example games themselves, and a short break, when one is needed, lasts seconds.
  • The book prints rules that come with a new day or a change of weather where they happen, and a hard foe in the Ember Road can be beaten on paper too.
  • The book’s notes are written in your language and name passages and options by their titles, never as formulas.
  • Leave these out of the book: one click for all remaining notes.
  • Updates are steadier: the part that routes every request has more room and is no longer restarted while an update runs.
  • The changelog shows one section per day, grouped by area, with older months on pages of their own.
  • The example games use far more of what Talebench can do: more looks, battle rules, map markers and formulas, each where it fits the story.
  • Opening an example is quicker again; pictures’ small previews are made the first time they are shown.

Ask for help: a new button beside Help answers “how do I…?” questions in a few steps, each with Show me, which opens the right place and marks the field. · 49 changes

Updates that day: Battles in the middle of the picture · Smaller pictures, smaller dialogue — if you like · Your first battle, step by step · Your heroes show in battle · The help answers in full · Ask for help while you make your game · Whole lines, a fourth cursor set, a smaller story engine · Phones read from the top, new cursor sets, steadier stories · Lighter games, AI activity and a calmer simple view · Easier to read, fairer statistics, a calmer editor · Frames for the dialogue box, and clearer settings · Cursors, sharing to the library and seeing every screen size

Writing

  • When a new way replaces a link, a note says where it led before, with Undo.
  • In the simple view, a character’s Travel says in words what riding gives.
  • The weather summary reads in plain words; the sidebar keeps the open area in view; the map fits beside the playtest on smaller screens.
  • In the simple view, a box whose options all live in the full view now says in words what is set, with Show its options.
  • Time and weather: the weather changes exactly as often as you set; a chapter’s own weather starts as soon as you enter it. The Crystal of Aster now passes from autumn into winter.
  • The story map routes arrows around the cards and fits itself when the playtest opens; sharing to the library suggests the right kind of file.
  • Clearer settings: on Time and Weather each tint is named by its time of day or weather; Camp’s options stand in the box they belong to; the German sidebar shows every name whole.

Look

  • Upload a frame picture for the dialogue box: it is drawn around every spoken line (and the narration box on a fixed screen), over the look’s own frame.
  • Cursors: one for your whole game, or one for each situation — over an option, a hotspot by what it does, a foe in battle, a place on the map, a thing held to use. Ready sets come with the library.
  • Look → Picture size: on a fixed screen with the picture beside or above the text, make the picture small for more room for the text, or large. The background stays as it is.
  • Look → Dialogue size: spoken lines a little smaller or larger than the narration, never too small to read.
  • Both are off until you choose them, so your game looks the same as before.
  • The look’s battle preview shows your characters’ portraits, and battles have their own group in the look.
  • A fourth cursor set in the library: soft watercolour, beside ink, gothic and brass.
  • Three new cursor sets in the library, made for Talebench: storybook ink, gothic iron and steampunk brass.
  • A frame picture in your look no longer hides the box colour a player chose.
  • Readable everywhere: a title screen keeps its title and buttons readable on any cover; option numbers and speaker names stand out on every style; rain falls behind the text; every button is big enough to tap.
  • Letters stay whole at the edge of a framed or rounded box — the first letter is no longer cut.

Playing

  • With justified text, a page of a fixed box now always ends on a whole line, and the ▼ never covers a word.
  • Full-screen pictures fill the window, name plates stay clear of Continue, foes show their names, and screen readers read every word whole.
  • A fixed screen’s box now shows whole lines only: no half line peeks out at the bottom before the next page.
  • Story games load an even smaller engine.
  • On a phone, a fixed screen keeps its boxes still and turns pages from the start of a line, with a clear sign when there is more — the text box gets more room on small screens.
  • Story games now also download the smaller engine, and a game that needs more always plays on the full one.
  • A value at the start of a sentence gets a capital letter in the game’s language.
  • Published games load only the engine parts they use: a plain choice story starts with about a fifth less to download.
  • On big screens the fixed screen’s buttons grow with the text; several lines of one speaker share one box.
  • The fixed screen: weather and tint over the whole window, a box as wide as its text, readable hints under the options. The story map takes your first click only once its passages stand.

Battles

  • On a full picture with the foes in front, the fighters now stand together in the middle, your hero a little larger, the commands right beside them.
  • In battles with the foes in front, the fighters’ pictures grow with the screen, and the battle shows the last lines of the round, so you see your own hits.
  • On phones, the battle’s buttons and Undo last choice no longer cover anything.
  • A first battle is easier to build: after switching Battles on, a link leads to the example fight; a fight not used yet offers Put it in the story; a lost battle goes to your Defeat ending.
  • In battles with the foes in front, your party’s pictures now show in their boxes below the foes; before, only the foes had pictures.
  • Battles: all actions stay in view at 1280 × 720, and a foe shows its cursor while you aim.

Testing and publishing

  • Screen sizes: the playtest and the look preview show your game as a phone, a laptop, 1920 × 1080, an ultrawide monitor or 4K. Players’ screens report problems anonymously (covered options, cut text), shown in your Stats.
  • Problems, the test play and Publish now count the same things: open ends still to write are named in all three.
  • Statistics count a game continued from a save as the same game, not a new start.

Help

  • Ask for help: a new button beside Help answers “how do I…?” questions in a few steps, each with Show me, which opens the right place and marks the field.
  • Ask for help checks every field it names against the help, and keeps your Helped / Did not help.
  • Ask for help: a fair number of questions per person each day, the same however fast they are sent; your conversations are part of your account’s download.
    Earlier that day
    • Free for everyone, up to 30 questions a day; Helped and Did not help tell us which answers to improve.
  • Ask for help now gives its whole answer: longer answers were cut off before and showed an error instead.
  • Ask about this: on a problem, a field’s help or an empty area, the question already knows what it is about.
  • Answers come from Talebench’s help and the example games; the help never changes your game. With your yes per project it may look at a summary of it.

Other

  • Opening an example takes a few seconds instead of about twenty.
  • Backups and updates are a little sturdier behind the scenes.
  • Talebench itself is hardened further: every part of it runs locked down.
  • AI activity: in Workspace settings, owners see which AI apps are connected, who connected them, their latest actions — and can disconnect them. Connected apps have fair limits per minute.
  • Share to the library: offer your own pictures, sounds and cursor sets to everyone, free or with your name in the credits. The Talebench team reviews each before it appears.
  • Updates no longer interrupt you: Talebench updates without a break, and an open editor says when a reload is worth it.

The fixed screen on big monitors, and your own sidebar · 26 changes

Updates that day: The fixed screen on big monitors, and your own sidebar · A camp, a clock and the weather · A fixed screen, backgrounds and names for your lists · A simple view and a full view · The example games sound new, and the library grew · The library of games, and how your game is played · Translations, making your character and camera moves · Comments, and notes from players

Other

  • The fixed screen works on every size, up to ultrawide monitors: the game keeps a 16:9 stage in the middle, text grows with its box and keeps a readable line length, options are never covered, and a conversation shows in a single box with name and portrait.
  • A passage’s picture is shown whole, also when it is the background; “Show it whole” under Look’s background keeps a picture with a drawn frame from being cut off. An empty line no longer empties the box before the options.
  • Your own sidebar: pin the areas you use, fold groups, hide areas you do not need — kept for you per project.
  • Breaking camp ends the campfire’s sound; a passage in an indoors chapter can be outdoors.
  • Camp (switch it on under Features): players make camp where you allow it, look at their things, eat and watch a bar rise, sleep, dream — or are woken by a fight — and break camp where the story was.
  • Time: your game gets a clock with days, times of day and, if you like, seasons. Shops open and close, options can wait for the night, and pictures, music and ambience can change by night, season or weather.
  • Weather that changes by itself: rain, storm, snow or fog, seen and heard, quieter indoors; the story can ask about it (“the ford is impassable in a storm”).
  • One background at a time: a new background now replaces the one before (and the look’s), never mixed; on a fixed screen the boxes keep their own frames and backing. A picture used both as background and in the story offers to show it once.
  • A fixed screen: choose a mask under Look, and narration, dialogue, the picture and the options each keep their own box. Nothing jumps; long text turns pages inside its box. In the full view you move and size the areas yourself.
  • Backgrounds any time: a passage or a whole chapter can have a background, kept until another one comes; a passage’s own wins over its chapter’s. A picture in a passage can become the background too.
  • Characters, enemies and things have a name in the game and, if you like, another one for your lists: “Dura as a child” in the editor, “Dura” for the players.
  • More of the editor follows the simple view: enemies, skills, battles, scenes, maps, the book and collections. The top bar makes room so no link is cut off.
  • The editor now has a simple view, showing what a first game needs, and a full view with every option. New accounts start simple; switch any time in the top bar or your account.
  • Nothing important hides: an option set in the full view shows in the simple view too, marked; a problem opens the option it is about; a passage says when rules run on it; search finds every option.
  • Show all options (n more) at the end of a panel shows the rest for that kind of panel, without anything moving.
  • The example games now use sounds, music, weather loops and pictures from the library: waves and rain at the lighthouse, snow steps and doors at the station, a cave dripping in the mine, a campfire on the road.
  • New in the library, each in four takes: thunder, a rockfall, a bell, a train whistle, an announcement, a clock’s tick, a room full of ticking clocks, underwater, a choir, a fire burst, a splash and battle fanfares for victory and defeat.
  • The library: published games can be listed with their genre, language and content notes; browse and search them, rate a game, follow a game or a creator, and report a game that breaks the rules.
  • How your game is played: plays are counted anonymously, without cookies — starts, options taken, endings and where players stopped — shown in the release and as a heat map on the story map. Count plays can be switched off for a release.
  • Translations: offer your game in more languages; a table per language shows what is missing or changed since, with a spreadsheet to send out and read back. Players pick their language, and The Clockmaker’s Workshop plays in German.
  • Players make their character: a name, choices such as a trade or pronouns, numbers rolled or chosen and points to share out. Beneath the Iron Hill now begins at the gate this way.
  • Camera moves: close in on part of a scene, pan across it and pull back; with Reduce motion the view changes at once.
  • Large stories: copy, paste, duplicate and move several passages at once, Go to passage with Ctrl+P, and a search in every passage picker.
  • Test runs of large stories are much faster.
  • Comments: talk with your team about a passage, a line, an option or a thing, reply, mention someone with @, and resolve a thread when it is settled; new comments arrive at once.
  • Notes from players: a published game can let its players leave a note, which arrives in Notes; Stop notes ends it at once.

Writing together at the same time · 38 changes

Updates that day: Writing together at the same time · Journeys in the gamebook, and better pictures from a picture · Workspaces of your own, sharing one project and a bigger library · Chapters, drag and drop and music from the start · A new demo, sounds on the way and rows in battle · Battles, shops, maps and sound · Portraits, style rules and maps you carry

Other

  • See who is here: the faces of everyone with the project open, on the passage and the field they are in.
  • A teammate’s changes arrive within a second; the field you are typing in is never changed under your cursor.
  • When two of you change the same text, the words merge by themselves; only the same words changed by both ask you to choose, side by side.
  • A passage a teammate deleted while you worked on it can be kept; a version you set aside stays in History.
  • Publish says when a teammate saved after the version you are publishing.
  • The start page opens faster.
  • Gamebook: foes on the way get their rolls in the travel list and a page of their own; vehicles get their routes and a box on the adventure sheet, and flying lists every place to land.
  • Pictures from a picture: pictures with a see-through background keep it, and a standing figure gets its new expression from a close look at its face.
  • Workspaces: make more of your own (a private one, one with a partner), move projects between them, and see who sees each one.
  • Share one project alone: the people you invite find it under “Shared with me” and see nothing else of your workspace.
  • Correct words while you play: in the playtest, a double click or “Change here” turns a line, an option or an ending’s title into a field right in the game; the game goes on with the new words.
  • The library: over 300 new sounds and pictures, among them long loops of wind, rain, snow, thunder, waves, a harbour with gulls, a forest, a cave and a tavern, footsteps on every ground, music in ten moods and new backgrounds and things.
  • Pictures from a picture: new expressions, poses or outfits for a character from the pictures you have, scenes at night or in rain, things broken or glowing.
  • Fixes: typing after an effect at the end of a line in Firefox; the pointer of the retro style is no longer read out with an option.
  • Chapters: + Chapter puts the passages you picked into a new chapter; drag cards into a chapter’s frame or out again, or choose the chapter in a passage, also for passages written long before. Pick several cards with Ctrl or Cmd and a click, or draw a box with Shift.
  • Drag and drop: move lines, events and options by their grip, by touch too, or with Alt and the arrow keys; paragraphs in the writing view and a document’s pages move the same way.
  • Music from the very first passage: it starts with New game; a game without a title screen opens on a short start card, so its music is there from the beginning.
  • Invitations ask “Did you mean …?” when an address looks mistyped.
  • Mails from Talebench have a clear new look, in English and German.
  • The Crystal of Aster: battles wait while you choose; switch to Active in the settings for the classic pressure.
  • New demo: The Crystal of Aster, a classic console role-playing game with a party of four, ships and an airship, random battles, shops and save crystals, in pixel art with chip music.
  • Sounds on the way: footsteps on the ground of the next passage, doors, hooves and oars as the story moves on, chosen automatically or picked by you; a key cuts them short.
  • Battles: a front and a back row, and taking things from foes.
  • This page: what changed with each update, in English and German.
  • Fixes: a step’s menu stays in view next to a long picture name; the script view is readable in dark mode; effects on selected words in Firefox; sounds on the way and the victory screen never stop a story.
  • Battles: aim an attack or a skill at a foe or a companion; turns by speed with time gauges, if you like; gauges that fill in battle for special moves; a victory screen with the spoils and level-ups; figures with poses facing each other.
  • Shops: a list to buy and sell, stock, and who could wear a thing.
  • Save points: a game may save only at chosen places.
  • World maps: battles on the way, ways by water or air with vehicles that wait where you left them.
  • Sound: a room sound for a passage (a hall, a cave, a radio …), chip sounds and tunes, and a library of free sounds and pictures to use in your games, footsteps on every ground among them.
  • Look: boxes that fade from one colour to another, sharp pixel art and a retro style.
  • Editor: all portraits side by side to match their sizes; AI pictures shown large before you keep one; stories from Yarn Spinner, Arcweave, Markdown and Word can be imported.
  • Fixes: a recorded voice plays to its end; Step back shows its Continue again; a full-window menu keeps its frame; what is scrolled into view stays clear of the top bar.
  • Choose which part of a character's picture the dialogue shows.
  • Style rules: change how buttons, boxes and bars look, always readable.
  • Page turns go backward when you step back; a passage can make room for its next line.
  • Writing sounds: a quill, a pencil or a typewriter, entirely optional.
  • World maps: pins of any size, names optional, a map carried as a thing, and route planning.

Gamebooks, imports and looks of your own · 5 changes

Updates that day: Gamebooks, imports and looks of your own

Other

  • Export your story as a printable gamebook with an adventure sheet.
  • Import stories from Twine, ink and ChoiceScript.
  • Look variants for a chapter or a passage, and styles of your own to start new games from.
  • Edit an option’s words right on its arrow in the story map.
  • Fixes: pictures beside the story only when you choose it; uploaded maps and sounds show and play in the editor.

The first games outside the team · 1 change

Updates that day: The first games outside the team

Other

  • Talebench opens to its first testers: write, play test and publish interactive stories.