Vnefall is a simple, no-nonsense visual novel engine. It's built in Odin using SDL2 and OpenGL 3.3.

Status: Under development. Not recommended for production yet; updates may be less frequent due to studies.

• Branching Dialogue: Full support for labels, jumps, and player choices.
• Configuration System: demo/config.vnef for engine settings, demo/ui.vnef for UI styling + transitions, and demo/char.vnef for per-character colors.
• Virtual Resolution: Design once, it scales automatically to any screen.
• Simple Syntax: Commands like say, bg, char, choice, set, and if.
• Audio Support: Background music with looping support.
• Sthiti Persistence: Fast, native Save/Load system for story progress.
• Character Stacking: Responsive scaling and Z-index control for sprites.
• Cinematic Transitions: with fade|wipe|slide|dissolve|zoom|blur|flash|shake|none for backgrounds + character fades/slides.
• Text Effects: Inline {color=...} tags, {shake}, and per-line [speed=...] overrides.
• Movie Playback: movie command for .video cutscenes with textbox control.
• Video Pipeline: Source videos live in assets/videos_src/, build step generates runtime .video + optional .ogg audio.

If you're on Linux, grab the vnefall binary from the Releases page. Run the new high-quality demo:

chmod +x vnefall
./vnefall demo/assets/scripts/demo_game.vnef

(Note: Windows and Mac versions are currently untested).

You'll need the Odin Compiler and SDL2 libraries.

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

# Install dependencies
sudo apt install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev

# Build (v1.2.0)
./build.sh
./vnefall demo/assets/scripts/v120_char_pro.vnef

Windows: Install Odin, download the SDL2 development libs, and run:

odin build src -out:vnefall.exe
./vnefall.exe demo/assets/scripts/demo.vnef

Mac:

brew install sdl2 sdl2_mixer
./build.sh
./vnefall demo/assets/scripts/demo.vnef

If you enable movie, build.sh will also build utils/vnef-video (requires FFmpeg dev libs). To prep videos, you also need a working ffmpeg binary in PATH (or pass --ffmpeg /path/to/ffmpeg).

Prepare videos (example):

./build.sh --prep-videos demo/assets/videos_src demo/runtime/videos --force --audio --audio-out demo/runtime/video_audio

Scripts are just simple text files ending in .vnef. You can change backgrounds, play music, and write dialogue without touching a single line of code.

See the detailed command guide for all available commands. If you see Path does not exist: vnef_video, use ./build.sh or pass the -collection:vnefvideo=... flags shown in build.sh.

Project layout (demo-style):

• demo/config.vnef (engine paths, entry script, resolution, bg_blur_quality)
• demo/ui.vnef (textbox, choice UI, transitions)
• demo/char.vnef (per-character name/text colors)
• demo/assets/ (images, audio, scripts)
• demo/assets/videos_src/ (source videos: .mp4/.webm, tooling only)
• demo/runtime/videos/ (generated .video artifacts, do not edit/commit)
• demo/runtime/video_audio/ (auto-mapped .ogg audio for movies, generated)

Note: If you pass a script path on the command line, the Start menu will launch that script instead of entry_script.

Here's what a script looks like:

bg room.png
say Alice "Welcome to the new Vnefall!"

choice_add "Go to the Night" see_night
choice_add "Stay in Day" stay_day
choice_show

label see_night:
    bg night.png
    say Alice "The night is cool."
    jump end_story

label stay_day:
    say Alice "Sunlight is nice too."

label end_story:
    say Alice "Thanks for playing!"
    end

• Click / Space / Enter: Next line.
• Escape: Open/close the pause menu.

See future.md for the full roadmap. v1.5.x includes menu UI polish and quality-of-life reading features.

Check out CONTRIBUTING.md for the guide. We like clean, readable code with simple logic.

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

I am also planning to transition to a dual-licensing model in the future to support long-term development.