I haven't posted about Narrat updates here in a while, so here's a news update with a quick non-exhaustive description of the most important new things in recent Narrat versions (2.14.0 as of today!)

If you're new to narrat, feel free to visit the website or get started making a game

Narrat 2.14.0 - Else if

This one comes with support for `elseif` syntax. No more annoying nesting of lots of if else for convoluted logic

Release tweet

Narrat 2.12.0 - Achievements and global save data

2.12.0 came with support for achievements and global save data. The global save data can be accessed by game scripts to allow mechanics that persist across playthrough (think Undertale shenanigans).

Release tweet

Narrat 2.10.0: Screen objects, customisable start menu buttons

Relevant tweets: 2.10.0 announcement, 2.10.3 announcement, and a feature to try the engine in your browser

Screen objects allow dynamically placing sprites and texts in a scene graph on screen, which enables more flexibility to display custom elements or UI compared to the simple buttons system.

Custom start menu buttons allows adding extra buttons to the start menu that can do custom actions to extend and customise the main menu

Narrat 2.9.0: Arrays, quest categories, tooltips

Release tweet

Narrat 2.9.0 added array support with dynamic indexing, which opened a lot of scripting possibilities.

It also added a tooltip feature which allows games to define keywords and tooltips that will automatically appear highlighted and show the tooltip window on hover

Narrat 2.8.0 - Improved config system

Narrat 2.8.0 had a refactor of the config system to use a fully typed and verified config system which will show useful error messages when any config value is missing or incorrect on game load. This saves a lot of troubleshooting time during development as it makes it effectively impossible to have an invalid config file, and makes it clear how to fix it.

Narrat 2.7.0 - Text animation, auto play, skip, revamped game menu with tabs, improved quest UI, item categories...

This update had a lot of changes, including a new improved game menu UI with dynamic tabs, and animated text display with standard autoplay/skip features you'd expect in a visual novel.

Narrat 2.6.0 - improved save system and default game look

Narrat 2.6.0 had a new improved save system which included a save slots system allowing players to keep multiple saves and control separate manual/autosave. The default CSS look of the engine was also remade to look more clean

Narrat 2.5.0 - Overlay mode

Narrat 2.5.0 came with the new overlay mode for the dialog panel (which is now the default). Instead of being a panel on the side of the game, it is displayed over the game.

This allows a lot more flexibility on where the dialog panel is displayed and which shape it takes, allowing all sorts of customisation. It also looks a lot cleaner

Narrat 2.4.0 - Dynamic sprites support

Narrat 2.4.0 had sprites support, the first version of what would eventually become screen objects

Narrat 2.3 - Split config files, yaml support, screen transitions

Narrat 2.3 had support for split config files, as the main config file was becoming very big. This enabled much cleaner and easier setup of various configs, as there are now many specific config files for each features, with most of them being optional.

This version also added screen transitions, and support for yaml over json (which is much easier to edit for humans than json).

And much more

There are way more changes than what's been listed here, but those are the most impactful ones.

Also worth mentioning are new games released in narrat since then, including games from the narrat game jam ,and more, like the recent INFIERNO RUBÍ

Tsurubami Senri and the Cheating Casino by Stanwixbuster

There is alsoLovely Lady RPG in development by Poppy: