TADS is described as '3 is a robust, modern programming environment specially designed for creating Interactive Fiction' and is an app. There are more than 10 alternatives to TADS for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Web-based and Self-Hosted apps. The best TADS alternative is Twine, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like TADS are Inky by Inkle, Ink by Inkle, QuestJS and Yarn Spinner.
Twine is the most popular Web-based, Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to TADS.
Twine is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to TADS.
editor that uses the Ink narrative scripting language and allows you to play and test your interactive (game) narrative stories on the fly.
ink is a scripting language built around the idea of marking up pure-text with flow in order to produce interactive scripts.
Quest 6 is a full re-write of Quest, an interactive fiction app, to pure JavaScript. It's a framework for creating parser-based text adventures.
Yarn Spinner is a tool for creating interactive dialogue for games. Write your conversations in Yarn, a simple programming language that's designed to be easy for writers to learn, while also powerful enough to handle whatever you need.
ADRIFT Developer is a Windows application that allows you to create complex interactive fiction games quickly and easily. It allows you to concentrate on the story by making everything else easy, such as having all options available in dropdown lists, rather than you having to...
Inform is a free app for creating works of interactive fiction, available for MacOS, Windows, Linux and Android. Inside it is a powerful programming language based on English language text. This redesigned website is part of the preparations for open-sourcing the software.
StoryNexus: The choice is yours. StoryNexus gives you free access to hundreds of interactive worlds, from science fiction to romance, from gothic fantasy to historical adventure.
ChoiceScript is a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice games (MCGs) like Choice of the Dragon. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience.
ChoiceScript is the most popular Self-Hosted alternative to TADS.
Adliberum Engine is a multiplayer compatible role-playing text adventure engine. Complete with real-time world-building commands; craft text powered games and scenarios alone or with others. Complete with world editing commands; create worlds, games and puzzles that you can...
Inquisitor is an engine for browser and multiplatform Interactive Fiction works. It bares similarities to Twine while facilitating creation of worlds with locations and items.
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Everything you can do in TADS, you can do in Inform7. The main difference is that Inform7 uses natural-language programming, and therefore, according to theory, is even better suited to writing interactive fiction.