Balladeer

Introduction

Thanks for choosing Balladeer for your next writing project!

You will be steering the vessel, of course. All I did was pick the crew. And here they are:

Python

A popular, elegant, flexible programming language.

SpeechMark

A simple, expressive dialogue markup system.

TOML

A structured data format. Highly specified, and widely adopted.

HTML5

The ultimate syntax for semantic, portable, electronic documents.

CSS3

Powerful styling rules for layouts, themes and animation.

The challenge I had was to stop this bunch from fighting.

It took me a while to find the right role for each of these special talents. Then I had to put them all together without there being any friction. In the same way a waveguide finds the match between an amplifier and an antenna. Or how a gearbox couples an engine to a loaded axle.

So there was me, five salty seadogs, half a gallon of rum, and three ounces of butter. I gave them each a duty, and now they’re getting along just fine.

If you’re reading this any time after June 2023, we’ll have completed our trials and stand ready for action.

Balladeer is a great option for every kind of mission.

  • Parser-driven interactive fiction

  • Choice-based game books

  • Multimedia web art

  • Poetry

  • Screenplay

You’ll find Balladeer simple to handle. And she’ll take you anywhere you want to go.

—Tundish