Hi everyone!
I’ve been working on a desktop tool called Twine Constructor, and I’m at a stage where I really need the community’s input to decide on its future direction.
The Concept I love the flexibility of SugarCube 2, but managing complex variables, nested <> logic, and character assets in a raw text editor can become overwhelming. I wanted a “no-code” environment that feels more like a modern visual novel engine (like Ren’Py or TyranoBuilder) but is built specifically for Twine/SugarCube.
Key Features:
• Visual Logic: Instead of writing code brackets, you drag and drop blocks. Conditions (<>/<>) are handled as nested visual containers, making the flow easier to read.
• Dynamic Character Avatars: You can create Characters and assign multiple “states” (images/expressions) to them. When adding a dialogue block, the correct avatar is displayed automatically based on the selected state.
• Scene Graph: A node-based interactive map to visualize transitions between your passages.
• Direct Export: Currently, the project saves in its own format (.json) and exports directly to a playable index.html + asset folder. (Export to .twee source code is planned for the future).
Available Content Blocks: I’ve implemented a comprehensive set of blocks so you rarely need to touch code:
• Text: Standard story text formatting.
• Character Dialogue: Select a character and their specific emotion/sprite — the tool handles the layout.
• Choice: Buttons/Links to branch the story.
• Condition: Visual IF / ELSE IF / ELSE blocks. You can nest other blocks inside these.
• Set Variable: UI to modify number, string, or boolean variables (supports math operations).
• Image & Video: Media assets with variable binding support.
• Button: Interactive buttons that can trigger logic without changing passages.
• Input Field: Text boxes for user input.
• HTML Table: For structured layouts.
• Raw Code: For when you absolutely need to write custom SugarCube macros or JavaScript.
• Note: Editor-only comments for your workflow.
Why I’m posting this I am the solo developer of this project. Before I invest more time into advanced features (like Twee export and adding more features), I want to ask: Is this tool useful to you?
Does a visual approach to SugarCube solve actual pain points for you, or do you prefer the standard code-heavy workflow?
I would appreciate any feedback, criticism, or feature requests.
I’ll add a download link if anyone needs it.
Test Project from screenshots: 10.89 MB file on MEGA
Would I use this tool? No. I like writing code, and I want as little as possible to get between me and it.
Do I think this tool is a good idea? Yes. There are plenty of people who have exactly the opposite feeling towards code and plain text that I do, and would love this. The number one issue that drives people to the official Twine discord for help is a failure to correctly nest conditionals (or other similar syntax errors), who would probably be overjoyed by a visual code editor.
I also think there’s a rich vein of people who want to use Twine/SC but also want to be making a visual novel (for whatever reason), so the VN elements of your tool probably also have a lot of mileage.
I’d love to see those tools split out of the rest of the code and made available as custom SC macros for those of us that prefer to use Twine as is (or indeed tweego + VSC), but I think you are pursuing an interesting direction (and I’d love to see more editors using Twee/Twine in the first place — twine itself could use some healthy competition that isn’t just “use an IDE”)
[!Warning]
One further note, though, there has been some previous controversy over whether SugarCube can be embedded in a tool other than Twine (you should perhaps speak to TME to check), and whether a tool other than Twine can use the name “Twine”, so you might want to consider a different name. (Since it’s Twine, but with blocks, how about Macrame? )
Me personally? No. I use tweego and I prefer code. However, I agree with @Hituro, there are surely Twine users out there who would find it useful.
What I’m less sure about is how many of them are using SugarCube. Harlowe is the default, and Chapbook is often touted as being the most non-programmer friendly. If something like this catches on, that could change, though.
I’ll ask you the same question I asked myself when I was checking out that Twine app from twinery: How does your app scale?
I have a Twine/Sugarcube game that has 100+ passages, advanced logic, tons of scripting, thousands of CSS rules within the styelsheet, and it outright crashes the Twine app when I try to load it in
Although the app can already create stories, I haven’t tested it on large stories . It’s written in Vite and Electron, so I think it can handle quite a lot of passages.
The Twine app itself is React and Electron, so not so different.
I suspect you’d have trouble at the same point, which is drawing a very large passage map.
Text: Standard story text formatting.
Character Dialogue: Select a character and their specific emotion/sprite — the tool handles the layout.
Choice: Buttons/Links to branch the story.
Condition: Visual IF / ELSE IF / ELSE blocks. You can nest other blocks inside these.
Set Variable: UI to modify number, string, or boolean variables (supports math operations).
Image & 
Video: Media assets with variable binding support.
Button: Interactive buttons that can trigger logic without changing passages.
Input Field: Text boxes for user input.
HTML Table: For structured layouts.
Raw Code: For when you absolutely need to write custom SugarCube macros or JavaScript.
Note: Editor-only comments for your workflow.
)
. It’s written in Vite and Electron, so I think it can handle quite a lot of passages.