Verhaler: A new choice based IF platform with built in combat, trading, and wikis

Technical Development
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Hi everyone. We’ve built a platform called Verhaler. I want to put it in front of this community because you will know exactly what to make of it, flaws and all.

What it is Verhaler is a browser based authoring environment and storefront for choice based IF. There is no scripting language. Everything is form driven. The model sits closer to ChoiceScript than Twine. You write chapters of prose. State is tracked via "Fact"s attached to "Glossary Item"s (wiki pages for characters, places, and objects, etc.). "Trigger"s check these Facts to reveal or hide sections. There is no world model and no parser.

What makes it different Things like decisions and dialogue are standard (but due to our engine, it’s easy to develop complex dialogues). The parts that are genuinely unique out of the box include:

  • Turn based combat: Includes shields, energy costs, cooldowns, damage over time, and tag based encounters.

  • Trade screens: Handles variable pricing, multiple currencies, and inventory weights.

  • Progressive reader wiki: Mentioning a character in prose unlocks their glossary page live.

  • Custom art backgrounds: Draw a polygon on your art or video, and the text flows and paginates exclusively inside it.

  • Visual story canvas: Click “play from here” on any node to test a late branch with all prior choices perfectly simulated.

The catches (I want to be completely upfront)

  • It is closed and hosted: No source code, no self hosting, and no public API.

  • Lossy exports: You can export your prose to a human readable Markdown file, but branching logic and components do not come with it.

  • Edition publishing is in the works: Currently, once a story is published, no changes can be made. We are building an edition system that will let you edit your work after publication.

  • The business model: We are developing a brand new mobile app exclusively for readers (although reading on the browser is totally supported). Writers can publish and sell their books on Verhaler, and we take a flat 20 percent cut of sales. Publishing for free is totally fine as well.

  • No adult content: Graphic sexual content is banned due to payment processor rules. Romance and mature themes handled with literary purpose are completely fine.

  • Hard limits: Paragraphs cap at 800 characters. Triggers fire once per session. Reading requires an active server connection. Reading is scroll-to-read. And who knows, maybe we can replace doom-scrolling with reading interesting stories.

AI Policy There are no AI writing tools in Verhaler. The terms forbid training models on your work and strictly forbid publishing chatbot prose. AI generated media (images and videos) are tolerated as long as they are marked with the badge “AI Generated”.

You can read the writer docs here without an account: verhaler .com (I can’t share a link, sorry)

I am really curious about this community’s reaction. I’m looking forward to your constructive criticism and feedback!

3 Likes
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Welcome to the forum and congrats on creating an IF platform! I know it’s hard work.

As I was reading your announcement I was getting heavy AI-written vibes so I put it through Pangram and it came back saying it’s 100% AI generated.

For what it’s worth, this doesn’t personally bother me. There are other people on this forum who are far more anti-AI than I am; but it does seem a tad… odd, to have a staunch anti-AI prose policy embedded in an announcement written entirely with AI.

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For what it’s worth, a different AI detector (GPT-Zero) did not think it was AI, and I don’t personally get AI vibes from it. AI Detectors are fairly fallible.

As for actual opinions: The main unique selling points seem kinda niche and not especially compelling to me, but the biggest question about the value of something like this will ultimately be a non-technological one: will the platform actually attract an audience remotely comparable to e.g. Choice of Games? Being locked to a proprietary platform is a huge downside that can only be justified if the platform actually offers meaningful discoverability in return.

7 Likes
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Hello. I think you are trying to do climb two mountains at once, maybe three if you’re making content too. Realistically, you can’t bootstrap into both an authoring system and a publisher at the same time.

Your system sounds limited, but possibly that’s deliberate. Keeping simple might be best, at first. But where are your readers? How will you get them. This is your biggest hurdle, otherwise why should anyone share 20%?

I go to your site and it seems I can’t sample any works without an account. imagine that, you slap away the very visitors that you most desperately need!

There are a lot of authoring systems. Why don’t I use one and put my stuff on itch, which has footfall, and let them sell it for 10% commission and no vat?

Sorry to throw these awkward questions at you, because you’ve obviously put in a lot of work. but these are issues you must address or it will all be a waste.

Good luck.

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