Storyspace 3

Storyspace 3, a tool for reading and writing hypertext stories, is now available for OS X Mavericks and El Capitan. The writing environment that inspired the first generation of serious hypertext returns in a fresh new implementation. Upgrades from any previous edition of Storyspace are currently just $77.

In retrospect, the crucial and distinctive feature of Storyspace was the plain link. The Web has accustomed us to links as blue underlined text, links attached to specific words and phrases, and Storyspace has text links too. In addition, though, Storyspace offers plain links that will be followed when the reader (a) presses [Return] or (b) clicks anywhere that doesn’t have a text link.

Crucially, a note may offer several plain links, each of which can impose specific conditions allowing that link to be followed. Traditional Storyspace guard fields are fully supported, but Storyspace 3 gives you lots more flexibility for choosing when a link can be followed. The link can require that the reader has already seen some other page

visited(Warning)

or that the characters Howard has some money

$Cash(/Howard)>100

or that the reader hasn’t already visited the link’s destination.

unvisited(destination)

In addition, writing spaces themselves may impose $Requirements that must be satisfied before they can be visited, and special eager or shark links can fire automatically whenever a ready tries to visit their source. If you try to get into the theater without a ticket, a shark link can redirect you to the line at the box office.