[HN Gopher] Show HN: Loreline, narrative language transpiled via...
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Show HN: Loreline, narrative language transpiled via Haxe:
C++/C#/JS/Java/Py/Lua
Author : jeremyfa
Score : 52 points
Date : 2026-03-28 14:41 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (loreline.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (loreline.app)
| jeremyfa wrote:
| Hi, Loreline author here,
|
| I linked to the technical overview of Loreline, a narrative
| language to write interactive fiction and dialogues in games,
| because it shows how Haxe can be used to create software that can
| run as a library on many other platforms.
|
| You can try the language syntax directly here:
| https://loreline.app/en/playground/ And look at the code there:
| https://github.com/jeremyfa/loreline
|
| Feel free to ask any question/feedback!
| jayd16 wrote:
| Seems pretty promising. The language looks clean which I can't
| say for some of the alternatives.
|
| The thing that I find so challenging about these types of systems
| is scaling up the richness of the playback.
|
| Very quickly I find I need to integrate animations, lip sync,
| vfx, timed event triggers... For that you really need some kind
| of timeline. Delays don't cut it. So then these clean text driven
| systems are at best an early step in a large process or abandoned
| for a more integrated solution.
|
| But I really do long for the ability to import simple narrative
| scripts like this even in a full production system.
|
| One of these days I'll try to build the high production value
| system in a way that keeps both the full, in editor, narrative
| graph and the simple narrative script files alive and synced.
| jeremyfa wrote:
| I actually plan to tackle the "graph in sync with the narrative
| script files" in the future, just not the focus yet :)
| jayd16 wrote:
| Nice. Something short of the full lift that might be useful
| is to add a reflection API along with the playback API. That
| way implementing import/export of .lor files to an engine
| format becomes a lot more appealing. Something to think
| about, anyway.
| jeremyfa wrote:
| For more specific use cases, you can already export a JSON
| representation of any .lor content (can be done at
| runtime).
| dwroberts wrote:
| This is very interesting - I've tried to make custom syntaxes for
| describing dialog etc multiple times, for embedding into game
| projects, especially since things like Ink aren't really amenable
| to porting to other languages easily. So the multitarget/multi-
| language focus is very attractive.
|
| One thing I will say though - I think something that would set a
| language/toolset like this apart, would be a high quality UI for
| showing how different parts flow into each other (a diagrammatic
| view as an essential / main view instead of just eg an addon).
|
| I mostly say that out of jealousy after seeing the kinds of
| tooling that companies like eg Obsidian have for writing dialog
| and narratives
| jeremyfa wrote:
| I talk a bit about the roadmap there:
| https://loreline.app/en/journal/march-2026/, and yes, there are
| plans to make an actual app with UI that helps navigate and
| analyze the narrative content, it's just not the focus yet
| (better to have a solid language and runtimes to run it first).
| More should come on that subject during the year!
| xkcd-sucks wrote:
| I'm familiar with Haxe through the game Dead Cells, which has
| absolutely exquisite controls/gameplay and graphics
| afavour wrote:
| Now this is prime Hacker News content! Thank you. The idea of a
| narrative language is fascinating and I'll upvote anything that's
| using Haxe.
|
| I took Haxe for a spin years ago and was really impressed, just
| haven't been able to find the excuse to use it in my day to day
| work. I find the idea of cross-platform transpilation rather than
| compilation to be very interesting. Particularly when working
| with platforms like iOS where Apple can change the ground
| underneath your feet, being able to continue to use first-party
| tools while writing in the language of your choice is a valuable
| niche.
| jeremyfa wrote:
| Haxe is such a great piece of tech, which becomes more and more
| powerful as you get to know it better. I wish it was more used
| by companies and developers in general, but it's versatility is
| also what makes it hard to master I guess.
| ciroduran wrote:
| I used Haxe a lot when OpenFL + HaxeFlixel were still more
| common. Haxe is a nice programming language.
| poulpy123 wrote:
| Is the name a reference to Laureline from Valerian ?
| jeremyfa wrote:
| Nope :D, as mentioned on the website, it's short for "lore"
| (story, worldbuilding) and "line" (writing, a line of dialogue)
| zephyrwhimsy wrote:
| There is an interesting parallel between the early web and the
| current AI ecosystem. In both cases, the winners are not the ones
| with the most advanced technology -- they are the ones who solve
| the mundane infrastructure problems well.
| wduquette wrote:
| Loreline transpiles to Java, but from the diagram it looks like
| that only works with Android. Is it possible to use Loreline with
| Java on other platforms?
| jeremyfa wrote:
| It works on any fairly recent java runtime. Somebody is already
| using it with libGDX!
| Keeeeeeeks wrote:
| This looks nice! Would love to integrate it into an intfic
| project I'm working on: storyloom-weld.vercel.app
|
| How would you say this is inspired by, and compares to, writing
| in literate programming languages like Inform 7?
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