Ramus hypertext system

discuss on itch.io

Ramus is a template for hypertext fiction or games self-contained in a single web page. Emphasis on template: to make your own, simply replace the content of an existing document. All you need to know is plain old HTML.

What's included

• Kitty and the sea, a short but complete sample game ported to Ramus as a showcase. Also City of Dead Leaves, a bigger and more complex game port that demonstrates new features in the 2.x line.
• The interactive guide (made with Ramus, of course), complemented by the link type reference and scripting reference.
• A minimal template you can more easily use as a starting point.

Speaking of which: when putting your own content into the Ramus template, the resulting work belongs to you; credit would be appreciated, but is not required. Do let other people know they can do the same in turn, if you please.

The sample games have their own license different from that of Ramus.

Features

• half a dozen link types that advance the story in various ways
• status line with score-keeping and move counter
• visited nodes are tracked and can be highlighted in CSS
• nice, modern stylesheet by default
• accessibility features like keyboard navigation

The scripting language further allows:

• conditional display
• fragment inclusion
• custom Javascript

Made with Ramus

Various interactive courses and interactive poetry by Roger Kenyon, who also provided ample encouragement and suggestions.

History

Ramus was originally developed between 2011 and 2012, and saw use until the following year. After a 7-year hiatus, I revived it in 2020 with new insights... then promptly set it aside for another year. Won't happen again, hopefully.

The current version is 2.5 (as of 4 June 2021). Older versions also remain available. For more details, see the project news history.