PassageDown

This is a standard I've made that I also use when creating Visual Novel games (basically, twine), except I'm a developer so I find the visual canvas annoying, and I want 100% of my styles.

Instead of creating yet another language, I've instead created this - PassageDown (.pd) - and written it as an inline build tool for vite, so you can directly import that data.

PassageDown is a limited subset of markdown, with extra tooling for a CYOA type game. It only describes text, not actions. I'll be making something separate for that.

Features

Supported Mardown Features

• #[###] headings (block)
• **italic**
• __bold__
• ~~strikethrough~~
• End of lines are actually line ends - no doublespacing.
• Blank lines start new "Block"s

Added Components

• $$pronouns
  • $$e => she | he | they
  • $$m => her | him | them
  • $$r => her | his | their
  • $$s => hers | his | theirs
  • $$a$character => should use pronouns for character, not PC
• ^^[character]
  • should insert character name or PC
• --variable
  • will insert the value of the variable
• <>passage
  • will insert the contents of another passagedown file

Added Blocks

• !^^character ... !^^!
  • Used to show character is speaking.
• !%%variable compare [value] ... !%%!
  • if block
  • should be rendered inline
  • variable is key of variable
  • compare is method used:
    • is, not => strictly equal
    • less, more => number only comparision
    • exists, missing => null check
  • value is required if not a null check
  • many conditions can be chained with || for OR only.
• !<>passage
  • inserts content of another passagedown file

Note about macros

• You'll need to add a routes.alias to your config with value "passages": <passage root>.
• Macros will be imported from this location.

Exports