Yarn Spinner is a toolkit for planning, writing, integrating, and testing dialogue for games. Its human-readable Yarn language supports interactive conversations and branching narratives, with official integrations for Unity, Godot using C# or GDScript, and Unreal Engine using Blueprint or C++. The free, open-source Visual Studio Code extension offers syntax highlighting, error checking, a graph view, and an in-editor dialogue preview. Dialogue strings can be exported with unique IDs, languages can be switched at runtime, and Unity Localization can be used. Voice-over features cover audio asset management, localization synchronization, and playback timing. Ready-made add-ons include speech bubbles and dialogue wheels; Text Animator is part of Yarn Spinner+. Try Yarn Spinner is a browser tool for writing and running scripts without setup, but it keeps scripts in browser localStorage rather than backing them up or synchronizing them. The core is licensed under MIT. The Free plan is 0.00 USD per free. Yarn Spinner+ for Unity costs 75.00 USD or more, once, and includes Text Animator integration, dialogue presenters, priority support and bug fixes, and early access.
Who it is for
Yarn Spinner suits writers, programmers, and game designers creating branching dialogue for Unity, Godot, or Unreal Engine projects. It also offers a browser-based option for trying scripts without setup.
What is good
- Free plan includes Unity, Godot, and Unreal integrations.
- VS Code extension includes preview and error checking.
- Supports runtime language switching and localization workflows.
- Includes voice-over tools and audio asset management.
What to know first
- Browser scripts are not backed up or synchronized.
- Text Animator is included in Yarn Spinner+, not the Free plan.
- Yarn Spinner+ for Unity costs 75.00 USD or more, once.
Verdict
Yarn Spinner brings dialogue authoring, engine integrations, localization, and voice-over tools together. Its browser tool keeps scripts only in localStorage, so it is not a backup or sync option.
Yarn Spinner plans and pricing
All plansCompared on game narrative design software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Branching dialogue
- Yes
- Quest design
- Yes
- Authoring model
- document-based
- Game engine support
- Unity, Godot, Unreal Engine
- Localization workflow
- Yes
