TROK ENGINE

The engine for story-driven 2D games.

Make a conversation worth remembering, a room worth exploring, and a choice worth replaying.

TROK ENGINE is a Windows editor for visual novels and narrative 2D adventures. Place your artwork, write dialogue, connect branches and build a playable Windows game through visual tools.

Start creating for free: follow the optional guided lesson, change a scene and a choice, then play both endings. Or skip the lesson and start with a blank scene.

New in 0.58.1: learn in the real editor

The optional nine-step tutorial now highlights the actual editor controls. Select and move a character, write a line, add a response, connect it to another scene, play your branch and save a separate learning copy. Pause and resume whenever you need. Your existing project stays separate. Available in English, Ukrainian and Russian.

From a scene to a playable story

• Write and connect. Dialogue, branching conversations, decisions, relationships and numeric stats.
• Let players investigate. Interactive objects, inventory, item use, close-up clues, passwords, journals, dossiers and phone messages.
• Direct the moment. Named camera shots, scene events, staged conversations, fades, object motion and frame animation.
• Build atmosphere. Layered 2D locations, lights, ordinary and UV flashlights, rain, snow, dust and fog.
• Make it yours. Menu and HUD layout tools, screen styles, custom fonts, icons, cursors and reusable .trokpack interface packs.
• Test before you ship. Author test states, story-route checks and standalone Windows game export.

New in 0.58: compose your journal and phone

Move and resize elements, organize them in nested containers, add text and images, and customize entry and message templates. Use a separate compact layout and preview long text or empty screens before exporting.

The journal and phone use the same composition renderer in the editor and exported game. Save their layouts and images in reusable interface packs. Other screens keep their existing layout and style tools; free composition for the map, save slots and dialogue history is still planned.

Free early access before 1.0

TROK ENGINE 0.x is free, with all current authoring tools and optional support. There is no three-scene Demo restriction or export watermark. The current technical limit is 300 scenes per project. No activation, subscription or expiry. You may release commercial games without engine royalties.

Downloaded 0.x builds keep working after 1.0. You can keep making and selling games with them. Keep your build archive and project backups; future updates and hosted downloads are not guaranteed.

At 1.0: a free evaluation Demo (up to 3 scenes and an export mark) and a one-time paid Full without those Demo restrictions, subscriptions or royalties. Price and release date are not announced.

Early support: any successful payment on this official TROK ENGINE itch.io product page before the public 1.0 release gives you Full 1.0 at no extra cost. Keep your receipt or download key. Downloading for free alone does not grant Full 1.0. Payments elsewhere are not included. Optional asset packs are separate products.

See TROK-PREVIEW-LICENSE.txt in the download for the 0.x and runtime distribution terms. Check third-party art, audio, font and pack licenses separately.

Your first session

1. Extract the complete archive and launch TROK Engine.exe.
2. Choose English, Ukrainian or Russian and try the optional quick-start tutorial.
3. Change a scene, play it, then export your Windows game.

Reopen the lesson from Project menu > Learning and help. The handbook covers exploration, camera sequences, interface styling, testing and export. The included Russian interface-composer guide covers the new journal and phone tools.

Keep your .novel file and its .novel.resources folder together when transferring a project.

Before you download

• Windows x64, 0.58.1, Early Access. Back up projects before updating and test the exported game on your target machine.
• Local, offline authoring. No cloud account or Node.js installation is required. You supply the artwork, audio and rights to use them.
• English, Russian and Ukrainian editor UI. Story text is authored by you, not automatically translated.
• 2D, not a general-purpose 3D engine. Other desktop and mobile export targets are not advertised in this release.
• The learning sample and journal artwork shown on this page include AI-generated images. AI image generation is not an editor feature.
• Screenshots show the real editor and game runtime in English. The composer and guided lesson were captured in the 0.58 browser editor; the other screenshots show the core workflow in 0.57.
• The Windows build is unsigned. Download only from the official page and report unexpected security warnings. Do not disable your antivirus.

Official website · Development updates on Telegram (Russian)

Questions or a reproducible bug? max.trokay@gmail.com. Include the version, edition, reproduction steps and whether it happens in the editor or exported game.