14 Free and Open-source Visual Novel Engines for 2025
Table of Content
When my son was just 3 or 4 years old, I started thinking about how to make learning fun and engaging for him. As a parent who loves storytelling and technology, I stumbled upon something called a Visual Novel, and it changed everything.
At first glance, a Visual Novel might look like a video game, but it’s more focused on narrative than action. It's an interactive story where players make choices that affect the outcome, all while seeing characters, backgrounds, and hearing music that brings the tale to life.
I realized early on that visual novels were perfect not only for entertainment , but also for education . They helped my child develop reading skills, decision-making abilities, and even emotional intelligence by putting him in different character roles and situations.
From simple bedtime stories turned interactive, to moral choice-driven adventures, these tools allowed me to personalize learning through storytelling, and that made all the difference.
To create those stories, I used several tools over the years, some free, some open-source, and a few quite complex. Visual novel editors became essential because they made it easy to combine text, images, sound, and branching dialogue without needing to code from scratch.
That’s why I’m sharing this list today, to help other parents, educators, and hobbyists discover the best open-source and free Visual Novel Editors and IDEs out there. Whether you're crafting educational content, telling your own digital story, or creating custom adventures for your kids, these tools will empower you to bring your imagination to life.
The following list contains, the top open-source free visual novel editor, that you can use any for free to create an interactive visual novel.
1- Oxygengine
Oxygengine is a Rust-based, web-first game engine that leverages the hecs ECS framework for high performance and clean architecture, aiming to be a Unreal Engine-like tool for 2D games with a strong visual editor and genre-specific modules, especially suited for HTML5/ WASM deployment.
While it is easy to setup, and use for people with coding skills, it is not an ideal solution for everyone.
PsichiX2- Ren'Py
Ren'Py is a popular free visual novel engine that supports images, text, sounds and used by thousand creators around the world. It runs seamlessly on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android devices.
It is the right choice for artists and creators.
3- Dialogic
With Dialogic you can create Dialogs, Visual Novels, RPGs, and manage Characters with Godot to create your Game! It is built on top of Godot and it is an ideal choice if you are planning to use Godot to create your visual novel.
dialogic-godot4- Ayaka
Ayaka is yet another open-source free visual novel engine written in Rust.
Features
- CLI tool for syntax checking and debugging
- Built during OSPP 2022, actively developed
- Built-in custom scripting language
- Cross-platform and memory-safe by design (Rust)
- Decoupled design: frontends, backend, plugins work independently
- GUI frontend built with Tauri and Vue, supports Live2D
- Prototype LaTeX frontend to export visual novel content as PDF
- Supports WASM-based plugins for extensibility and runtime interop
- Unified identity: frontend, runtime, and script all share the same name — Ayaka
- YAML-based config format for managing scenes, choices, and characters
- CLDR-based internationalization support for multilingual games
Uni-Gal5- WebGAL
WebGAL is a powerful, free visual novel engine that allows users to create interactive stories with a user-friendly visual editor and customizable scripting. It supports cross-platform development, offers a wide range of features like Pixi.js effects, and is ideal for both beginners and experienced developers.
OpenWebGAL6- NovelRT
NovelRT is a cross-platform Visual Novel and 2D game engine built in C++ with low-level graphics and audio APIs, offering flexibility for developers who want deep control over their projects.
However, it's still in early development, lacks designer tools, and requires technical know-how, so it's definitely not a beginner-friendly tool (yet).
If you're comfortable with compiling from source and working with alpha software, it can be a powerful option for custom visual novels or 2D games.
novelrt7- Monogatari
Monogatari is a simple web visual novel engine, created to bring Visual Novels to the web.
Monogatari's Features
- Responsive out of the box
- Plays nice with Electron for Desktop apps and Cordova for mobile apps
- Simple Syntax
- Progressive Web App Features allowing offline game play
- Allows you to use any kind of media supported by browsers
- Compatible with all major browsers
- Includes libraries for animations and particle effects
- Allows saving/loading games
- Extensible, you just can't imagine how much!
Monogatari8- RenJS V2
RenJS is a HTML5 Visual Novel engine perfect for writers and developers alike, letting you create interactive stories using a simple screenplay-like script.
With no need for deep programming knowledge, it's ideal for beginners, while still offering flexibility and power for developers who want to build custom visual novels with ease and creativity.
Features
- Showing and hiding characters and backgrounds
- Showing and animating CGs
- Playing music and sfx
- Displaying messages and dialog
- Special effects and ambients
- Interactivity through choices and interruptions
- Variables and branching
- Text Styles
- Show CGs behind characters
- Display a message along with the choices
- Loop music from a specific time
- Point&Click plugin
lunafromthemoon9- Tuseday.js
Tuesday.js is a lightweight, open-source visual novel engine written in JavaScript that runs directly in the browser, without third-party libraries or installations required.
It allows creators to build interactive stories using standard HTML elements and works across desktop and mobile platforms with a simple, unified interface.
Kirilllive10- Rakugo (Godot)
Yet another visual novel engine that is built using Godot and it is heavly inspired by Ren'Py engine. Basically, it is a set of Godot Addons and plugins that you need to install then start creating your fancy visual novel that you can export to Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android of course.
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11- Anansi: Unity Toolkit for Simulation-Driven Visual Novels
Anansi is a Unity toolkit designed for creating simulation-driven visual novels using the Ink narrative scripting language. It adds dynamic social simulation elements like NPC schedules, emotions, relationships, and reactions to player actions.
This makes it ideal for building rich, interactive stories where character interactions shape the narrative.
ShiJbeyAnansi's Features
- Built on Ink for expressive narrative scripting
- Manages NPC schedules, locations, and daily routines
- Tracks time of day and updates visuals accordingly
- Simulates relationships and emotional responses
- Enables reactive storytelling based on social dynamics
- Includes UI prefabs for faster development
- Easily integrate into existing Ink projects incrementally
12- LiliumEngine
LiliumEngine is a small, simple visual novel game engine built for .NET languages like C#, F#, and Visual Basic. It’s great for beginners, students, or quick game projects like game jams.
It lets you easily add:
- Character dialogue and narration
- Background music and sound effects (.wav, .ogg, .flac)
- Basic UI elements (buttons, checkboxes, images, text)
- Scene transitions and custom screens
You can get started by downloading the engine as a .dll, adding it to your project, and using your favorite .NET language to build your story.
Features
- Totally Free and open source
- Works with C#, F#, and Visual Basic
- Easy-to-use for beginners
- Supports audio files and images
- Built-in UI components
- Simple scene management
- Perfect for prototypes, school projects, and game jams
Vertiigor13- PerforVNMaker
PerforVNM (PerforVNMaker) is a Visual Novel Maker, which uses code generation technology to create VNs based on JavaScript APIs, allowing the creation of lightweight and fast VNs. It generates native code for each supported platform, without any external dependencies (save sdp, ssp).
PerformanC14- Fablr Art
Fablr Art turns short stories into interactive visual novels using AI power from GPT-3.5 and DALL-E. It generates both the story text and matching images, bringing your imagination to life automatically. Perfect for creators who want to build cool, immersive stories with no coding required.
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