The narrative design platform for interactive storytelling

Today’s interactive narratives are too complex for word
processors and spreadsheets. Instead, visualise complex story
structures, streamline narrative design, and deliver next-generation
storytelling experiences with Backlight Gem.

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The easy way to build complex interactive narrative

Map out entire stories
Visualize every element of your story with nodes representing key narrative elements that help orient narrative designers and game writers.

Untangle narrative complexity
Create user-defined nested hierarchies. Break down your epic sagas into episodic quests or your visual novel into chapters. The choice is yours.

Give your ideas space to grow
Create story maps of near-unlimited scope and scale – create repeatable narrative structures with the power of cloud-based performance.

Manage any narrative project
Whether creating an NPC-filled RPG or branching dialogue for a sports game Gem will bring clarity to your team and pipeline.

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Tools writers will love

User-friendly narrative design
No more crawling through spreadsheets! Simple narrative content management means less crunch and more creativity.

Eliminate tedious editing
Auto tag and track narrative content: scan projects for specific terms and edit or replace instances via mass editing.

A screenwriting-style script editor
Format narrative gameplay, character, dialogue, or parenthetical elements for quick querying and editing.

Rapid prototyping
Build a narrative framework with placeholder content using templating, prompt generation, and callback tools.

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Centralize your narrative production pipeline with creative collaboration

Connect your key creatives
Gem offers a secure, cloud-based workspace and commenting/tagging system that foster communication and collaboration across every step of the narrative design process.

See what others are working on – and when
Avoid version conflict with user presence. All Gem users can see when other collaborators are working on specific narrative elements, so there won't be any confusion about what's been updated.

Production-ready interactive narrative

Drive your game engine with exportable data
When you’re ready to build your story into a playable game, simply export your project into common video game production file formats.

Lay the groundwork for game logic
Use custom conditions and variables and explore Gem’s built-in heatmap to observe and review logic paths in your narrative structure.

Simplified localization
Don't wait until two months before launch to dump 250k lines of dialogue on localization, thanks to flexible metadata ontology with key bindings.

Flexible and fast

A system that adapts to your needs
JSON metadata structure adapts to your studio’s existing narrative design framework, whatever the project size you’re working on.

Configure for your studio in minutes
Substantially streamline your production pipeline, fast – all with tools once reserved for custom-built or proprietary solutions.

Shorten production pipelines
Deliver projects on time and within budget, without the cost and maintenance issues associated with custom or proprietary tools.

Over the course of my 15+ year career working on interactive narrative games, I have tried every writing tool under the sun. Gem is the first narrative tool I've come across that prioritizes creativity and collaboration, which is not only key in a game development environment, but also important in an industry that is becoming more and more spread out geographically. With Gem, online collaboration is extremely simple to set up and easy to use for developers of any level, but underneath that simple exterior is an extremely deep and feature-rich platform that can create the most powerful branching narrative experiences you can imagine.

Dennis Lenart
CTO, Adhoc Studios

AdHoc Studio logo white 2

Improved pipeline, storyline and bottom line

Discover how Gem can streamline, scale, and integrate narrative design across your next production.