Ink – Scripting language for interactive stories

That is how I recently encountered Ink, disassembling the Unity code for Haven [0]!

Turns out the savegames are just encrypted JSON with a hardcoded key, and for debugging purposes, the game even allows loading unencrypted JSON!

This, and setting a specific flag in the .dll to unlock developer mode, allowed me to a developer menu to replay a few scenes that I missed (but wasn't going to replay a ~20h game for).

First time in a long while where I had fun disassembling and debugging outside of work.

[0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/983970/Haven/

I recognized the name from the game Stay?[0] A very good game I heartily recommend if you're into fantasy.

0: https://ejadelomax.itch.io/stay

I've been following Ink for a while because I went to uni with one of the founders of Inkle. As someone who isn't a game developer, a possible use case for me is something like scripting chat bots or data capture wizards. I don't know if it's actually a good fit for the problem, but the idea intrigues me.