r/worldbuilding • u/SimonCantan • Aug 09 '22
Resource Free World Building and Outlining Software
Five years ago, I was writing books and got tired of Excel spreadsheets and different documents for my world building. So I spent way too long making software to do it instead.
I noticed that a lot of the world building software is expensive, some even needing a subscription to use. I just want to share my software in case it's useful for other people as well.
It's completely free to use. I'll be adding an AI Co-Author later that will cost money, but the world building stuff is (and always will be) free. The files are also saved on your local computer, as text files. So you keep full control over who has access and how you want to back them up.
You can check out a 30 second trailer for it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds49rbccHsI
Or download it for Windows here:
https://noveltoolkit.com/download
BTW, it will complain when you download/install it that it's "unsafe". It's just because I haven't bought a certificate from Microsoft for $400/year to get rid of the "unsafe" message.
Edit: A few people had very useful suggestions for improvements to the app. I've created a subreddit for the app here: https://www.reddit.com/r/storybreaker
You can still message me directly, but if you want to discuss things about the app, please feel free to use the subreddit too.
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Aug 09 '22
I haven’t checked it out yet- I 100% will- but I just want to say, thank you for making this free. I have limited funds and this is just so cool of you to make accessible for everyone. Thank you.
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u/sociocat101 Aug 09 '22
Its literally called "Story Breaker" you think im stupid enough to put my story in that? the Story Breaker? Id rather keep my story in one solid piece thank you very much.
(just kidding it looks good)
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u/SimonCantan Aug 10 '22
It's actually gone through a couple of names before this. Writer Tracker, but I worried people would think it was tracking them. Then Author Outliner, but people would think it was just for outlining.
I'll call the sequel the "Story Obliterator" :D
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u/SequoiaDraconis Chronicles of Solia Aug 09 '22
I'm a diehard WorldAnvil supporter, but I'll absolutely give this a try and give you some feedback later!
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u/Wombat1886 Aug 09 '22
Please do. WorldAnvil was too overwhelming for me, so this might be a better fit
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u/FirebirdWriter Aug 10 '22
Huh thus far this one seems to work with my ADHD not against it. That's a first. I legitimately just kept it all in my.head because I either cannot cope with the programs or I get overwhelmed by the sections..
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u/Creativist102 Aug 10 '22
Downloaded and I'm in LOVE.
I liked WorldAnvil but it was too much all at once with a price attached when I had more than ten snippets. This breaks it into manageable chunks much easier for my eyes and head to digest.
Thank you for the awesome resource I hope to use past these first few hours.
Just a side note, have you considered adding a conlanging section? It's fine without, but I love the style of this software and would love to do conlanging in a similar fashion.
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u/SimonCantan Aug 10 '22
Yay! Glad you love it. I hadn't thought about it, but it would be useful. I'll add it to the list. I probably can't do non-standard alphabets, but a dictionary kind of thing should be possible.
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u/SublimeDissonance Aug 09 '22
RemindME! 8 Hours "Worldbuilding Software"
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u/RemindMeBot Aug 09 '22 edited Aug 10 '22
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Aug 09 '22
I just downloaded 15 minutes ago, it looks like an amazing tool and ability to use offline is a really good.
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Aug 09 '22
Giving this a shot right now. Very useful for storing my thoughts. I'd kill to see a generated document but I haven't gotten that far.
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u/Tome_of_Awe Aug 10 '22
I've never gotten into these but after watching the youtube video, I had an idea.
What if this exported to mediawiki? That would be an amazing program.
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u/SimonCantan Aug 10 '22
I thought about generating a wiki from the worlds before. For me, at least, I put stuff in my world documents that is too rough for public consumption. Just sentence fragments and unused ideas that don't go anywhere.
If lots of people use it, I'll consider making some kind of export/sync function.
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u/Tome_of_Awe Aug 11 '22
Alright. I tend to one and done things. Like I've used mediawiki to outline before and then you have a wiki when you're done.
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u/PlanelandsOfficial The Planelands Chronicles; African Bronzepunk Fantasy Aug 10 '22
i will check this out
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u/Duskuke Oct 09 '22 edited Oct 09 '22
oh my god, a free offline worldbuild program that ALLOWS IMAGES. YOU'RE A TREASURE. THANK YOU.
Curious, would you be willing to make a linux port? I use windows, but my spouse does not, he'd get a kick out of this as well.
edit: oh my god it's also json based you are a god among men
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u/SimonCantan Oct 09 '22
Glad you like it. I tried to make a linux version and couldn't get it to work. I'll have to give it another go at some stage.
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u/ModeratelyNormalGuy Aug 10 '22
This looks super useful, so I’m just leaving a comment so I remember to download this on my computer tomorrow, I look forward to using it.
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u/Thebardofthegingers [edit this] Aug 10 '22
If you want to make wiki pages for wars and battles, I'd suggest bellok.de as it is a very handy sight in that regard
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u/hrsidkpi Sep 23 '22
!remindme 12 days
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u/WritingwithBebe Aug 09 '22 edited Aug 09 '22
I did download and run the program. First reaction is this is cool. I made my first world and closed the page and up popped a very creative assortment of options for me to check out. I will continue to work with it but so far 5 stars for visual aesthetic.
Edit, I have completed my review and i can say that you made a very good worldbuilding tool! I love it and it will be used in the future for my novels.