Hello, travellers of the information superhighway! (/^-^(^^)/ ☆ﾟ.・｡ﾟ
Some nights I do not want another dashboard. I want cherry blossoms drifting past a classroom window, a choice menu that feels like a confession, and a script that reads like a story instead of a pile of if statements.
That is how KawaiJS started — as a soft little obsession after too many evenings with Ren’Py, old personal homepages, and the thought: why can’t this whole visual novel just be a static site? (><)
Today the open-source web-native visual novel engine is public.
- Playable documentation (interactive VN): biagio-scaglia.github.io/KawaiJS
- Narrative showcase — After the Bell: biagio-scaglia.github.io/KawaiJS/showcase
- In-browser .kawa playground: biagio-scaglia.github.io/KawaiJS/playground
- GitHub repository: github.com/biagio-scaglia/KawaiJS
- npm package: kawaijs
What Is KawaiJS? Ren’Py-Style Storytelling for the Modern Web (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*・ﾟ✧
KawaiJS brings Ren’Py-inspired authoring to the browser. You write indentation-based .kawa scripts, skin the player with ordinary HTML/CSS, and ship a static folder to GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, or itch.io — no backend, no canvas lock-in.
Out of the box you get the rituals visual novel players expect:
- Main menu with Start / Continue / Load
- Multi-slot save & load (plus shareable continue links)
- Dialogue backlog / history
- Preferences (text speed, auto-forward, music & SFX volumes)
- Rollback, auto mode, skip mode
- CG gallery, achievements, optional PWA install
- SEO helpers (favicon, Open Graph, Twitter cards, JSON-LD) via
kawa.config.json
And yes — sakura particles, rain, fog, camera shake, fullscreen CG, clickable hotspots, themes like noir / sakura / ocean. The kind of small magic that used to live on handmade HTML pages and forum signatures. (★u★)
Quick Start: Create a Browser Visual Novel in Three Commands (･ω･)b
npx kawa create my-novel
cd my-novel
npx kawa devA tiny taste of Kawa script syntax:
title: "The Melancholy of Yumia"
author: "Biagio Scaglia"
character yumia "Yumia" #f43f5e
character sensei "Sensei" #38bdf8
label start:
scene bg classroom with fade
vfx sakura
play music "bgm_peaceful.mp3" fadein 2.0 loop
show yumia happy at center with bounce
yumia "Good morning, Sensei! Welcome to the {b}Game Dev Club{/b}."
menu:
"Ask about the club project":
jump ask_project
"Leave quietly":
jump leave_earlyProduction build is one command too: npx kawa build → a self-contained dist/ ready to host.
Under the hood it is a proper TypeScript monorepo — parser, StoryVM, Web Audio, DOM renderer, Vite plugin, CLI — but the point of the night is simpler: open localhost:3000 and watch a character appear with a bounce. (^‿^)v
Why a Web-Native Visual Novel Engine?
I already love Ren’Py. I also love the independent web: personal pages, webrings, guestbooks, things you can host with almost nothing.
KawaiJS sits in that overlap. Script like a novelist. Style like a webmaster. Deploy like a static site. Deep-link into a label with ?at=…, embed with ?embed=1, copy a continue link from Save/Load and send someone mid-story.
If you have ever customized a Winamp skin, stayed too late on a GeoCities homepage, or written your first label start: in Ren’Py and felt the room get quieter… this might feel familiar. (っ•‿•)っ
Try KawaiJS, Fork It, Break the Parser (bo_o)b
Star it, fork it, break the parser, send a weird .kawa file that makes the lexer cry. MIT, always.
I will be in the terminal with sakura particles on and the text speed set slightly too fast.
See you around the cyberspace!
— Biagio ☆ﾟ.*・｡ﾟ