Download
Two downloads: the app you write in, and a finished story to open in it.
Chord Writer
Chord Writer carries the whole Sharpee toolchain inside its own application bundle — a Node runtime and the command-line tool, vendored at build time — so installing it is the only step. That bundled toolchain is built for one processor, which is why there are two downloads rather than one:
Installing
- Open the downloaded
.dmg. - Drag Chord Writer onto the Applications folder shown beside it.
- Eject the disk image, and launch Chord Writer from Applications.
That is all of it. No npm install, no global CLI, and no Node on your machine
to keep current — building works on a Mac that has never seen a terminal.
To confirm, open a story and look at the status bar: it names the app's version first and the toolchain it resolved second.
Chord Writer 1.4.0 · Sharpee 5.4.0 / Chord 3.6.0
If macOS refuses to open it
It should not. Chord Writer is signed with a Developer ID, notarized by Apple, and the notarization ticket is stapled to the disk image — so macOS can verify it without even going online, and the app opens on a double-click like any other.
If you do see "Apple could not verify Chord Writer is free of malware", something is wrong with the copy you have rather than with the app: an interrupted download is the usual cause. Download it again first.
If it still refuses, you can open it by hand once — System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and use the Open Anyway button beside the line about Chord Writer. Please tell us if you get that far, though; on a stapled build it means something we would want to know about.
The Folly at Fernhill
The sample story: complete, playable, and small enough to read in a sitting. It is the same story the Fernhill tutorial builds chapter by chapter, so you can read the finished source alongside the explanation.
Download The Folly at Fernhill (.zip, 58 KB)
Opening it:
- Unzip it. You get a folder called The Folly at Fernhill.
- Move that folder wherever you keep your work — your Documents folder is a fine choice.
- In Chord Writer, choose Open… and select the folder.
- Press ⌘B. The story builds and starts in the Play tab.
Inside the folder:
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
fernhill.story | The whole story. The only file you write. |
fernhill.tests.json | Its tests, recorded by playing in the Testing tab. |
fernhill.config.json | The story's identity. The tool maintains it; keep it in version control and never edit it by hand. |
assets/ | Audio and images the story plays. |
browser/index.html | A custom page for the browser build. |
WALKTHROUGH.txt | The complete solution, with every response the game gives. Total spoilers. |
From the terminal instead
Fernhill is an ordinary Sharpee project, so the CLI works on it directly. The
copy inside Chord Writer is not on your PATH, so for terminal use install it
the usual way — npm install -g @sharpee/devkit, which needs
Node.js 18 or newer. Then, from inside the story folder:
sharpee build # compile, and build the browser app
sharpee play # play it in the terminal
sharpee test # replay the recorded tests
Same toolchain either way — the app drives these commands for you, and reports the version it resolved in its status bar.
The Ides of March
The second sample, and a different half of the language. Where Fernhill shows the world — rooms, things, puzzles, a night running out — this one shows people. Three days before Julius Caesar opens the new Globe, you are Henslowe's man among the hired players, sent to carry off a clown and a play-book without anyone seeing your face.
Every character in it carries a personality, a temperament, moods that move during a scene, things they know and will or will not repeat, and conversations they steer back to whether you want them to or not. It is the worked example for Characters & Conversation.
Download The Ides of March (.zip, 20 KB)
Open it exactly as you open Fernhill: unzip, move the folder somewhere you keep your work, then Open… it in Chord Writer and press ⌘B.
Inside the folder:
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
ides-of-march.story | The whole story. The only file you write. |
ides-of-march.tests.json | Its tests, recorded by playing in the Testing tab. |
ides-of-march.config.json | The story's identity. The tool maintains it; keep it in version control and never edit it by hand. |
WALKTHROUGH.txt | The complete solution, with every response the game gives. Total spoilers. |
Two conversations are worth reading in the source before you play. Kemp's
defection is a blocking thread — he will keep steering back to it until it
is settled — and Shakespeare's suspicion is a passive one, which he lets
drift and always returns to. When someone has more to say, tell me more and
go on pull the next beat.
Next
Your first story walks through making one of your own, and Building, playing, and testing covers the loop you will spend your time in.