Card Storytelling Software

In 2005, Clare Hooper developed a wonderful tarot-based storytelling system called StorySpinner. She presented her research at Hypertext 2005.

The next year, Clare and I prototyped an authoring system for writers of card-based fictions. It has since disappeared in a hard drive crash.

At the time, card-based storytelling was very popular with writers.

• Robert Cover wrote Heart Suit
• MouseChief was working on The Witch's Yarn
• Mark Bernstein had been writing about Card Shark and Thespis

In 2008, Penguin published "The (Former) General In His Labyrinth" by Mohsin Hamid

If you want to write one now, I would suggest Undum: A client-side framework for hypertext interactive fiction games.

See also StoryNexus, an authoring + publication + sales system for card-based storytelling in the vein of Echo Bazaar, by Fail Better Games (who at the time of writing employ Ian Millington, creator of Undum). See also VaryTale.