Getting Started

You can start using Pixi’VN by initializing a new project or installing the package in an existing project.

Prerequisites

Before starting, you must have the following tools installed:

• Node.js version 18 or higher.
• Text Editor with TypeScript support.
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Cursor
  • VSCodium
• (Recommended) Git
  • Have a GitHub account

Project Initialization

If you want to start a new project, you can use the following command to initialize a new project with the Pixi’VN template:

npm

npm create pixi-vn@latest

yarn

yarn create pixi-vn

pnpm

pnpm create pixi-vn

bun

bun create pixi-vn

deno

deno init --npm pixi-vn

The supported template presets are:

Visual Novel - React:

• Visual Novel - React - Typescript - Web page
• Visual Novel - React - Typescript - Web page + Desktop + Mobile
• Visual Novel - React - Ink + Typescript - Web page
• Visual Novel - React - Ink + Typescript - Web page + Desktop + Mobile

More templates will be added in the future

Pixi’VN knows the possibility of proposing templates and helps you in its development. You can follow the development of templates and show your interest from the following thread https://github.com/DRincs-Productions/pixi-vn/discussions/361.

After the project is initialized, you can open the project directory with your text editor (VSCode is recommended) and start developing your visual novel.

Into all templates there is a README.md file with more information about the project.

Installation

For installing the Pixi’VN package in an existing (node.js) project, you can use the following command:

npm

npm install @drincs/pixi-vn

yarn

yarn add @drincs/pixi-vn

pnpm

pnpm add @drincs/pixi-vn

bun

bun add @drincs/pixi-vn

For using the Pixi’VN package in a browser, you can use the following script tag:

script tag

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@drincs/pixi-vn/+esm"></script>

import map

<script type="importmap">
  { "imports": {
      "@drincs/pixi-vn":        "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@drincs/pixi-vn/+esm"
  } }
</script>

js import

import pixivn from "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@drincs/pixi-vn/+esm";

Now you must initialize the Pixi’VN window before using the engine. For example, you can add the following code to the main.ts or index.ts (It depends on your project configuration):

How enable the decorators in TypeScript?

In Pixi’VN, in some advanced features, it is necessary to use decorators.

By default, TypeScript does not enable the use of decorators. To enable the use of decorators in TypeScript, you must add the following configuration to the tsconfig.json file:

tsconfig.json

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        // ...
        "experimentalDecorators": true
    }
}