Twine Wiki

The «print» macro lets you print expressions, pure and simple.

<<print expression>>

The expression's value is calculated and printed into the passage. If an error occurred while calculating, an error message will be printed instead.

"So, <<print $playerName>>, we meet again!" booms the Wrestlemaster.

Alas! <<print visited()>> time(s) you've fallen in this damned pit!

The «print» macro has an extra feature: if you use “to”, “+=”, or other operators common to the <<set>> macro in the «print»'s expression, then it will change the variables and print the new values.

For example:

After the transfusion, you have <<set $blood -= 7>><<print $blood>> litres of blood left.

can be potentially rewritten as:

After the transfusion, you have <<print $blood -= 7>> litres of blood left.

You may find yourself frequently using «print» to simply print a variable, without alteration. «print» has a convenient shorthand form for this single case: you simply omit the word “print”, leaving just the variable within the angle brackets. For instance, «print $beers» can become simply «$beers».

This allows you to write Twine stories in a “template” style:

Your superior officer approaches. "<<$name>>, you've done a fine job. No, a
superlative job. <<$species>> like you have no place on this cruel Earth,
that rewards only greed and selfishness."

Note: you can only perform this shorthand form using variables! You cannot, for instance, write «visited()».