[t0mg] developed the “eeink” project by combining a passion for text adventures with the palm-sized, ESP32-based Xteink e-ink reader. The project focuses on adventures written in the Ink scripting language and offers an IDE called eenky, allowing users to create their own choose-your-own-adventure books. Resources are limited because the ESP32-C3 in the X3/X4 models does not include PSRAM; the X4 Pro, meanwhile, uses an ESP32-S3 that provides more RAM. The project was released on GitHub under the MIT license.
Why it matters
The project is significant because it brings a text-heavy experience such as a text adventure to a small e-ink reader instead of a dedicated gaming computer, while not limiting content creation to a single ready-made adventure. The eenky IDE brings the hardware experience and the writing process together under one roof for users who want to create stories of this kind. The MIT license also leaves the framework open for examining and adapting the code and using it as the basis for other projects. However, the difference in hardware resources may create a distinction between the scope of adventures that can run on the X3 and X4 and what is possible on the X4 Pro. The open question is to what extent models without PSRAM will remain sufficient, particularly for more complex or extensive content.