Welcome to Introduction to Twine!
Instructor: Alex Brenon, Five College Blended Learning and Digital Humanities Fellow
Time: January 22-24, 1pm - 4pm
Location: Converse Hall 209

Day 1 - Getting Started

Sample Games

• Birdland
  • A surrealist piece of interactive fiction
  • Uses variables to store "mood levels" that prevent/let you take certain actions
  • Reviews of Birdland - The game is novella-length (although can be paused at will), but I'd strongly suggest at least reading the reviews and playing a bit of it.
• SPENT
  • Play as an unemployed adult forced to make tough choices
  • More gamified than some of the others
  • Educational, helps players understand experiences that may be foreign to their own
• Queers In Love at the End of the World
  • Very personal and emotional
  • Shows how Twine can be extended with more features like a timer
• What You Can Save
  • Go through the process of preserving your favorite films
  • Takes user input and incorporates it
• Games by Porpentine
  • One of the most well-known Twine writers/creators
  • Some games very NSFW - proceed at your own risk
  • About Porpentine
• Other Games
  • Seedship
  • Anne Boleyn
  • Depression Quest
  • Twine Games on itch.io

Use Twine online or download Twine.

Game Idea Resources

• Masterlist of Interactive Fiction Ideas/Mechanics
• Making Educational Games
• Generating Myth - Hampshire student's thesis

Day 2

Introduction to Syntax
Archive of "Introduction to Syntax" Game - Right-click on this link and choose "Save link as...", then in Twine, choose "Import From File" on the right-hand sidebar and upload this file.

Resources

• draw.io - Good for creating flow charts/storyboards

• Canva - Storyboarding software

• bubbl.us - Mind mapping software

• Color Scheme Generator

• HTML Color List

• Web-Safe Fonts

• Unsplash - Find public domain images to include in your stories

Day 3

Publishing Platforms

• Submit your game to be published on this site
  • Create an issue titled with the name of your game
  • Include any important information in the issue summary, including how you'd like to be credited and a the topic of your game
  • Upload all files necessary for your game (if there are multiple, it's easiest to upload a single zip file holding all of them)
• philome.la - Free Twine hosting
  • If you have a Twitter account, you can host a game here for free
  • Main caveat: Can't upload images or other media that go with the game
• GitHub Pages
  • Create/log into GitHub account
  • Create repository named [your-username].github.io
  • Rename your game file to 'index.html'
  • Upload your game file and any other files to your new repository
  • Visit [your-username].github.io to see your game up and running! (Give it a few minutes to compile first)

General Resources

• Twine

• Twine Documentation

• Twine "Cookbook" - examples of basic Twine use cases

• Harlowe User Documentation

• Introduction to HTML

• Introduction to CSS

Contact Me

Email: abrenon@umass.edu
GitHub repo of resources: https://github.com/alexroseb/Intro-To-Twine