Twine intro

Today we’re going to begin learning Twine, a tool for creating interactive stories.

Getting started

  • Go to https://twinery.org/
  • You can download Twine and use it on your computer, or use the web-based editor
  • Create an account
  • Twine does not let you save files in the cloud, but it will save your work in your browser’s cache as you go, so if you refresh the page, your work will still be there, and it should continue to be there if you close the browser and open it again, but it’s not available outside of the computer it was created on, so you need to save your Twine .twee file on the computer when you are done working

Twine resources

For the first lesson, you should start creating an interactive story with at least 5 nodes and at least 1 image. The following tutorials will help you get started.

These tutorials are part of the Introduction to Twine playlist, which has lot of videos on other features that you can look into if you want to add to your project.

Adding images can done different ways, this approach is a simple one that I recommend: Adding Images to Passages. Remember to use images that have a Creative Commons or Public Domain license. If you would like to use your own image, you can upload it to the Open Lab site and then copy the link to the image from the Media library in the Dashboard.

The Twine Cookbook is another good resource for learning the tools of Twine.

Writing your Twine story

Start by reading Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games. This is a great overview of how interactive stories can be structured.

Your first story should start with at least 5 nodes. You can write about anything you want. If you don’t know what you want to write about, try using a prompt generator.

Focus on decision points for the player and keep passages short! One or two sentences is fine. Our focus is interaction.

Post your progress on Open Lab

  • Take a screen shot of your editor window to show the structure of the story
  • Take screen shots of each passage in preview mode
  • Write 1-2 sentences about the concept for your story
  • Post on Open Lab, submit a link to the post on Brightspace, and attach your .twee file (we will publish the HTML version on Itch.io later)