Interactive Fiction Resources – Practicum 2
RESOURCES | PRACTICUM 1 | PRACTICUM 2 | PRACTICUM 3
Create a Twine Story
Let’s build a simple story to become accustomed with Twine
Click the large +NEW button in the main menu to start a new story.
Name it DOORS
Click the +Add button.
Double-click the reference entry box to start editing your story.
Open the FIRST BOX – and type:
You are facing two doors. One is a beautiful, shimmery
blue that looks as if it is made out of water.
The other is a dark, dingy door with a spider
web clinging to the edge.The author of a normal story determines what happens next.
With interactive fiction, you must give the player some options.
To give options in Twine, place square brackets around words you want to make clickable in the game. Add a vertical bar (the pipe keyboard character | ), and give the name for the target passage to the right of that bar.
Open the editing box and type:
[[hyperlinked words|Passage Name]]Start a new paragraph and write the following options directly below the text you already have in the body of the box:
Do you want to open [[the blue door?|Blue Door]]
Or do you want to open [[the black door?|Black Door]]Twine will create those two new story references as new boxes in the plotting area – you can edit those with further story details
Open the BLUE DOOR box – and type:
You open the blue door and come face-to-face
with a dragon that devours you in one gulp. Open the BLACK DOOR box – and type:
You open the black door and a hooded figure
hands you a silver ring, buzzing with magic.
He says, "You can now make any wish.
Welcome to your adventure."Click the BUILD menu item
Click the PLAY option to experience your first story!
Congratulations! You now know how to make a basic story in Twine.
Point of View, Development, Conflict
Put it all together as a short, interactive story told in the second person point of view with the reader as the protagonist.
SECOND PERSON POINT OF VIEW
Write the work in second person point of view. Give the reader the sense of being spoken to by the narrator. “You stand in front of a bathroom mirror…”
MEMORABLE CHARACTER
Have the reader discover memorable traits of the character they are controlling.
STATE THEIR GOAL
Get the reader to choose a goal for the character to achieve.
FACE THEIR FEAR
Bring the character face to face with their fear, and have them become vulnerable—and relatable—to the reader.
CONSEQUENCE
Have the character make decisions that exhibit agency and have meaningful consequences that reach a couple of possible endings.
REVISIT POINT OF VIEW
Revisit the passages and rewrite the work so the reader remains in the position of protagonist – but employs a deep point of view.
Give the reader the sense of being the narrator. “The eye-piercing light reflected by the bathroom mirror…”
Examine the differences between these two passages.
Which one feels more IMMERSIVE?
Environment, Show Don’t Tell
Time to build an immersive, sensation-filled, interactive environment!
1. Create a simple scene – don’t leave this space for another location.
2. Fan out some descriptions of items around that central editing box – try to write for all five senses. (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch)
3. Give the reader agency over the setting!
Have the reader interact with objects in the space.
Prompt the reader to make choices that have meaningful
consequences for the environment.
Spill oil, kill a butterfly, pluck a flower from the garden…
4. Change the environment based on the reader’s actions!
Show the changes with updated descriptions or a changed scene
5. Provide a meaningful consequence of changing the environment.
Choices, Consequence, Scope, Endings
Plan a very short story using a decision tree and give the reader agency through the choices provided.
Create a new Twine story called ‘Beanstalk’ and practice making a decision tree by adding new reference boxes. You can also sketch the decision tree out on paper if that is easier at this point.
Story Idea: Imagine a giant lives at the top of a magic beanstalk, and he has threatened to come down to kidnap your bratty sibling. What happens in your story? What choices do you give the player?
First, determine a Golden Path for the player to reach a single ending.
Then, add decision points and build out to least 3 to 5 levels.
In the first box, write two choices.
In those next two boxes, write two or three more choices each.
Try to make high-agency choices because this decision matters and the choices lead to different consequences.
Use delayed branching to combine decisions at a common point.
Finish the story with four possible endings.
Attempt to have 3 to 5 story levels and about 4 possible endings.
When you’re finished writing, ask yourself if the choices matter.
Does the character truly affect his or her world (high agency), or does someone guide the character’s actions so he or she isn’t really making a choice at all (low agency)?
Hints, Puzzles, Obstacles
Let’s create a puzzle together in a new story named ‘Hidden Object.’
The scene opens with a busker on the boardwalk, offering a chance to play a dangerous game. The player gets one chance to find the magic stone that the busker has hidden underneath one of his three cups.
But there’s a catch: The other two cups contain an explosive powder that will ignite and blow the player off the boardwalk.
Use a named tag to ask the busker for a hint so you’ll know which cup to choose.
Use [[links]] for the cups to transport the player to an explosion passage or a winning passage.
How can the passage be constructed so all the cups look alike to the player at first glance?
Here is an example with a simple lead-in, then a named hook called ?hint to have the busker drop a hint about where the stone is hidden.
Copy this content, and paste into a story reference:
"I need that stone," you tell the busker. He
drops it underneath the center cup and begins
to shuffle them around the table.
You watch carefully at first but soon grow confused,
unable to tell where the stone is located.
You start to point to a cup, but
the busker holds up his hand.
"Remember, two of these cups contain enough
explosive powder to blow you into the center
of the ocean. Sure you know where the stone is?"
You aren't sure, but you don't really have a
choice to walk away. You need to get that stone.
You wonder if he'd give you a [hint.]<hint|
(click: ?hint)[The busker winks at you. "What's that
saying? First is the worst, second is the best,
third is the one with the hairy chest?"]
Do you choose the [[first cup|ExplosionJJ]],
[[second cup|You Win]], or [[third cup|Explosion]]?