Hello world!

First Blog Post: Do It Yourself Digital Tool Assignment

So, I decided to try the interactive Twine game tutorial for the assignment. I have played online twine games in the past, and I really think that the interactive aspect of games, even simple ones such as these really aid in audience engagement with the material. They are more likely to be drawn into the material and actively think about it rather than passively consuming it, or lose interest. The YouTube channel Extra Credits does a really good job at explaining various aspects of game design, how they can be used, what their effect is, and how they can be used in education. Jacob Gellar also does very good video essays about deeper themes and stories in various video games.

After the introduction I started to try and create my first twine game. I didn’t really want to bother coming up with a real story yet, until I really have a hang of twine. So, I just named it test1 for now. Similarly, in the first passage I just used lorem ipsum. The interface for twine has apparently changed a bit since this tutorial was crated, so some of the controls were a bit confusing. I also didn’t realize that clicking play had opened a new full screen window, so I thought I had locked myself out of the build screen for a few minutes.

Figuring out the rest of the branching narratives and choices was pretty easy from there. Then came the macros. This is definitely the most complex part so far, but probably the most important part. You need stakes for any sort of game. The players need to feel like there is something to lose and also some kind of reward. They need consequences for their choices in order to get invested. This would probably be the hardest part of actually designing the game from a strategic point of view as well.

I had a bit of trouble figuring out where to put the (set: blanks) at first. I wasn’t sure if they were supposed to go after the passages, or the choices. The tutorial didn’t exactly do a great job explaining or showing that. I figured it out eventually though. It goes at the end of the passage and before the next choice.

After that the rest was pretty simple, if a bit time consuming. Adding more choices and what they would do with each variable, each eventually leading to different endings. I would have to think that if I was truly designing the story then this would quickly balloon in size. Each variable and each choice you add to the story increases its size exponentially, since you would have to fully write out each branching path. The best solution to that would probably be to ensure that many of the paths circle back to the same core spots later on before re-branching out.

Following that, the rest was just quality of life and user interface instructions. Stuff like how to change the background and text color, and how to introduce multi-media into the game. This would be really useful at increasing engagement for the audience, both in drawing them in, and in keeping them interested. However, I really didn’t bother much with it yet, since I don’t really have a story that would need pictures or colored text yet.

I really do appreciate how they made sure to include how to save your story. If they didn’t, then I probably would have accidentally deleted it by forgetting to save it, which would have been unfortunate.

Final verdict: Good tutorial, and a useful program to create interactive media, but more complicated than you would think at first glance.