Twine resources

As part of our annual contest to create Twine works, we thought we’d introduce you to the concept and tools that make up Twine and Twine works. Interested in joining our contest? Check out the details here!

WHAT IS TWINE?

Twine is a free, easy to use, open source tool for creating interactive and playable texts, mostly interactive fiction (IF). It’s a great platform for composing branching narratives, experimental poetry, choice-based narrative, or any other form of hypertext. It takes about 10 minutes to learn and offers a wonderful tool for writers, students, and teachers to push the boundaries of linear narrative and traditional forms of writing. If you’ve never played a Twine game before, take a minute (or rather 10 seconds) to read and play Anna Anthropy’s Queers in Love at the End of the World (2013). The game adds a time constraint, but it’s a great example of the kind of writing Twine can produce. Most Twine games rely on the second-person point of view, drawing on the tradition of text adventure games. For more Twine examples, check out the following lists of influential Twine games that you can download and play:

HOW TO LEARN TWINE

The quickest way to learn Twine is to watch the short videos below and then create some basic passages. Before doing this, however, we strongly recommend downloading the Chrome browser, which works best with Twine online. We don’t recommend the Twine application; generally, we find that Twine works better online, though be careful that you don’t delete your browser history, which can erase your game. After learning the basics of Twine, make sure to test that you can export and publish a file that is playable. 

After you’ve watched the videos and read the short blog, visit Twine (https://twinery.org/), click on the link “Use it online,” and then play around with the platform for 10-15 minutes, creating a few passages that link to other passages. Compose it quickly and have fun with it. Once you’ve learned how to make and link passages, you’ve learned the central mechanic of Twine. That’s all you need to create a dynamic and interactive text, though you can also learn other tips and tricks with more experimentation and research.

Once you’ve created a few passages, click “Publish to File,” which you'll find in the bottom left corner menu or by clicking on the gear icon from the home page. Make sure that this exports and downloads your Twine project as an html file. Once the file has downloaded, make sure that you can open it and play it in a browser. 

ADDITIONAL TWINE RESOURCES

If you’re interested in learning more about Twine, learning new tips and tricks for the platform, and enhancing your project even further, there are tons of resources available online. We’ve found the following links and articles helpful, and we’ve also included an open-access Google document with some Twine shortcuts and examples that you can use.

* Important note: while Twine works on all browsers, we have found that the only browser that consistently exports Twine flawlessly is Google Chrome. We’ve also found that Twine generally works better online, rather than the application you can download. Just be careful not to delete your browser history, which may erase your project. Before starting a long project, make sure that your work downloads and opens properly on another computer. You can do this by clicking “Publish to File” (which you'll find in the bottom left corner menu or by clicking the gear icon on the home page). This should download an html file that you can email, share, and open in a web browser.

 
 

Feeling good about Twine? Interested in submitting to our contest? Just email us your submission at usm.lit.games@gmail.com! Contest information and rules can be found on our current contest announcement post.