IC Twine Club Round 2: Nov 1 - Dec 31

clubs
1

Let's make games with Twine (and other tools) together! The club has started.

__Round 1__ started Sep 22nd and ended Oct 9th. See the details here: @"saddleblasters"#p134182
Submissions:
@"MoH"#p135048 [Golden Pheasant (The Game)](https://mallet-under-heaven.itch.io/golden-pheasant-the-game)
@"Mnemogenic"#p135730 [You're going through that window](https://mnemogenic.itch.io/youre-going-through-that-window)
@"SlumWolf"#p136419 [u_r_hell](https://kusogay.itch.io/u-r-hell)
@"saddleblasters"#p137174 [Late at night](https://saddleblasters.itch.io/late-at-night)

__Round 2__ started Nov 1st and ends Dec 31st! @"saddleblasters"#p138704

Here are resources that should remain useful between rounds:

>!

Per @ā€œMnemogenicā€#p133698 ā€˜s suggestion, letā€™s try compiling writing prompts that others can use if they hit a roadblock. I've started a Google doc. If you happen to think of anything, put it here. These don't have to perfectly general prompts anyone can use ā€“ feel free to insert prompts that feel specific to just you. Maybe someone else will be inspired by them in unexpected ways.

>!

Twine can be downloaded here.

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Here are the manuals for Harlowe and Chapbook, the two main ā€œstory-formatsā€ most of us will be using. Twine's story-formats are essentially different languages for inserting dynamic content into your stories. Harlowe is the default one, while Chapbook is an easier to use story-format that simplifies common tasks.

>!

For a more classic Twine feel, you can use version 1.4.2 instead of the latest build, along with the Sugarcube format, which is an update of the oldest Twine format Sugarcane.

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When it comes to common tasks, the Twine Cookbook can be more helpful than format manuals.

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While you can get very far with Twine without using HTML or CSS, you might find it helpful to have access to these. The cookbook has tutorials on this, and you can also check https://www.w3schools.com for more general HTML/CSS tutorials.

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Once youā€˜re done, hereā€™s how to publish your game on itch.io.

Original post archived below:

>!

Iā€˜m imagining something similar to the music production club. Weā€™d make small narrative games over the course of a week or so then have a few days to share feedback.

>!

Since Iā€˜m mostly interested in experimenting with writing, Iā€™d like to mainly use Twine. Iā€˜m worried that this is too specific though for a recurring informal gamejam type thing? Iā€™m not sure how many other people there are on here who'd be interested in this.

>!

If people want to use other tools, thatā€˜d be fine too. E.g. Renā€™py or RPG Maker. Adding art can triple or quadruple the workload, though I imagine there are people whoā€˜d enjoy having the option to do so. Iā€™d like this to be as low stress and low commitment as possible ā€“ something people casually interested in writing and games can pop into to try some new ideas. How does that sound? Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

2

@ā€œsaddleblastersā€#p133665 I recently found myself working in Twine again for the first time in years, and I was impressed by how much I still love working in Twine, but also how much 1.7 has improved over those years.

So, this is me saying I think this sounds like a great idea and I would try to participate.

Idea for keeping it fresh would be to try different formats. Small fiction jam one (time), and then the next time we do reflective writing, or non-fiction narrative, or poetry. I think mixing it up would help a lot.

I used to be in a ~7 person writing group, and one thing we did that was always fun and useful was keep a big google doc where anybody could write prompts in. Great for finding themes.

3

>

@ā€œMnemogenicā€#p133698 Idea for keeping it fresh would be to try different formats. Small fiction jam one (time), and then the next time we do reflective writing, or non-fiction narrative, or poetry. I think mixing it up would help a lot.


>
>

I used to be in a 7 person writing group, and one thing we did that was always fun and useful was keep a big google doc where anybody could write prompts in. Great for finding themes.

Both of these are great ideas. I think the writing prompts google doc could especially be useful even for people who don't participate in this thread. Writing prompts from people on this forum would probably resonate with a lot of us more than random writing prompts you'd find on google.

Anyway, Twine is great. The reason why I thought it could be fun to have a little club like this was that I'd been using Twine to sketch out some ideas for something else, and I enjoyed using it so much I wanted to have an excuse to use it for standalone stuff. It's very rare that I find myself enjoying a tool that much. Normally with things like Unity I feel like I'm constantly fighting with the software to get it to do what I want.

4

Iā€˜ve been trying to find more excuses to do creative writing, and Iā€™ve been inspired by Twine games in the past. Would love to try and participate from time to time

5

I canā€™t guarantee Iā€™d participate weekly cuz Iā€™m such a slow writer but this would be really cool!! At the very least Iā€™d love to read what other folks come up with, and itā€™d give me yet another reason to finally learn Twine lol.

6

count me in

7

Iā€˜m low on mental bandwidth these days but you KNOW Iā€™m super into the idea.

8

Iā€˜ve never used Twine, but this might a great excuse for me to start. Iā€™d love to at least give it a shot.

9

Iā€™m definitely interested in contributing small, little things. I have other big projects Iā€™m grinding away at, so it would be nice to have a low stakes thing on the side to keep me fresh.

Is there an idea on scale / frequency of this? It might be nice to keep things purposely short to avoid feature creep, but I donā€™t want to impose that on everyone if they just really like what theyā€™re working on. Also, I donā€™t know a timeframe that would work that isnā€™t too short or long. Two weeks? A month? Itā€™s nice to just set out a task and finish without thinking too hard on it, but it also would be nice to have a flexible schedule so people can find time to contribute, no matter their schedule.

I really liked the suggestion of exploring modes (autobiographical, poetry, etc.) through text/narrative games because that sounds really interesting to me!

10

Iā€˜m not familiar with Twine either but Iā€™d be interested in giving this a shot! Though I'm going to be mad busy the next month or soā€¦ But this could be a fun way to do NaNoWriMo

11

Ok, it sounds like thereā€˜s enough interest that weā€™ll have at least a few people for the first round.

I agree with @"ninjapresident"#p133797 about trying to keep these small and fun, but I also want to allow enough time for each round that no one feels rushed, since everyone's schedules are different.

What are people's preferences between the following four options:

(a) One week, back to back. (i.e. as soon as one round ends we start another with a new theme/format.)
(b) Same as (a) but two weeks.
\(c) Two week cycles, with 10 days for writing (starting on a friday so that everyone has two weekends) and 4 days for comments/discussion. Similar to what the music production club does.
(d) One month cycles, with two weeks to write and two weeks for comments. Same idea as \(c), but with lower frequency.

I'm split between \(c) and (d). \(c) would mean that there's always a round going on, so people can pop in whenever, but for people who want to contribute to every round the frequency might be too high. I don't want to inadvertently lead anyone to burnout.

@"rearnakedwindow"#p133796 @"Tradegood"#p133798 and others who have never used Twine: for a CYOA-style story or a dialogue tree, there's almost nothing to learn. You make passages (using the "new" button in the upper left), name them, then insert links between them in the body of the passages using the [[insert your text here -> passage name]] command (which Twine will autocomplete for you). That's the main reason I think it works well for something like this. It's the most writing focused tool that I know of. You can download it and be writing stories in 5 minutes.

That being said, feel free to use other tools if you'd prefer. The other common ones are more graphics oriented, though you might like adding graphics. Another cool thing some people might like is [Decker](https://internet-janitor.itch.io/decker), which I'm aware of because @"Emily"#902 has used it to make [zines](https://8unp.itch.io/ridiculous-fishing-zine). It lets you make HyperCard-style stuff very easily it looks like.

12

thanks for putting this together @saddleblasters. i vote for option d. it seems the most leisurely.

iā€™ve never written for a game before, so iā€™m expecting this to be pretty challenging (in a good way). do you have any games on twine you can recommend that show whatā€™s possible?

those other programs look super cool. iā€™ll have to keep them in mind once i have a solid idea to pursue.

13

@ā€œMoHā€#p133813 One of the classics (and first Twine game I remember playing) is Space Adventure Laika.

14

@ā€œMoHā€#p133813 Horse Master is the one I immediately think of when I think about classic twine https://tommchenry.itch.io/horse-master

I'm also torn between (c) and (d). Maybe leaning (d) since that's more leisurely

15

@ā€œMoHā€#p133813 I also know Merrit K, friend of the podcast, and maker of Twine games (though the one I played before has been taken down?) put a book together with many Twine creators. I havenā€˜t read it, but Iā€™m thinking about it now that Iā€˜m a person who made a Twine thread on a forum. Check it out sometime if youā€™re so inclined. While weā€˜re at it, hereā€™s Robert Yang's review of it, since I just read it and thought was great, like all of his writing I've read.

16

Ok, so how about we start this today then? That doesnā€˜t mean you personally have to start ā€“ Iā€™m just giving you permission to start, if it was my permission you were waiting for.

**Timing:**
For our first round, let's go with a variant of option (d) (@"saddleblasters"#p133811): We start today (Friday, Sep 22), and end **Monday, Oct 9**. This is slightly over two weeks, and gives people a total of three weekends, if they're the sort who only has time for creative stuff on the weekend. After it's over we'll have a break of at least a week and a half before starting the next round. Depending on how people feel about this length, we can make later rounds longer or shorter.

Although you have a total of 18 days to work on this, that doesn't mean you should or have to use all that time. There is no word length requirement. If you suddenly come up with an idea on the last day and put it together in two or three hours, there's no reason that couldn't end up being one of the most interesting submissions! Ideas take time to germinate, so if you still don't know what you want to do, or if you don't feel confident, feel free to give yourself time. In the same way, if you finish early, feel free to post here.

As always with these clubs and jams on the forum, the time limit is a soft one. If you need more time, it's fine. Once you finish, feel free to revise and add onto your game.

**Format:**
Each round we'll make a different "format" of Twine game. For this first round, we'll stick to **interactive fiction**, since that is what is most familiar to most of us, and what you probably think of when you think of Twine. Later rounds we'll experiment with other formats. Feel free to give suggestions!

**Resources:**
Per @"Mnemogenic"#p133698 's suggestion, let's try compiling writing prompts that others can use if they hit a roadblock. [I've started a Google doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CzTTlfBsQsz3qCvllzvVnHd5h_93hAtH0G-cDz-VB1c/edit?usp=sharing). If you happen to think of anything, put it here. These don't have to perfectly general prompts anyone can use -- feel free to insert prompts that feel specific to just you. Maybe someone else will be inspired by them in unexpected ways.

[Twine can be downloaded here.](https://twinery.org)

Here are the manuals for [Harlowe](https://twine2.neocities.org) and [Chapbook](https://klembot.github.io/chapbook/guide/), the two main "story-formats" most of us will be using. Twine's story-formats are essentially different languages for inserting dynamic content into your stories. Harlowe is the default one, while Chapbook is an easier to use story-format that simplifies common tasks.

Once you're done, here's [how to publish your game on itch.io](https://twinery.org/cookbook/starting/twine2/publishing_on_itchio.html).

Let me know if there are any other resources you think should go here.

Good luck to everyone!

**If you have any questions about using Twine, please ask!**

17

[ā€œIs anyone interested in a game writing (Twine) club/workshop?ā€,ā€œIC Twine Club - Round 1 ends Oct 9th!ā€]

18

Some more resources that might be useful:

For some reason I thought it was 1.7, but if you want your writing to have that "classic twine" look, you might want to get 1.4.2 instead of the latest build:
[https://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/programming/twine/](https://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/programming/twine/ )

If you are using 1.4.2 (and again, you want that classic look) you'll want to use the [Sugarcube](https://www.motoslave.net/sugarcube/2/docs/) format, which is an update of the old default, Sugarcane. This is what I'll be using.

Twine has support for CSS. [This ](https://twinery.org/cookbook/twine1/editor/css.html)is for general Twine CSS. And [this ](https://www.w3schools.com/Css/)is just an extremely helpful CSS tutorial website. One other thing to know about Twine is that you should never have more than one stylesheet. Things get very weird with more than one.

Twine also has support for HTML, but I can't help you there.

Oh, and as far as hosting the Twine on the internet, I think itch.io is the best option? There used to be [philome.la](https://philome.la/), but that stopped taking submissions years ago. If something ever popped up to take its place, I never heard about it.

I've got a bunch of work to do today, but hopefully I will be able to get started this evening. Excited for this!

Also, should we settle on a theme together, or is it more of a grab bag approach where everybody does what they want?

19

@ā€œMnemogenicā€#p134194 Regarding themes, I think it might be better to go free on whatever anyone wants to do. Thatā€˜s just me though. One of the reasons I havenā€™t been participating in the other art clubs despite being interested is because the prompts usually donā€˜t inspire me too much, so itā€™d feel more like an obligation than an exercise to use themā€¦ But if other people like them don't let me be a stick in the mud

20

@ā€œFunbilā€#p134200 I'm cool with either approach. It can be fun to see how everybody responds to the same prompt, but it can also be exciting to see what people choose to write about and how they approach it.