Writing Interactive Fiction with Twine

by Melissa Ford

Writing Interactive Fiction with Play Inside a Story



If you’ve ever dreamed about walking through the pages of a book, fighting dragons, or exploring planets then Twine is for you. This interactive fiction program enables you to create computer games where worlds are constructed out of words and simple scripts can allow the player to pick up or drop objects, use items collected in the game to solve puzzles, or track injury in battle by reducing hit points. If you’ve clicked your way through 80 Days, trekked through the underground Zork kingdom, or attempted to save an astronaut with Lifeline, you’re already familiar with interactive fiction. If not, get ready to have your imagination stretched as you learn how to direct a story path.



The best part about interactive fiction stories is that they are simple to make and can serve as a gateway into the world of coding for the nonprogrammer or new programmer.



You’ll find expert advice on everything from creating vivid characters to building settings that come alive. Ford’s easy writing prompts help you get started, so you’ll never face a blank screen. Her “Try It Out” exercises go way beyond the basics, helping you bring personal creativity and passion to every story you create!



Get familiar with the popular Twine scripting program Learn how to design puzzles Build your own role-playing game with stat systems Maintain an inventory of objects Learn game design and writing basics Change the look of your story using CSS and HTML Discover where you can upload your finished games and find players

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Games, Reference, Video Games

432 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 25, 2016

About the author

I never know what to put into one of these things. I mean, do I talk about my penchant for making up Yiddish words and trying to convince others that they’re real? My love of the penny whistle? My fears of white foods? Or do I tell you a tale about how I applied to my MFA program because I didn’t know what one did after college except remain in school indefinitely?

Long before I published my first book, I was a blogger, and I’m still a blogger to this day at the award-winning site, Stirrup Queens. Like my blogging character, Rachel Goldman, my own site was catapulted into a larger readership when the Wall Street Journal named it one of the top ten motherhood blogs. You can find me in all sorts of places around the Web including Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, Google+, and Amazon.

I completed my MFA at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. And I live outside of Washington, D.C. with my writer husband, Joshua, and our twins.

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book incredibly elucidating. I've been stumbling my way through the basic of a Twine for a while but have been constantly frustrated with my own limitations in knowing how to use the software. While there is twinery.org which provides a fairly comprehensive index of Twine mechanisms, you have to know what you're looking for, and that is where Writing Interactive Fiction with Twine steps onto the scene.

This book provides a step-by-step process to help you ease into Twine. So if you're already somewhat familiar with Twine, it's still easy to skim over the first few chapters and sink your teeth into the later ones. Melissa Ford explains everything clearly and certainly assumes an audience either completely unfamiliar with code or with minimal dabbling experience. What really makes the book effective are the learning exercises that come with each newly introduced mechanism. It means you can test yourself as to whether you have actually understood and can implement what you have read. I also found these exercises as a great way of offering ideas on how to use the various Twine mechanisms to their best potential.

Alongside the technicalities, Ford advises on good storytelling. It's material familiar to any writer, regardless of medium, covering plot, characterisation, pacing, genre, etc. Even if this area was more my forte than the tech, I still found these sections a useful refresher and, again, helpful at generating ideas on how I could best use Twine as a storytelling medium.

One thing to look out for: I suspect this book is a tiny bit out of date. The occasional line of code didn't work and I had to go check twinery.org for the update. But because this book has been made using Twine 2.0, almost everything is still relevant as of this date.

I would highly recommend this book to a wide range of readers: from absolute beginners of Twine all the way to those who are fluent in Harlowe but are looking to switch over to Sugarcube.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I inter-library loaned a copy of this. I read the Harlowe half of programming/game design/how to tell good stories (which is all included here, it's amazing) and jumped right in to make my first 4,500 word game in a few weeks. I think that's a good clue as to how effective the information is presented in this book.

Also, I got my own copy in the mail just a few days ago because as much as I'd like to I can't keep a book indefinitely from the library.

It's much easier to actually FIND what I need in this book than scrounge across the internet. Help boards can be useful, but I'm a novice programmer at best. This was the easy way to learn how to program with Twine. I also think I'll be able to make a couple games I tried with Inform7 much more easily in Twine.

If you're good at programming you probably don't need this book, but it had some great story ideas too-- it's not all about how to write the programming but what makes a good game as well. You can make a game that looks crazy awesome but you have to balance that with content, too.

[Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twine is such an awesome and powerful tool for those of us who want to create text-based video games but don't have much programming experience. Unfortunately Twine's support documentation is rather fractured and incomplete. Melissa Ford's book not only is a helpful tutorial for learning Twine's essential functions but is a great resource for writing as well. She weaves writing techniques among macros and code in a way that makes a lot of sense. If you want to dip your toe in interactive fiction or need some advice on writing a better game you should definitely read this book.

[Loredana · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5/5 🌟

[Bee Ostrowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is both a guide to writing interactive fiction and a guide to using Twine to do so. About half the content is about the creative process and about half is technical.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good standard for writing in the genre. Sure, the examples are Twine, but the general principles of writing, IF writing, programming and design are well explained.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is extremely helpful teaching the reader how to use Twine's software to design interactive fiction games. It breaks down the steps of using Twine and has pictures to help you along the way. A must have for anyone like me who has trouble using technology at times.