Zi Wang
In the Advanced Storytelling course, we explore tools that help create multiple interactive narrative projects. They all have their pros and cons. I think the most important thing is to find a tool that matches the creators' habits. So, in the process of exploring the tool, I finally chose to use Twine2 to create my final project.
The first tool I used was Inky. It's a software for creating interactive narrative, and it has its own narrative scripting language. When using Inky to create the first interactive narrative novel of the semester, A Cop and His Android Colleague, it took me some time to figure out its language. One advantage of Inky is that automatically export pages are beautiful and have modern typography. The combination of black, white and dark gold brings a visual delight.
The second week I continued to use Inky for the story Alix. It's a short story with puzzle elements. I didn't focus on learning more unique Inky language than designing of the puzzles and plot compared to the previous week. So I drafted a story flow chart on paper and presented it in class. During the class, my instructor Jay recommended Twine2 as a tool based on my style. So, I had a strong interest in Twine and switched to this tool in week3. After using Twine2 to create a short story, I gradually became familiar with it and found that Twine2 fits my creative style very well.
Twine2 is a versatile tool for authoring interactive narrative projects. It can set up multiple choices from creators for players. It supports inserting images, audio, video and external links. Also, it allows creators to customize the CSS styles of web pages. It also has many custom functions, such as creating variables, displaying values, creating conditional statements, etc.
The page it automatically exports has a black background and white base text, and the clickable text is blue. Its custom font families and sizes aren't as pretty as Inky's. So in addition to writing the script, I always spend some time revising the visual style. The visual style is actually worth the effort, because small changes can make a completely different experience for the player. For example, a pure black background and a pure white background can give people a feeling of depression and comfort respectively. Also, these visual styles, as defined by myself, are not always aesthetically pleasing. So I thought, it would be great if Twine2 could add a feature to change the export style with some default settings.
Another feature of Twine2 that I adore is control variables. Some of Twine's story formats allow users to use variables and conditional statements to create more interesting effects. I have tried to add some attributes to the protagonist in the third week of the experiment, such as his bullet count, health, and abilities. But to control the length of the text, I removed these variables. In state, I created some hidden options and different endings with conditional statements in the week 3 story The Training.
Twine2 is very friendly to creators who are used to visual workspaces. For a creator who often works with visual elements, Twine2's workspace layout is even better. It also provides node-based operations, just like the node graph window in the video production software Nuke or the 3D production software Maya. I like to have stories with rich endings and give players plenty of choices. So when I start to write, I am used to establishing the major branch points and endings of the story first, and then writing the story lines and the plots in different endings one by one. Twine2's authoring interface allows me to do that. I used to need to draw a story map on paper, but it was difficult to scribble when I had new ideas or changes. But with Twine2, I can lay out these small plots more conveniently and move them to the appropriate flow at any time. The only disadvantage is that it does not reminder the creators which storylines are not closed. It distracts me. Inky has such a function, warning the creator that there is an unfinished ending. This cue helps me focus on finishing one episode first.
In conclusion, it is a good experience to use Twine2, and I would love to recommend this tool to the creators who love the visualized workspace. The mind-mapping style helps me controlling the rhythm and volume of the story. Therefore, the benefits of Twine are also obvious. Its visualization allows me to grasp the flow of the whole script, which allows me to focus more on the development of the story.