BRANCHES

ABOUT THE ORGANIZER

Hi! I'm Mike Ren! I'm a game designer based in Shanghai. You may know me from "Touch Our Buttons", a collective making arcade machines and party games for events.

Previously, I worked at Ubisoft as a Level Designer on Far Cry 5. Before moving to China, I lived in New York City working in the Film industry. I graduated from NYU with a Major in Film & Animation and a Minor in Game Design. Portfolio

As someone who loves amazing stories and playing games, I started the Branches workshop to give people the tools and knowledge to create their own. In this workshop, we will be using "Twine" to create our stories. By the end of the workshop, you will have your first story PUBLISHED ONLINE!

Twine is one of the most popular form of interactive storytelling on the internet. Twine games, like "Depression Quest" even go on to win awards!

WHAT IS TWINE?

Twine is one of the most popular form of interactive storytelling on the internet. Twine games, like "Depression Quest" even go on to win awards!

Twine is an open-source hypertext program that allows you to create branching stories. For example, the demo on the home page looks like this in Twine:

If you would like to replay it, Click Here

Each box represents a page of text and each line shows how they flow together. Based on how you link the passages, you start to create an interactive story. There's no limit to how big or complex your story can be, so dream big!

Twine works so well because it's easy to use and fully customizable. You can start writing your first interactive story within minutes. Depending on your knowledge of story structure, game design, CSS, or javascript, Twine becomes a powerful tool to create all sorts of interactive experiences.

Here are some of the top features of Twine:

• Visual flowchart to plot out your story and logic.
• Use simple math (if-then statements) to create gameplay.
• Add pictures, sounds, and visual customization for more immersion.
• Completely free to use, even for commercial purposes.
• Publish anywhere on the web as a webpage!

Learning Twine right now means being prepared for the future of storytelling. AAA video games are progressively relying more on branching dialogue and story structure. Streaming services, like Netflix, are producing more "Interactive" style content. Having a Twine game on your portfolio could be crucial as a writer.