What is Twine?

May 09, 2014

Over the next several blog posts I am going to publish my Twine guide. What is Twine?

Twine is an open source (GPL) program that uses wiki formatting to create hypertext. The Twine program is available for free for Windows/Mac OSX and there is also a convenient web-based version. There isn't currently an iOS version. There is also an advanced command-line version called "Twee" that uses Python. Often people refer to Twine creations as "interactive fiction" or "choose your own adventure stories", but I'm just going to refer to them as Twine projects. In my middle school computer classes, students have used Twine to create websites, games, and quizzes.

A Twine project is organized in a nice graphical interface that shows connections between passages and points out any broken links. Once finished, the program generates a single HTML page which contains the entire project.

The Twine program allows you to create a project without needing to know HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Projects can be enhanced by more advanced coding, but the fact that such knowledge is unnecessary leads to a more friendly/equitable approach to HTML and game design. In my middle school computer classes, I have used Twine to introduce hypertext, interactive media, variables, conditional statements, and random numbers.

CONTINUE TO THE NEXT POST: How To Use Twine, Level One

« How to create your own Kidblog How To Use Twine, Level One »