Twine Games

First of all I want to wish everyone well. These are difficult times and I hope everyone is all right!

This week the focus was on twine games. Twine allows games to be made by a wider variety of people and therefore cover a wider variety of topics. While video games have advanced significantly throughout the decades, as Anna Anthropy says, 'the video game industry has spent millions upon millions of dollars to develop more visually impressive ways for a space marine to kill a monster'. This isn't a concept I entirely agree with because I love to play video games with strong story lines like the Dragon Age series, or games that allow you to write your own story like the sims. However, the stories told by games are often ones normal people cannot relate to. As much as I would like to be a shape-shifter or an alien, none of us can relate to that (as far as I know, my friend does have a cat who looks suspiciously like an alien).

Twine games can let people tell more relatable stories without needing millions of dollars to develop a game. Stories about simple everyday things like a mother caring for a child can be told.

Player agency is something interesting that games can offer in a way books and film cannot, with the exception of choose-your-own-adventure type books. However in games the player can see the effect their decision has on the game world. This can be seen in games like Dragon Age where characters will like or dislike you depending on your actions, and earlier choices impact later ones. Some games even have alternating ending depending on the players choices, such as the Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, which if I recall correctly has 8 possible endings. An example of player agency done poorly is World of Warcraft, in which there is a quest where you defeat an elf called Sira. The player can decide to finish her off or can refuse to on moral grounds, in which case she is killed by another character and story is exactly the same either way. This decision is also nonsensical as previous quests have you kill many living beings so it would be strange for the player to only now object.

The lecture this week also spoke of something else important - MDA or mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics.

Mechanics are the mathematical rules, such as how many games have a health or lives system. They govern how the game is played are basically the bridge between the player and the game world.

Dynamics are the actions the player takes, such as fighting or racing. An example of this is the exciting dynamic that defines the Assassin's Creed games - parkour, which allows the player to explore locations and times like Florence during the renaissance from the rooftops.

Finally, aesthetics are why we go to a game. Is it for the challenge of defeating a difficult monster, or to explore a beautiful world? Maybe it's for the fantasy of being able to do things we cannot do in real life - like magic or driving a spaceship.

I am looking forward to working with Twine over the holidays and might post an update on it as I work over the holidays. I cannot wait to expand my story by adding choices to make it more dynamic and exciting! 

Till next time! Tschüss!