{"id":965,"date":"2014-04-24T15:01:47","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T15:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?p=965"},"modified":"2022-04-14T08:37:36","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T12:37:36","slug":"want-to-try-out-interactive-fiction-and-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/want-to-try-out-interactive-fiction-and-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to try out interactive fiction and games?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Want to try out writing interactive fiction and games with your students? Here are three tools that make it easy to get started.<\/p>\n<h2>In order of ease of use: YouTube<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_967\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-967\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/pGkaw44-Ql4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-967\" src=\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Choose_What_Happens_Next_-_YouTube.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;Choose What Happens Next&quot; is a series of videos that focus on digital citizenship choices for students. You navigate them like Choose Your Own Adventure books.\" width=\"500\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Choose_What_Happens_Next_-_YouTube.jpg 740w, https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Choose_What_Happens_Next_-_YouTube-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Choose_What_Happens_Next_-_YouTube-619x401.jpg 619w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-967\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Choose What Happens Next&#8221; is a series of videos that focus on digital citizenship choices for students. You navigate them like Choose Your Own Adventure books.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>YouTube&#8217;s recently beefed up their suite of online editing tools (including a bank of royalty-free audio clips) and made them simpler to use. By embedding text-based links in video, you can\u00a0tell an interactive video-based story.<\/p>\n<p><em>YouTube Pros:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>editing tools easy to use<\/li>\n<li>doesn&#8217;t require a ton of writing, so caters to visual storytellers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>YouTube Cons:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>doesn&#8217;t require a ton of writing<\/li>\n<li>YouTube may be blocked at your school (but that&#8217;s a WHOLE other blogpost)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Next up: StoryNexus<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.storynexus.com\/\">StoryNexus<\/a> made a big splash when it was introduced via the way-too-addictive speculative steampunk game <a href=\"http:\/\/fallenlondon.storynexus.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fallen London<\/a>. Players navigate through a virtual, text-based world in a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure manner, but with choose-a-card activities that interject an element of chance into the proceedings.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/winterstrike.storynexus.com\/s\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-976\" src=\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Winterstrike___Storynexus_com.jpg\" alt=\"Winterstrike is a post-apocalyptic game of chance, built on the StoryNexus platform.\" width=\"450\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Winterstrike___Storynexus_com.jpg 655w, https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Winterstrike___Storynexus_com-300x261.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Winterstrike___Storynexus_com-619x538.jpg 619w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>StoryNexus Pros:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Easy and compelling to get really into world-building<\/li>\n<li>Lots of students already on there with games; peers, feedback, ideas<\/li>\n<li>Library of GoogleDocs manuals and crowd-sourced how-to&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li>Easy to add images and audio to text<\/li>\n<li>Lots and lots of writing to do, boosts world-building<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>StoryNexus Cons:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Students need to sign up for accounts<\/li>\n<li>Hard to build a game in one class period<\/li>\n<li>Lots and lots of writing to do<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>And then there&#8217;s Twine<\/h2>\n<p>(&#8220;Do it for the Twine! I ain&#8217;t gonna do&#8211;&#8220;)<\/p>\n<p>Ahem.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_975\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-975\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ashtonraze.com\/nocommentmob\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-975\" src=\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Don_t_Read_The_Comments.jpg\" alt=\"Ashton Raze's Twine game,&quot;Don't Read the Comments&quot;, combining digital citizenship with Twin Peaks references.\" width=\"500\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Don_t_Read_The_Comments.jpg 769w, https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Don_t_Read_The_Comments-300x126.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Don_t_Read_The_Comments-619x259.jpg 619w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-975\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashton Raze&#8217;s Twine game,&#8221;Don&#8217;t Read the Comments&#8221;, combining digital citizenship with Twin Peaks references.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twinery.org\">Twine<\/a>&#8216;s a challenging\u00a0little piece of software that takes a step closer to computer programming logic while you build your games. It&#8217;s a stellar introduction to the concept of global vs. local variables, for instance*.<\/p>\n<p>Twine games are browser-based, which means you can practice your HTML and CSS skills while you sort out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/~choman\/Twine\/Yeti\/yeti.html\">what kind of tea the yeti usually drinks<\/a>. Yes, I made that game**. It was not entirely easy but the things that were complicated didn&#8217;t make me tear my hair out. They were fun to figure out, and as a fan of interactive fiction, I enjoy the pace of the finished product.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0Twine Pros:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The ability to embed videos, images and audio make this a truly multimedia storytelling platform<\/li>\n<li>Lets students bone up on HTML and CSS while they write<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Twine Cons:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Steeper learning curve than the other two<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Here are some lovely related links for you to disappear down the rabbithole of your choice:<\/h2>\n<p>Do you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lloydofgamebooks.com\/2012\/02\/great-interactive-fiction-on-youtube.html\">Want to set your student filmmakers loose with YouTube?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.failbettergames.com\/\">Have questions about this whole open-source StoryNexus thing?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/edutwine.wordpress.com\/hosting\/\">Prefer some scaffolding to get\u00a0Twine support in your classroom?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/ssuser163469\/interactive-fiction\">Need more information about interactive fiction in general?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let the games&#8230; begin!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>*If that sentence didn&#8217;t make sense to you, get in touch. Let&#8217;s get you a seat at this summer&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/codecamp.tarrantinstitute.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Code Camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>**And yes, it&#8217;s not finished, because I also have to write many fine blog posts each week, such as this one. You will cope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want to try out writing interactive fiction and games with your students? Here are three tools that make it easy to get started. In order of ease of use: YouTube YouTube&#8217;s recently beefed up their suite of online editing tools (including a bank of royalty-free audio clips) and made them simpler to use. By embedding &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/want-to-try-out-interactive-fiction-and-games\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Want to try out interactive fiction and games?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5],"tags":[32,116,115,114,117,85],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edugaming","category-tools-we-like","tag-digital-storytelling","tag-interactive-fiction","tag-storynexus","tag-twine","tag-you-can-do-it","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31260,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/31260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}