Twine is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

tool created by Chris Klimas for making

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

in the form of web pages. It is available on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.

Software

Twine emphasizes the visual structure of hypertext, and does not require knowledge of a programming language as many other game development tools do. It is regarded as a tool which can be used by anyone interested in interactive fiction and experimental games. Twine 2 is a browser-based application written in HTML5 and Javascript, also available as a standalone desktop app; it also supports

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...

. It is currently in version 2.5.1, as of September 2022. Rather than using a fixed scripting language, Twine supports the use of different "story formats". In Twine 1, these mostly affected how a story was displayed rather than how it was written, but Twine 2 story formats combine style, semantic rules and markup conventions and are described as "dialects" of the Twine language. There are many story formats; they include Harlowe (the default format for Twine 2), SugarCube (based on the original format used by Twine 1), Snowman (which integrates JavaScript libraries into Twine) and Chapbook (a "second generation" format created and maintained by Twine creator Chris Klimas). Twine 2 also supports "proofing formats", which are designed to output Twine content in a variety of ways to allow for on-screen proofing and error checking, as well as conversion of Twine stories into other formats.

Notable works

* ''

Rat Chaos ''Rat Chaos'' is a 2012 stream of consciousness art and browser game created by Winter Lake. Development While learning the software Twine, author Winter Lake made the game "in a couple hours" on July 18, 2012. Originally, the game was availab ...

'' (2012) * '' Howling Dogs'' (2012) * ''

Depression Quest ''Depression Quest'' is a 2013 interactive fiction video game, game dealing with the subject of clinical depression, depression. It was developed by Zoë Quinn using the Twine (software), Twine engine, with writing by Quinn and Patrick Lindsey, ...

'' (2013) * ''

Queers in Love at the End of the World ''Queers in love at the End of the World'', also stylized as ''queers in love at the end of the world'', is a hypertext game created with Twine. Developed by Anna Anthropy in 2013 for the Ludum Dare Game Jam, the short, ten-second narrative faces ...

'' (2013) * ''

The Writer Will Do Something ''The Writer Will Do Something'' is an interactive fiction video game written by Matthew S. Burns and Tom Bissell and created using Twine. Development The game was originally written in 2015 by Matthew S. Burns and Tom Bissell. Bissell had prev ...

'' (2015) * ''

Arc Symphony ''Arc Symphony'' is an adventure video game developed by Matilde Park and Penelope Evans, and released on May 15, 2017, both as a browser game and in a downloadable version for Microsoft Windows, MacOS, and Linux. The player takes the role of a f ...

'' (2017)

Film

Twine was used by writer Charlie Brooker in developing the interactive film '' Black Mirror: Bandersnatch''.

References

External links

* ** * * {{Portal bar, Free and open-source software Free software Hypertext Video game development software Free game engines Authoring systems Adventure game engines Interactive fiction Text adventure game engines