Links: My post for Task 5; Louisa’s post for Task 5
I chose to link to Louisa’s post because we both appreciated Bolter’s (2001) idea that traditional books with single orders of sections and pages are linear, hierarchical, and static, whereas hypertext provides a story network that is multiple and associative. So, diving deeper into Louisa’s post would be interesting to find the similarities and differences between Twine games and game-making experiences.
Tool used
Louisa uses Wix, whereas I’m using WordPress on UBC Blogs. Based on my experience with Wix, I see some content-authoring differences between these platforms. Wix provides website-building tools and hosting for users’ websites, while WordPress offers users more control over their websites’ hosting. Therefore, people using WordPress are responsible for setting up and managing their hosting environment. While both platforms provide a wide range of templates and themes, WordPress is more flexible and extensible, allowing skilled users to customize websites, add plugins, and modify the code.
Our end-user interfaces appear different, too. Louisa presented all her tasks on one page, while I used separate pages to show specific tasks. Also, her page is equally divided into two sectors with different colors, with the left showing the task title and the right displaying task content. In contrast, my task content follows the title vertically, appearing at the center-left of the page. Our text sizes are similar; both are appropriate for reading on any device.
For this task, we mainly used text to reflect on the game-making process. In addition, I added pictures to help explain my words and inserted an online version of my Twine game for a better user experience.
Content
Themes we both discussed
1. Differences between books and hypertext
We both appreciated Bolter’s (2001) ideas about the differences between traditional books and hypertext. I mentioned that “compared to traditional books with single orders of sections and pages, hypertext provides a story network” (Wang, 2023, para.1). Louisa noted that printed text is hierarchical and static, while hypertext is multiform, connected, and responsive to readers.
2. Interactivity of hypertext
We both talked about the interactivity of hypertext. Louisa said hypertext allows readers to interact with the story and choose different options. I tried to give my readers “the illusion of control” by letting them choose their preferred links (Bolter, 2001, p.43).
3. Twine is user-friendly
We both mentioned that Twine is a user-friendly tool for creating interactive, nonlinear stories. “Twine stories using only text are fairly simple to navigate” (Green, 2023).
Differences between our reflections
1. Experience using Twine
Louisa mentioned in her post that she has used Twine previously in various courses, while this was my first time using Twine to make a text-based game. Louisa also found adding images alongside text is more complicated than she remembered. I searched the online tutorial and followed the detailed steps to insert images in my game.
2. How we come up with the storyline
Louisa said that her story was “produced out of a stream of consciousness on [her] part” (Green, 2023). In contrast, I came up with my story topic based on my psychology background and laid out a network of ideas with the aid of textbooks.
3. Opinions about game-playing
Louisa talked about her experience playing The Temple of No and shared her opinion about game playing. She enjoyed the casual language and the “escape from the real world” feeling experienced in the game, which she thought was important for game-playing (Green, 2023).
Twine Game
Please click on the interactive elements below for details (text and images).
References
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Green, L. (2023). Tasks | UBC Met ETEC 540 Tex. Ubc Met Etec 540 Tex. Retrieved October 12, 2023, from https://louisaagreen.wixsite.com/ubc-met-etec-540-tex/tasks
Wang, B. (2023, October 4). Task 5: Twine Task – Bingying (Iris) Wang-ETEC540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540bingyingwang/2023/10/04/task-5-twine-task/