Please download and play my Twine game here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f6lJbWEoSlyOua1lfDLj5IlKTiXqH5NM/view?usp=sharing

Alternatively, you can play it online without the sound effect here: https://wusling.neocities.org/task5/index.html

Reflection

The temple of No (Crows Crows Crows, 2016) is a fun and engaging game that utilizes hypertexts. It remediates traditional printed fiction by converting audiences to players; it lets the players choose their paths to explore, experiment, and interpret (Bolter, 2001). The game inspired me to create a graphic novel that can invite the players to co-construct the plot with autonomy, so I created the game Locked in the Room.

To construct the alternative paths in an immersive way, multiple hyperlinks are embedded in the same frame for the players to “act”. Note that this approach to hyperlinks is the opposite of the intention of their inventor, Nelson (1999). Instead of visualizing the origins of ideas and transpointing parallel documents, these hyperlinks are single-way arrows that connect the action to its consequences. Different choices can change the frame that the hyperlink connects to, thus disrupting the “stable publishing” (Nelson, 1999, para. 14). However, it is argued that this approach is still liberating and does not “dissolve into a disordered heap” (Bolter, 2001, pg. 35). Players can go back to previous frames by clicking on the back buttons or restarting the game, redo the changes, and taking other paths. In addition, the approach can augment players’ thinking process by affording “automated external symbol manipulation” (Englebard, 1963, pg. 27). The secret of the plot is encoded in the texts and artifacts. The players can attach symbols to them, manipulate the symbols by using different methodologies and eventually reach their own conclusion of the story.

Following the goal stated above, variables are used to keep track of the selected options. And the debug mode is used to ensure the hyperlinks are constructed correctly. Although not created using microfilms, the browser in debug mode serves as a Memex that supplements the viewer’s memory (Bush, 1945). The value of the variables is listed next to the main frame, providing references for the game state. By comparing the contents on both “screens”, I was able to organize my ideas and implement the design.

References

Bolter, Jay David. (2001). Writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. New York, NY: Routledge.

Bush, V. (1945). As we may think. The Atlantic Monthly, 176(1), 101-108.

Crows Crows Crows. (2016). The temple of No [Video game]. Crows Crows Crows.

Englebart, Douglas. (1963). “A conceptual framework for the augmentation of man’s intellect” In Hawerton, P.W. and Weeks, D.C. (Eds.), Vistas in information handling, Volume I: The augmentation of man’s intellect by machine. Washington, DC: Spartan Books. Available (as “Augmentation of human intellect: A conceptual framework”)

Nelson, Theodore. (1999). “Xanalogical structure, needed now more than ever: Parallel documents, deep links to content, deep versioning and deep re-use.” Online.