For this task, I created a Twine game called ‘Another Morning,’ which simulates the experience of getting ready for school with only an hour before the bus arrives. What seems like a simple routine became an opportunity to explore how choices, time, and consequences can be structured through hypertext.

My process was influenced by watching my own kids struggle to accomplish, what might seem like, simple tasks under the pressure of a morning deadline. The tension between priorities such as brushing teeth, eating breakfast, and packing a bag combined with the reality of limited time became the foundation of the game. Early drafts began with plain branching choices, but as I experimented with Twine I was able to add a visible clock and track preparedness with variables. This made the story feel less like a set of disconnected options and more like an interactive simulation of that daily scramble.

In terms of structure, the game reflects key principles of early hypertext theory. The dynamic, non-linear paths echo Bolter’s concept of hypertext remediating print. Instead of a fixed, linear narrative, I tried to create a spatial experience, similar to a choose your own adventure book,  where passages act as nodes allowing the reader to navigate dynamically with their decisions influencing how the story evolves. Likewise, the system of deep links to alternate outcomes resonates with Nelson’s vision of xanalogical structure, where texts are interconnected through survivable linkages and multiple versions. Each decision in the game becomes a tracked link to a different version of the morning.

A big challenge was balancing narrative depth with mechanics. I revised passages to make them immersive while still serving the rules of the system. Overall, the project showed me how Twine can function as both a writing space and a rules-based environment, highlighting the potential of electronic text as more than digital print.

Launch my game here or by clicking the title image above

 

References:

Jay David Bolter. (2000). Writing Space : Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (2nd ed). Routledge.

Xanalogical Structure, Needed Now More than Ever. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2025, from https://cs.brown.edu/memex/ACM_HypertextTestbed/papers/60.html