TWINE FOR ARCHAEOLOGY DUMMIES:
A Living Book about how to make things about and for archaeology using the Twine engine
By Tara Copplestone (@gamingarchaeo // [email protected])
Twine for archaeology dummies is a no-nonsense book about how we can write different stories about the past using the game engine, Twine.
The Aims:
The overall aim of this document is threefold - firstly, to provide an introduction to Twine and how it might relate to archaeology and history. Secondly, the book aims to guide a complete novice through their first game-making experiences with Twine in a way which has relevance to archaeological or historic needs. The third and final goal of this book is to show what Twine is capable of beyond its basic features, to demonstrate how with a little bit of digging into HTML, CSS and javascript the engine can be used to create complex, beautiful, strange and meaningful narratives and games.
A series of case-studies and examples will be presented for play and exploration throughout the text.
The Layout:
The formative sections of the book will guide you through the basics and set you up with the knowledge needed to understand what Twine is and how it can be used.
The core sections of the book will guide you through creating games in Twine, providing examples and step-by-step instructions to get you on your feet. Following this step-by-step approach will allow several example projects to be built, allowing you to follow along and learn the process of writing and creating in Twine from the front-line.
In the latter sections of the book we will examine applying macros, CSS and HTML to create more complex Twine games. Throughout this section examples and small challenges will be placed to encourage you to create and experiment with what Twine can do for you and your archaeological or historic narrative needs.
There is so much more that Twine is capable of than what I have time to cover in this book – so check out the compiled examples that are linked throughout the document, explore the web for more, and join in the discussion so we can help build a bigger, better community.
Housekeeping:
The book is a living document and will be updated and added to as time allows. Inline commenting and discussion has been allowed so that you can add your own thoughts, ideas and critique to the book as it expands. I encourage you to link any creations you make through the comments, or to send them to me in an email ([email protected]) or via twitter (@gamingarchaeo) so we can include them in the discussion and examples section so others can learn from your processes and outcomes!
This book is currently in development - I write sections to it when I find the time (hah). If there are specific sections that you want expanded, examples you would like written, clarifications or corrections please comment, email or tweet at me and I will do my best to add them into the book.
Finally, feel free to share this document widely - use twitter hashtag #archaeotwine to share links to sections of the text, examples, ideas or critique.