General Questions

Do I need to know how to program / code to use twine?

No and Yes.

Creating basic stories requires no programming knowledge and you can easily get by in Twine using button clicks or drag and drop on the interface alone. Have a go at creating this way in Exersize 1.

However, if you want to add some visual style to your story then you will need to dig into a little bit of HTML and CSS.

Twine also has a number of inbuilt macros that allow you to do things such as add music or control how you navigate between passages, so a lot of the heavy lifting is already done for you, all that you need to learn is how to call these elements when you want to use them. Visit the technical FAQ for more on this or follow along with our step-by-step guides for more.

However, if you want to get fancy and track variables, implement locational settings, change the number of parallel narratives or otherwise alter how Twine works normally then you will need to come to terms with a little bit of JavaScript as well. The beauty of Twine is that it is easy to get started with, but has a lot of customisation and extensionability through programming.

How easy is Twine to use?

Twine is incredibly easy to learn how to use, once you have gotten your head around hyperlinking and multilinear narratives. All that you need to write a basic story is a little bit of text and two choices.

Check out Step-by-step 1 to learn how to do this!

The graphical interface of Twine makes creating complex narratives easy, and no formal knowledge of programming languages is required to get started. Twine outcomes are easily customisable using HTML and CSS whilst JavaScript can be used for added functionality. Twine outputs built narratives as .html files (webpages) so no specialist software is required to access or play them - meaning Twine is one of the most accessible ways to present interactive experiences of the past.