Many years ago I heard about interactive stories, or gamebooks, that allowed readers to make decisions that would alter the course of the plot.
This idea was revised on reading Cathy Moore’s excellent blog: http://blog.cathy-moore.com which in turn recommended a few examples such as this L&D specfic one: http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2016/06/scenario-example-chainsaw-training/
Cathy also mentions the tool used to create them: http://twinery.org – which is open source and cross platform.
I was suitably impressed and wanted to see what was feasible for creation of scenario or simulations online.
I set out to build myself a set of building blocks that could then be used with whatever storyline was needed. If you are familiar with flow charts this is a very similar process. (NBTwine uses the term “passage” to refer to what you could consider a page or node.)
Narrative with proceed to the next passage. A way of breaking up information so it might be as simple as:
You are in this situation. Click next to proceed
Narrative with choice. This time there is a decision to be made:
Something is happening and you can:
Do this
Do that
Do other
Where this, that and other are separate passages, which can each provide another choice to be made and options to take.
Those two components have the potential to be combined to allow our reader to control their way through the permutations of plot that we write for them.
At first glance this might look like any basic multiple choice question. The key difference is that as an author, I do not need to be constrained by a binary right or wrong answer. The option selected could determine the next situation.
But I wanted to see what other features I could incorporate. I was looking for a constrained choice. For example, you have a fixed budget and each option has an associated choice:
At the start of the year you have a budget of £10,000.
Do you invest in:
- Health and Safety training: £4,000
- First Aid Training: £7,000
- Safety Equipment: £5,000
I also wanted to be able to carry a variable across an entire story. So in the example above, the budget may be £10,000 but after you have made your first investment you will have some change remaining. You may also encounter a later situation where you either receive reward or face a fine.
I have assembled this into a functioning demo:
http://piersansell.com/twine/decorating.html
At this stage I have focused on the technical or functional aspects.
From a learning point of view, my next consideration would be the story. The plot is simply a way of illustrating the concept it, doesn’t have any additional goal.
Finally, the appearance of this story is the default white or blue text on black with no images. Once the technical and story aspects of the project are finalised this can be brought to life.
Please let me know what you think.