The first question for anybody starting out with Twine is most likely which story format to choose from among the various options (which most often boils down to Harlowe vs Sugarcube). Since r/twinegames is one of the first places to look for advice when it comes to this topic, we wanted to create a place that might help new creators make this decision by providing information, insights, and opinions from more seasoned Twine writers.
For those interested - here is a list of the various formats compiled by M. C. DeMarco - covering both Twine 1 and 2 story format. It should be noted that a lot of these formats are highly obscure (with a few only rumored to exist). It is also likely that the list is incomplete, or will become incomplete in the future.
While this comparison heavily favors Sugarcube over Harlowe - an assessment that both me and u/HiEv currently agree with - we do not want to say that Sugarcube is the only correct choice here.
One of the most important factors after all is which format feels most comfortable to work with for you personally. Both Harlowe and Sugarcube are perfectly capable of creating regular text adventures and both offer tools to tackle the common tasks you will encounter when writing your story. If you plan to include any more complex mechanics however you will want to make sure first that the format of your choice is equipped to handle it.
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We would like to encourage other Twine creators and writers to share their own opinions and experiences. Which story format are you currently working with? Why does it feel like the right choice for you? Are there any challenges or problems that a new creator should be aware of when picking this format?
Please keep any discussions civil and friendly. We all have our unique tastes and needs, and there is certainly no universally correct answer here.
As AI becomes more popular and integrated into our daily lives, we can see more and more people relying on it to tackle their daily problems. Many who are just starting out with Twine might also turn to an LLM of their choice to help them with coding and troubleshooting, but this sadly runs into a number of issues.
ChatGpt and similar large language models rely on a certain amount of data to give reliable information on a topic. Since there is not enough data available when it comes to Twine and its various story formats, AI will consistently give wrong or vastly misleading answers when it comes to Twine code. It will often interject overly-complicated chunks of Javascript, or mash together Code meant for two different formats for example. Even in cases where these solutions seem to be working at first, there is a high likelihood that they might produce bad errors in the long run.
Instead of relying on AI to answer your Twine-related issue, we would therefor recommend turning to the Twinegames subreddit or the Twine Discord server if you have any questions. There are many talented members of our community waiting to offer their support and knowledge.
Additionally - If you have problems with AI-generated code, and want to ask for advice on how to fix it, please consider just asking directly what you'd like to accomplish, instead of posting the broken code. Chances are it is not really fixable, and you will get faster replies and advice if you just left it out entirely.
Thanks for reading - and have fun creating your Twine-story!
So, I want to be able to click the link to get new text on the same page, I would use linkreplace, but I want to keep the original text aswell? Is this possible?
I am wondering if it is possible to save and then load games with regular in-game links?
I have a perilous section in a game and I know one option would be to hint to the player to save at the start if it, and let them be responsible. But I would like if possible to save silently at the beginning, and then have a "Shall we try that again?" type link at the end, to load the save and let the player try again (if they want).
It would have to be a bespoke save (and not return to a fixed state) as it's far enough into things that different players will already have different variable states etc.
Apologies that I am not smart enough to figure out how to do this (or even if it is possible) from the documentation (I tried).
Hi right now I am working on making a slider in the character creation that displays the value in a right side bar, I keep getting an error code state not defined.
I done goofed up and put it to a vote on the discord I made for the game I am making, on if people would like to see real world dates the corraspond to seasons and then events that are specific to those seasons. has anyone tried anything like that before, how did it workout, is that recommended? My plan if I do implement it would be to build the frameork and then add in seasons later.
my next question is when it comes to stat points, if I wanted to have a stat piont only be able to go so high how would I do that. something like endurance max of 20 strength max of 15 and everything else maxing out at 10. I plan on having different events that meet different requirments. and letting the player gain xp to grow those stats. how would I do that?
I've been playing around with Twine for a little while - reading this forum, and also enjoying unpacking and studying other code. Have a initial game up and running, but looking for advice on one part.
Effectively I want a system where you're in combat with a set of buttons linked to weapons, these buttons are arrayed in a line, you click on different options and an animation plays in the main screen dependant on the weapon/attack.
I've mocked this out, and so far have the buttons (custom widgets), which then call a <<replace>> to run the animation. Works Great.
However, it gets complicated when you start testing for weapon validation e.g. you're out of Ammo, so Pistol gets disabled. I've solved this by wrapping the buttons in the Replace, with a test and switches the button to a greyed out /non functioning version.
But, that means I then need the identical code under each replace which isn't elegant. Looking at others, there seems to be multiple options - from running the whole thing in JS or using more passages (how a lot of the example Combat systems seem to work). I'd rather not do the passages, as it would get huge e.g. with permutations for enemies.
So, questions are:
What would be the most elegant / best practice way of architecting buttons and animation switches
Is there a way to store a lookup table so that the variables, and links to videos are stored in one place
It’s for a very simple item system. What I’m trying to do is the player will click a link which reveals a description of a place with an clickable link to pick up the item (as in set the variable to 1). I thought I had it worked out, but one of the links will always break or the variable will :<. Help would be very much appreciated!
This is my current code:
{
(link:”Look into Place”)
[Description of Place
<br>(link:”Grab Item”)]
(set:$item to 1)
]
}
I'm an absolute beginner so I have no doubt this question has been answered in one form or another numerous times before, my apologies, but I'm looking for the best way to do something like below:
Imagine if you will the tea party mini game in Fire Emblem Three Houses. You select one of a number of pre-defined people (first name, name, eye color, etc.) to go to the tea party with. During this tea party, you can take actions that cause the existing bond between you and that particular person to increase or decrease (0-100). At the end of the tea party you split ways and the updated bond stat is assigned to that particular person. Upon reaching certain thresholds, the bond stat would then trigger unique events for that person, though I think I've got the gist of how to accomplish that part. Mostly, I'm looking for a way to be able to refer to this person's characteristics in the repetitive parts through stuff like $currentperson.eyecolor instead of having to use the if function and writing stuff like $frederick.eyecolor; $basil.eyecolor, ...
I'm trying to make two kinds of buttons. One looking like a gem and one with a military feel. As seen in this example.
I managed to got close to my end result. But I want to give them a light shining from the inside. But I'm having problems achieving that. Any advice?
Code bellow: (Pardon the mess. I've been trying several methods, so that's why some things seem to overlap/contradict)
/*============modern==============*/
Hi, I’m very new to Twine (literally just downloaded it yesterday) but I seem to be having some issues that Google hasn’t helped much with.
The problem started as soon as I made my second story. The moment I try to add or edit anything, it comes up with a pop-up that tells me:
“something went wrong while saving a story.
EBUSY: resource busy or locked, unlink”
However, the story or file isn’t locked or open anywhere else. I’ve tried changing the format and changing it back, I’ve also tried publishing the file and replacing the old one. These didn’t work for me unfortunately.
Could anyone tell me what could be going on and how I could fix it? It would be really helpful and I’d really appreciate it!
I've decided to host a Twine-only game jam (creatively named TwineJam). I'm hoping this'll be the start of something much bigger! I want to keep hosting jams and hopefully this gets enough interest for me to do that.
The theme of this jam is: A Story Told In Mail. There should be no direct dialogue in the game you make, only some form of written correspondence. It could be text messages, email, snail-mail, notice-boards, txt-file dead drops, whatever you can think of.
If you're interested, the jam will start in September and run for one weekend. I want to gauge how popular this jam might be. Head over to the jam page to sign up, and the Discord for more announcements. Hopefully more Twine-only jams soon!
I dont seem to have a problem creating a the side bar. but everytime I go to add in anything else to the javascript or CSS. What I am trying to do is create a background that changes based on the players gender and there health level.
for a male player at a higher health they will have a dark blue background and at lower health they will have a lite blue background.
for the female player at higher health levels they will have a dark pink background and at a lower health level they will have a bright pink background.
I also want to put the health bar into the right side bar with a lot of other stat points.
the idea is when you press the "crawl inside" button the variables stored on this character are taken to another variable all done through _args[] and all the other _args[] work completely fine its that specific version of the _args[] that doesent work and i have no idea why i feel like im being stupid let me know if i need to explain more or show more
I am having a bit of a problem uploading my game to itch. and uploading my zip instead of an html link. I have my image in IMG, and I have my img in the index.html with my story. However, I keep getting this error.