Twining History: Writing the Asian Past through Interactive Narrative

Shu Wan, PhD candidate and graduate instructor, University at Buffalo, US

Course Type: (Digital) Humanities

Keywords: Twine, History Writing, Interactive Narrative, Digital Humanities,

University Department Level Credits Length Medium
University at Buffalo History Undergrad 1 5 In-person

Course Description

Today, interactive narratives have been widely utilized in various writings for diverse purposes and audiences of different backgrounds. This 5-week short course aims to teach students how to write history interactively on the popular platform Twine. By taking the lecture, introducing its use, and producing their projects in collaboration with classmates, students are expected to become advanced users of Twine.

Weekly Outline

  •  Week 1      Introduction to Interactive Narrative and Twine 
  • Week 2      Basic Uses of Twine
  • Week 3      Advance use of Twine  
  • Week 4      In-class activity on brainstorming the final project and beginning its design and code-writing in groups.
  • Week 5       Final project presentation in the class

Course Objectives ​

  • Understanding the use of interactive narrative in writing history
  • Acquiring the basic skills of coding on Twine
  • Comprehending the knowledge of composing interactive narrative.

Reading

IDE and IDN Authoring Tools

  • Twine (IDN Authoring Tool)

Major Assignments (being assignments whose value is of 25% or more)

Project 1: Hello World! Your First Twine Project. 

  • Platform: Twine
  • Purpose: acquiring he basic skills of coding and editing stories in Twines
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: approximately 5 minutes.
    • Project Size:  single scene, and 3 passages which should have around 50- 100 words on each.
    • Coding Proficiency: for the beginner-level assignment, students are expected to use Twine’s basics and code on CSS and HTML. However, the project is expected to work well, including transiting from one passage to another and smoothly. Hence, students are suggested to debug before submitting their assignment,
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: The project should be highly interactive. For example, it should include different options available for players to choose, which direct to different results/ends.
    • Story and narrative: Students are expected to maintain the historical currency and avoid factual errors like “the United States in the early 18th century” or “an ancient Chinese officials living in the 20th century.” When completing his history assignment, students are not permitted to compose either alternative history of time-travel writing.

Project 2. Being Collaborative and Advanced Twine Writers 

  • Platform: Twine
  • Purpose: Practice the collaborative skills and advanced feature of Twine 
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: approximately 10 minutes.
    • Project Size: at least 3 scenes and 10 passages which should have around 50 – 200 words on each
    • The procedure of completing: Different from the previous individual projects, students will be distributed into groups consisting of 4-6 members. They will begin their work on the in-class activities on Week 4, which will be followed by one week after-class work on completing the project.
  • Coding Proficiency: students are expected to use the advanced features of Twine when completing the teamwork project, Besides using CSS and HTML, students are highly recommended to attempt to code in JavaScript. 
  • Evaluation: 
    • same as the first project

Course Best Practices

Mecca: Digital Storytelling in the Classroom https://digitalorientalist.com/2023/02/21/a-twine-journey-to-mecca-digital-storytelling-in-the-classroom/