What is Twine?
Twine is an open-source tool which you can easily use to develop interactive and non-linear stories in a form of a website. There you can make independent decisions which will directly affect further development of the storyline – you are active. You can use everything you have created for free in any way you want – also for commercial purposes.
![Diagram of a nonlinear story. The graphics represent how to create a non-linear story in the form of a diagram - part of the story and the player's decision, then the next specific part of the story and the next decision of the player, etc.](https://accessible.gameofgdansk.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/a-gamebook-scheme.png)
Installation/On-line editor
While developing your project, you can use:
- installed Twine software
- internet browser Twine online
What is the difference? In a desktop (installed) version you have more possibilities and the projects you have saved are safer (in an on-line version, your projects are saved in the browser memory – if you clean it, your projects will be deleted too).
![Download and Use it online. In the upper right corner of the twinery.org website there is an option to download Twine to your computer - "Download". You can also use the program in the "on-line" version using only a web browser.](https://accessible.gameofgdansk.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/twine.png)
Learning the interface
![The graphic shows a selected fragment of the Twine application (menu). The graphic shows a selected fragment of the Twine application (menu). There are options "+ Story" (new project), "Import From File" (loading project or projects), "Archive" (saving all projects as an archive), "Formats" (selecting the story style format), "Language" ( editor language selection), "Help" (help - Twine Wiki) and buttons with the sun and moon symbol (editor theme change: light and dark).](https://accessible.gameofgdansk.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/twine2-1024x510.png)
Story format
Harlowe – is a default story format in Twine 2. See: documentation.
In this tutorial we use a default story format for Twine 2: Harlowe. There are also other story formats in Twine, such as Snowman, SugarCube, etc. You can choose any format you like but please, remember that most information included in the tutorial is specific for Harlowe. While using other story formats, you can do similar things but the code that you have to write will be a bit different.
![The graphic shows a selected fragment of the Twine (Story Formats) application. The graphic shows a selected fragment of the Twine (Story Formats) application. Format styles control the appearance and functionality of a nonlinear story created in the Twine application. The default style is "Harlowe".](https://accessible.gameofgdansk.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/twine3.png)
More information about story formats is available at twinery.org/wiki/