Imaginary worlds
January 8, 2015 9:14 PM Subscribe
What are other platforms/programs that you can use to tell stories?
I recently read an article in the NY Times (Twine, the Video Game for All) that described twine-based games. The article described a program was free and could be learned within a few hours, and gave a few interesting examples of the types of games that have been created; many were different points of view.
This leads me to the question as to whether there are other platforms like that.
I would like to find programs/platforms that:
• Can be learned within a few hours (up to a few days, maximum).
• Already has an audience (ie, can be easily posted somewhere).
• Ideally, free, but I would pay for one if it did both of the above.
I would also like to find articles (similar to the NY Times article) that these these other platforms/programs and/or see examples of other type of platforms that are used for stories or parts of stories.
My objective is to write stories but also be able to present a character, a point of view, part of a story via one of these platforms and get feedback or see how an audience responds. I don't want to spend weeks or months learning how to use a program. I never even imagined that this would really be possible until I read the linked article, so I thought I would post the question with goal of finding more. I realize that there might not be anything, but ... this is probably the best way to find out.
As always, thanks in advance.
I recently read an article in the NY Times (Twine, the Video Game for All) that described twine-based games. The article described a program was free and could be learned within a few hours, and gave a few interesting examples of the types of games that have been created; many were different points of view.
This leads me to the question as to whether there are other platforms like that.
I would like to find programs/platforms that:
• Can be learned within a few hours (up to a few days, maximum).
• Already has an audience (ie, can be easily posted somewhere).
• Ideally, free, but I would pay for one if it did both of the above.
I would also like to find articles (similar to the NY Times article) that these these other platforms/programs and/or see examples of other type of platforms that are used for stories or parts of stories.
My objective is to write stories but also be able to present a character, a point of view, part of a story via one of these platforms and get feedback or see how an audience responds. I don't want to spend weeks or months learning how to use a program. I never even imagined that this would really be possible until I read the linked article, so I thought I would post the question with goal of finding more. I realize that there might not be anything, but ... this is probably the best way to find out.
As always, thanks in advance.
The Ren'Py visual novel engine is free. It's a tool that allows you to create games in the style of Japanese visual novels.
One of the most highly-regarded games created with it (by a team of volunteers) is Katawa Shoujo which, despite the name, is in English.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:58 PM on January 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
One of the most highly-regarded games created with it (by a team of volunteers) is Katawa Shoujo which, despite the name, is in English.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:58 PM on January 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Chiming in to provide more information about Inform 7 and what you could do with it. YMMV, as usual, but Inform 7 (and the interactive fiction landscape it opens up) can be what you're looking for.
For your purposes, Inform 7 should be pretty easy to implement within a few days. Interactive fiction arguably has a large audience, and I7 is free. Compared to Twine, I think there's a lot more space to work with. I personally don't enjoy playing Twine games because the story just keeps branching out like a Choose Your Own Adventure, and prefer the open exploration in classic interactive fiction.
Here are some stand-out examples of storytelling with interactive fiction (not just in Inform 7 but in its predecessors and TADS, the other major IF language, and choose-your-own-adventure editors): Aisle, Glass, Creatures Such As We... In general, you might find Emily Short's blog helpful in discussing the broader topic of storytelling through text-based games, in Inform and otherwise.
posted by undue influence at 11:46 PM on January 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
For your purposes, Inform 7 should be pretty easy to implement within a few days. Interactive fiction arguably has a large audience, and I7 is free. Compared to Twine, I think there's a lot more space to work with. I personally don't enjoy playing Twine games because the story just keeps branching out like a Choose Your Own Adventure, and prefer the open exploration in classic interactive fiction.
Here are some stand-out examples of storytelling with interactive fiction (not just in Inform 7 but in its predecessors and TADS, the other major IF language, and choose-your-own-adventure editors): Aisle, Glass, Creatures Such As We... In general, you might find Emily Short's blog helpful in discussing the broader topic of storytelling through text-based games, in Inform and otherwise.
posted by undue influence at 11:46 PM on January 8, 2015 [2 favorites]
I believe GameMaker and Unity are both considered easy to use and cheap/free, but I haven't used them myself so I couldn't say exactly. They both have decent communities built up around them and have been used to make commercially successful games.
posted by Drexen at 3:27 AM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Drexen at 3:27 AM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Commercial Unity developer here. I think you want to stick with text-based IF engines (Twine, INFORM, etc) for this, or maybe something like Ren'Py that is still predominantly built around text with flavor images, given your expertise and timeline.
Unity is awesome and I love working with it but there's enough parts to fit together that I don't think you'd be able to go from zero to compelling narrative in the timeline you describe. Also, since Unity has support for 2d and 3d art, sound, and animation, you end up wanting at least some expertise in working with most of these things. The tradeoff is that you can do interesting visual things, and create all sorts of different game mechanics. If that sounds interesting to you, by all means check it out! It's definitely approachable by a beginner, just with more of a complexity curve than some of the text-only options.
posted by Alterscape at 8:08 AM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Unity is awesome and I love working with it but there's enough parts to fit together that I don't think you'd be able to go from zero to compelling narrative in the timeline you describe. Also, since Unity has support for 2d and 3d art, sound, and animation, you end up wanting at least some expertise in working with most of these things. The tradeoff is that you can do interesting visual things, and create all sorts of different game mechanics. If that sounds interesting to you, by all means check it out! It's definitely approachable by a beginner, just with more of a complexity curve than some of the text-only options.
posted by Alterscape at 8:08 AM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Twine is indeed a great option. Twine 2.0 is just recently out, which allows you to do some browser-based work rather than downloading the tool to your own desktop, and there's a huge group of users. The main challenge I think people run into is that special effects tend to require macros and CSS tweaks, so if you're not familiar with how to do those things, you can be stumped for how to replicate the effect in your favorite existing Twine thing. But on the other hand, that also means that there's significant potential to customize the look and feel of your piece, if that matters to you.
If you just want to really quickly try out how this kind of writing feels for you, the very fastest-startup tool I know is inklewriter: I've introduced this to people in workshops and had them finished with a complete piece by the end of three hours. This is a little inklewriter piece I wrote to teach from; it's designed to really quickly sketch in some of the different kinds of things you can do with choice-based narrative.
Inform is also terrific (though I'm maximally biased, having worked on it and being married to its inventor). It will take more time to get a finished Inform game than to get a finished Twine or inklewriter piece: anything that allows the player to type commands puts more demands on the author. However, if what you really want is to build a world, as you say in your description, then you might like it, since it's all about making objects and spaces for people to move through.
ChoiceScript is good if you want to do something choice-based that tracks character traits; Ren'Py is good if you want to show images of characters and backgrounds as the story plays out. There are other more esoteric options if you want to do really specific things (such as multiplayer IF, IF that resembles the web game Fallen London, etc.). All of these are free to use and most are pretty refined products with years of development behind them.
If you want to publicize something that you create with these tools, you can create an entry on IFDB and announce your new piece on the intfiction forum (also a good source for help if you're struggling with your creation). The main exception is that Ren'Py-style visual novels tend to have a slightly different audience and group of authors, so you might want the Ren'Py forums instead.
There are also interactive fiction meetup groups in Boston, New York, Seattle (sporadically), the Bay Area, and Oxford/London, so if you live near one of those places and want some live feedback on your work, that could be a place to go; and there are assorted IF-related jams and competitions that could give you feedback.
posted by emshort at 12:29 PM on January 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
If you just want to really quickly try out how this kind of writing feels for you, the very fastest-startup tool I know is inklewriter: I've introduced this to people in workshops and had them finished with a complete piece by the end of three hours. This is a little inklewriter piece I wrote to teach from; it's designed to really quickly sketch in some of the different kinds of things you can do with choice-based narrative.
Inform is also terrific (though I'm maximally biased, having worked on it and being married to its inventor). It will take more time to get a finished Inform game than to get a finished Twine or inklewriter piece: anything that allows the player to type commands puts more demands on the author. However, if what you really want is to build a world, as you say in your description, then you might like it, since it's all about making objects and spaces for people to move through.
ChoiceScript is good if you want to do something choice-based that tracks character traits; Ren'Py is good if you want to show images of characters and backgrounds as the story plays out. There are other more esoteric options if you want to do really specific things (such as multiplayer IF, IF that resembles the web game Fallen London, etc.). All of these are free to use and most are pretty refined products with years of development behind them.
If you want to publicize something that you create with these tools, you can create an entry on IFDB and announce your new piece on the intfiction forum (also a good source for help if you're struggling with your creation). The main exception is that Ren'Py-style visual novels tend to have a slightly different audience and group of authors, so you might want the Ren'Py forums instead.
There are also interactive fiction meetup groups in Boston, New York, Seattle (sporadically), the Bay Area, and Oxford/London, so if you live near one of those places and want some live feedback on your work, that could be a place to go; and there are assorted IF-related jams and competitions that could give you feedback.
posted by emshort at 12:29 PM on January 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
You may find Sleep Is Death interesting. It's a framework for creating storytelling games on the fly while someone is playing it.
posted by Sibrax at 3:30 PM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Sibrax at 3:30 PM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I wanted to say thank you to every single person who took the time to answer this question; the answers will help either me and/or future people who read the question. I will spend time diving through the various links and checking out the games/programs.
There are great references linked here, too.
Undue influence, the blog that you linked too is phenomenal.
Emshort - that is an incredible detailed answer from every perspective and far beyond what I imagined learning from this question.
I will still be reading this thread case in case anyone has a new/additional resources, but the answers have already gone far beyond what I imagined possible. Thanks again!
posted by Wolfster at 9:40 AM on January 10, 2015
There are great references linked here, too.
Undue influence, the blog that you linked too is phenomenal.
Emshort - that is an incredible detailed answer from every perspective and far beyond what I imagined learning from this question.
I will still be reading this thread case in case anyone has a new/additional resources, but the answers have already gone far beyond what I imagined possible. Thanks again!
posted by Wolfster at 9:40 AM on January 10, 2015
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posted by johngoren at 9:36 PM on January 8, 2015 [3 favorites]