Twine has been a HUGE success! The arc/DH@SDSU electronic literature program was wrapped up in Twine again this week, and our students loved it! We really wanted to ensure that our digital authors had the opportunity to do more than just get their feet wet in the world of electronic storytelling, so this week we submerged ourselves in the coding aspects of the program and explored how different languages (aka: html code) can be incorporated into our digital creations.
Katie Chestnut (Graduate Student, Education) and her students spent the first half of the class period developing and writing the content that would be used as the basis of their Twine stories and dedicated the second portion of the class to formatting. Observing the motivational switches that occur in students, Katie remarked, “The difference between the students’ desire to write in an optional versus a mandatory class is just so noticeable.” When encountering portions of coding necessary for formatting their Twine, students (understandably!) experienced frustration but were able to overcome these rigors with the help of a tutorial designed by SDSU’s Adam Hammond, which can be viewed here.
Brenda Taulbee’s (Graduate Student, English and Comparative Literature) students found the benefits that Twine can offer as a storyboard and outlining tool even when it is not being intended as the final form for a project. Her students used their time to create fantastical passages for their stories and to develop a basic structure for what they would like to see played out in their games, expressing distinct interest in statistical representation of physical and mental abilities, inventory development, and role-playing games in general. Brenda advised her students to do some personal research as well when looking into these types of advanced techniques. “You’ll have to learn to walk before you can run an ultra marathon,” she had to offer.
Next week is the big one—Virtual Reality! Students will have a chance to experience the incredible possibilities, as well as potential problems, associated with virtual space.
Don’t forget about the Showcase Pizza Party coming up on Wednesday, November 7th! We hope to see you all there!