Making Stories: An introduction to narrative web game tools

This maker session will introduce several free, web-based tools for designing narrative games and examples of games made with these tools. Then, you will be able to explore using the tool for your own project or prototyping ideas, and I'll be here to offer advice and help if you need. Finally, we will regroup for sharing and discussion as well as looking at the options for distributing these games online.

Introduction - Browser Tools: What and why?

In this session we will be looking at tools for making narrative games that you can use from the browser on your computer. They also export as HTML files that can be shared or embedded online in a variety of ways, and be played by anyone using an internet browser. For the session, it will be best to be working from a laptop or desktop PC and using an up to date browser like Firefox or Chrome.

These are some of the exciting benefits of experimenting with these tools:

Visual Interfaces/Coding "Optional"
Free and Open Source
Technologically accessible
Convenient to Distribute
It's fun to make stuff!

Let's Try Some Games!

Bitsy Games

When I Get Home - The First Bitsy game
The Last Days of Our Castle

Twine Games

Resources for Making

If you are trying Bitsy...

Open Bitsy in the browser
Claire Morwood's Bitsy Tutorial (a classic)
The Bitsy Wiki - A collection of more specific tutorials, documentation and more information
Bitsy tag - A tag for all games made with Bitsy on itch.io

If you are trying Twine...

Open Twine in the browser
Allison Parrish's Twine Tutorial
The Twine Cookbook - Documentation and guides for Twine features on the official site
Twine tag - A tag for all games made with Twine on itch.io

Discussion, Feedback and Sharing

Collaborating & More

Finding More tools

Itch.io search - Filter by Tools or Resources, or enter tool names (like "Bitsy") as tags
Everest's List - A curated list of hundreds of free web tools for making games, graphics, websites, sound, etc.