http://www.philome.la/grand_nacho/the-real-unc
Creating a Twine game has easily been the most interesting and exciting aspect of this class to me so far, but it was very challenging. Coding is not something that naturally makes sense to me, so implementing the name prompt that I had in my game, as well as editing a custom style sheet, or even creating links between passages was confusing. I had to look up tutorial videos on YouTube in order to understand, and the videos were amazing. This was how I learned the code to make the name prompt appear in my game that asks the user what his or her name is and implements it into the game. I got genuinely excited about learning how to making that function for my game and creating a fully completed game.
Even though there is quite a learning curve for Twine for people who have no experience with coding, I do believe it is a relatively user friendly software with many resources available out there to teach people how to use the various functions. Twine is an excellent tool for producing interactive experiences to create conversations about controversial issues. Even though Twine games may not be an interface where true dialogue occurs, those games can be used to get people talking in other forms of media. Many of the example games that we played in class conveyed powerful messages about controversial topics that people do not normally talk about, such as the open hatred that people often express to others’ art without consideration for the artist, depression, homosexual love, and the process of changing gender. I found all of the games interesting and eye-opening to topics that I, personally, had never really thought about deeply.
I took the assignment of creating my own Twine game as an opportunity to convey a meaningful message as well. My game is about the struggles that students face at such a prestigious university like UNC. Many students struggle at this school in ways that they never struggled in high school and that can be hard for people, but I hope that my game conveys well that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, a happy ending. I know my game will likely never get played by many people but it was still interesting to think about. I love that people put software like Twine out there for free so that people can produce beautiful, meaningful work that may have never gotten produced if the software was not free. This relates well to the entire idea behind the “GNO Manifesto.” When software is made free to everybody to use for however they wish, more unique and amazing work can be created. Many of these Twine games do not look aesthetically gorgeous, but they have strong messages. I believe the world can be a better place when people consider and acknowledge these controversial messages.
