If X then Y, Z, ?: Using Twinery.org to teach interactive narrative development
Overview
Dr Katie Barnett is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Chester, where she is also the Programme Leader for BA Film & Media Studies and BA Media & Television Production. Dr Barnett leads undergraduate modules on Hollywood cinema, global film movements, auteurship and visual narrative storytelling, and contributes to modules on documentary, film criticism and gender studies. The departmental assessment officer from 2021-2024, she is particularly interested in methods of learning through assessment and pedagogical approaches that prioritise curiosity in the classroom.
The second year module Contemporary Visual Narratives introduces students to a range of narrative theories and structures as they apply to various visual media including film, television, social media and video games. As students advance through the module they begin to consider forms of immersive and interactive narrative storytelling. In this session, students are invited to use the free, open source online tool TwineryLink opens in a new window to construct their own interactive, branching narrative.
The aim of this activity is to allow students to put into practice their theoretical knowledge of narrative construction and storytelling, and pushes them to consider how classical cause and effect structures (if X then Y) can be subverted and challenged by audience interaction and multiple possible narrative effects (if X then ?). By the end of the session, students should have a functioning branching narrative and an understanding of the complexities of creating interactive narratives, including issues of how to make them robust against audience attempts (intentional or otherwise) to ‘break’ them.
Twinery is an online tool with a simple user interface that means students are able to learn the key functions quickly and require no knowledge of coding. By dragging and linking boxes on a grid and typing into plain text windows, users can quickly construct a story in a browser window.
After developing their interactive story, students share with peers and test each other’s narratives; following this period of peer feedback students are able to refine their stories.
Lesson plan
- Introductory content, delivered via PowerPoint, recapping key theory on interactive narratives covered in previous session. (10 mins)
- Introduction to Twinery (10 mins): I take students through the basic steps of accessing Twinery and its basic features, with annotated images on screen as a step-by-step guide.
- Example and guided creation (5 mins): I show students a pre-made example and together we add branches to this story, so they can see how it works in practice.
- Students play with Twinery and develop their own stories. (25 mins)
- Students share their stories with a peer and ‘play’ each other’s narratives, then give feedback and consider how to refine their stories or make them more robust. (15 mins)
- Students refine their branching narratives based on peer feedback. (20 mins)
- Whole class reflection (15 mins): we discuss what worked, what didn’t, and what students have learned about interactivity and narrative construction.
Tutor's observations
In this activity, I want students to be creative and have fun with what they have learned about storytelling and interactivity. In the classroom, it is well-received by students, who enjoy the freedom of being able to dream up a wide range of stories: some absurd, some serious, and many descending into increasingly ludicrous or gory scenarios as they realise they have the tools to make them a reality.
Some students are initially concerned by their lack of experience of tools like Twinery, but the step-by-step guide and additional tutor support is sufficient to overcome this. As the exercise progresses, students begin to think more seriously about possible narrative options and challenge themselves to devise multiple branching options for each scenario.
This is an important point in their learning as they have to consider how to make their stories ‘unbreakable’ and offer narrative resolution at various points. Getting to play each other’s stories engages students further as they tend to find it funny. The in-browser version of Twinery means that work cannot be saved and moved to another computer; this causes some disappointment for students who want to continue working on their stories beyond the session.
Links to more like this
Categories: dpl_categories
Tools: Twinery
Departments: University of Chester