So, like…Twine, am I right? I’d be lying if I said I fully understand what the hell I just did in any of those games I played, but it makes me excited to try and make my own. The first thing I wanted to research when playing with Twine was how it worked. A few websites explain it as “an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories.” I feel like that’s pretty on par with the experience I had when I played Seedship and Rage Quest.
Now, Seedship was really cool. The concept was even more intriguing than it sounded in the description, and I liked that the creator gave the AI a bit of a bias in some situations. I’m not sure if that’s even intentional, but I think it was a really good way of showing that the creators of AI programs will inevitably pass on their own biases into the programs they create. Finding a potential new planet took what felt like a million years, though. I visited 26 planets before settling on one, and it still didn’t end well so hopefully you did better than me if you chose this one. It was fun to navigate through the program and actually see the consequences to actions being chosen on the left side of the screen. I really enjoyed the challenging thoughts and dilemmas the game provided when asking about the cultural/scientific data, passengers, and potential to tear apart the ship or make repairs. This was super creative, and it’s making me think hard about what I’d like to do for mine!
Rage Quest was interesting to say the least! I thought the comment about increasing rage after selecting to heal myself was a bit funny, like why am I mad that I’m increasing my health? But obviously I understand that it’s rage about the circumstance and situation. I love that it had the medieval, fantasy feel to it with the terminology, images on the screen, and actions. The plot was really cool to unravel as I kept going onward through the questions which I was really hoping for. And the imagery? I mean, come on! You’ve got to have detailed imagery for something like a Twine game. I totally recommend giving this one a shot, too.