Primary Faculty Advisor
Sandra M. Leonard
Presentation Types
Individual Presentation
Description
My game has changed a lot since I originally came up with the concept. Obviously, I took inspiration from western media such as deadwood, Clint Eastwood films, and Red Dead Redemption. The game ended up much more in-depth than I originally planned, but I don’t believe that to be a bad thing in of itself. I believe the biggest flaw of this game was my inexperience with coding. I had so many ideas to add – inventory lists, a map, special text effects – but I didn’t have the knowledge or time to implement these. I think, though, I still managed to connect to my original audience, purpose, and genre. My audience goals were based on people who enjoy western stories, dark stories, and mystery. The genre is still mystery, but also bits of horror and suspense. I liken it to Spider and Web, due to its dialogue and sense of mystery.
The concept of the story, from a gameplay perspective, was determined by my capabilities of coding. I had to learn as I went – and some of my ambitions were beyond what I had the times or means to do. I initially wanted to have a full inventory list that you could interact with on the side, but that was beyond my ability. I went with what I knew how to do and did my best to keep it simple. My biggest hinderance, I believe, was that I attempted to do too much. The story lines all branch out, as they are supposed to do, but what I did not account for was the sheer volume of choices a person could make. Even with my limited scope of questions and options, I felt the spiral of options coming under control. I truly felt like Stefan from Bandersnatch, watching the forking paths unravel before me in unending ways. The biggest flaw of my game, I feel, is that I did not have enough time to flesh out every variable as fully as I would’ve liked – and not every variable had a consequence attached to it.
I did feel accomplished, however, with my game overall. I added some countdown mechanics to insinuate a quick snap decision, specifically when encountering the couple along the trail and deciding whether or not to shoot them. I also intuited several if – then links of code, which changes what the player would see depending on if they’ve visited a certain passage, or if a certain variable was gathered or lost. I found that element to be very narratively satisfying. It helped solidify the game as a bit of a mystery – you uncovered information by talking to people and interacting with certain things.
I also utilized some loops during the dialogue options, notably with the barkeep, so if you asked him the same question about rumors, he gives a different answer. To make that apparent with every dialogue choice would have been too much work for me, I believe. My game also utilizes multiple endings. You can die along the way, choose to leave town, get eaten by beasts, leave your friend behind, or become a beast yourself. Having multiple made it feel like your choices truly did matter at the end.
I think the best part of my game is the different paths and choices and the depth of detail provided. Almost every option will reveal something about the setting and story, and the player can choose to ignore or interact with as many of those story elements as they want. They can also choose to do immoral things for their own survival – i.e. killing the couple for food. I think the variables create a nice subtext about the character too – his gut instinct when you get to the couple and their food is to shoot them. Shows that this character isn’t necessarily a good guy – mostly self-interested.
Having a lone ex-army P.I. isn’t a new idea, I know, but I loved the idea of that leading into a choose your own adventure game. I think the actual story I have is solid, and the way the narrative goes allows the player to be able to try to figure out what is happening as they play. My variables make it even more interesting and immersive as the character may react to things you’ve done.
In wake of revising this game for the composition conference, I have decided that I simply dreamt too big with this project. I had too many variables, and too many inconsistencies. I needed to slow down, figure out my main goals, and make sure I executed them precisely. I took out a lot of macros in this edition of the game, focusing on making sure that the ones I had worked and made sense. I always feel as though I could improve the game, but I realize that just because it can be improved, doesn’t mean that it is unfinished. I could refine my work for decades, but at some point, I need to accept my work for what it is! Most of my editing, as mentioned, was removing macros and making sure my current variables were working up to par with what I needed. I also did text edits, fixing spelling and grammatical mistakes – of which there were, to my dismay, many. I also added an entire new linear event that ties in with the natural mysticism of the world I created and edited the ending to have a little more resolution and clarity. Again, as I poured back into this, I felt really drawn to the process. I could spent hours tweaking and writing, staying up way past my intended time just to finish one more slide, one more panel, etc. I could add so much more to this if I only had the time…but sadly that is not the case. I will, of course, continue to update this as I can, adding in more photos and sounds and effects and stories to this game. I could see this being a very intricate story, with a more experienced outlook of both twine and game development.
Recommended Citation
Bandy, Matthew, "Twine 2: A Western" (2022). KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference. 2.
https://research.library.kutztown.edu/compconf/2022/presentations/2
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Twine 2: A Western
My game has changed a lot since I originally came up with the concept. Obviously, I took inspiration from western media such as deadwood, Clint Eastwood films, and Red Dead Redemption. The game ended up much more in-depth than I originally planned, but I don’t believe that to be a bad thing in of itself. I believe the biggest flaw of this game was my inexperience with coding. I had so many ideas to add – inventory lists, a map, special text effects – but I didn’t have the knowledge or time to implement these. I think, though, I still managed to connect to my original audience, purpose, and genre. My audience goals were based on people who enjoy western stories, dark stories, and mystery. The genre is still mystery, but also bits of horror and suspense. I liken it to Spider and Web, due to its dialogue and sense of mystery.
The concept of the story, from a gameplay perspective, was determined by my capabilities of coding. I had to learn as I went – and some of my ambitions were beyond what I had the times or means to do. I initially wanted to have a full inventory list that you could interact with on the side, but that was beyond my ability. I went with what I knew how to do and did my best to keep it simple. My biggest hinderance, I believe, was that I attempted to do too much. The story lines all branch out, as they are supposed to do, but what I did not account for was the sheer volume of choices a person could make. Even with my limited scope of questions and options, I felt the spiral of options coming under control. I truly felt like Stefan from Bandersnatch, watching the forking paths unravel before me in unending ways. The biggest flaw of my game, I feel, is that I did not have enough time to flesh out every variable as fully as I would’ve liked – and not every variable had a consequence attached to it.
I did feel accomplished, however, with my game overall. I added some countdown mechanics to insinuate a quick snap decision, specifically when encountering the couple along the trail and deciding whether or not to shoot them. I also intuited several if – then links of code, which changes what the player would see depending on if they’ve visited a certain passage, or if a certain variable was gathered or lost. I found that element to be very narratively satisfying. It helped solidify the game as a bit of a mystery – you uncovered information by talking to people and interacting with certain things.
I also utilized some loops during the dialogue options, notably with the barkeep, so if you asked him the same question about rumors, he gives a different answer. To make that apparent with every dialogue choice would have been too much work for me, I believe. My game also utilizes multiple endings. You can die along the way, choose to leave town, get eaten by beasts, leave your friend behind, or become a beast yourself. Having multiple made it feel like your choices truly did matter at the end.
I think the best part of my game is the different paths and choices and the depth of detail provided. Almost every option will reveal something about the setting and story, and the player can choose to ignore or interact with as many of those story elements as they want. They can also choose to do immoral things for their own survival – i.e. killing the couple for food. I think the variables create a nice subtext about the character too – his gut instinct when you get to the couple and their food is to shoot them. Shows that this character isn’t necessarily a good guy – mostly self-interested.
Having a lone ex-army P.I. isn’t a new idea, I know, but I loved the idea of that leading into a choose your own adventure game. I think the actual story I have is solid, and the way the narrative goes allows the player to be able to try to figure out what is happening as they play. My variables make it even more interesting and immersive as the character may react to things you’ve done.
In wake of revising this game for the composition conference, I have decided that I simply dreamt too big with this project. I had too many variables, and too many inconsistencies. I needed to slow down, figure out my main goals, and make sure I executed them precisely. I took out a lot of macros in this edition of the game, focusing on making sure that the ones I had worked and made sense. I always feel as though I could improve the game, but I realize that just because it can be improved, doesn’t mean that it is unfinished. I could refine my work for decades, but at some point, I need to accept my work for what it is! Most of my editing, as mentioned, was removing macros and making sure my current variables were working up to par with what I needed. I also did text edits, fixing spelling and grammatical mistakes – of which there were, to my dismay, many. I also added an entire new linear event that ties in with the natural mysticism of the world I created and edited the ending to have a little more resolution and clarity. Again, as I poured back into this, I felt really drawn to the process. I could spent hours tweaking and writing, staying up way past my intended time just to finish one more slide, one more panel, etc. I could add so much more to this if I only had the time…but sadly that is not the case. I will, of course, continue to update this as I can, adding in more photos and sounds and effects and stories to this game. I could see this being a very intricate story, with a more experienced outlook of both twine and game development.
