Twine Cookbook Now Available

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 27 September 2017–The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF) is proud to announce the Twine Cookbook, a collection of “recipes” demonstrating how to achieve different effects in Twine using both macros and core Twine functionality.

Twine, an open-source and free tool created by Chris Klimas for making interactive fiction in the form of webpages, was released in 2009 and has been supported by an active community ever since. A democratizing force in the world of game design, it has been used to create such games as Depression Quest (Zoë Quinn, Patrick Lindsey) and The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo (Michael Lutz). Porpentine Charity Heartscape exhibited games developed using Twine in the Whitney Bienniale.

While Twine is an incredibly influential piece of technology, it has suffered from poor documentation. Twine creator Chris Klimas says, “For some, Twine has a reputation for being easy to learn but not that powerful. I think that isn’t quite right — it’s just that a lot of that power isn’t immediately obvious.” This is where the Twine Cookbook comes in, providing example code that authors can borrow, use, and modify as they learn to use Twine. Recipes range from the simple (how to simulate dice rolling) to the complex (how to implement a dungeon that players can move through). Dan Cox, who has shepherded the Twine Cookbook project to launch, says, “Through freely downloadable Twee code and HTML examples, our twin goals are to help educate current and future creators, and archive as many techniques as possible.”

The Twine Cookbook is a community effort, and all are invited to contribute new recipes and to suggest recipes for others to complete. To learn more, visit the Twine Cookbook Website (https://twinery.org/cookbook) and IFTF’s website (http://www.iftechfoundation.org).

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For further information or to set up an interview, please contact IFTF: press@iftechfoundation.org.