[[Twine]] is a tool that helps you create [[interactive]], [[hypertext]] fiction.
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]Twine lets you create links between [[passages]]. When you create a [[link|hypertext]], new passages will be automatically created for you to fill in and edit.
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]When a story is interactive, this means that the reader has some control over what they read. By clicking on [[hypertext]], the reader can navigate between [[passages]].
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]You are probably very familiar with hypertext already. You have used it multiple times just to get here! Hypertext is text that will navigate you somewhere else. Any text that is also a link you click on is hypertext.
This is **not** hypertext.
[[This is hypertext!]]
In [[Twine]], hypertext is used to link between different [[passages]] in the [[story]].
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]Passages are where the writing goes. What you are seeing [[***<u>now</u>***|formatting]] is a passage! Passages are linked together using [[hypertext]].
A collection of these passages can create an [[interactive]] [[story]]!
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]Congratulations, you used some [[hypertext]]!
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]The point of this unit is to create an [[interactive]] [[hypertext]] story using [[Twine]]. Unlike most stories, your story will be [[non-linear]].
Maybe your story will be about a [[monster]]
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]A novel is linear. It has a particular [[start|Untitled Passage]], middle and end and each reader of the story will encounter the same [[passages]] of text.
When we use [[hypertext]], a reader starts to have choices about what they read and when. Not all readers will encounter the same things in the same order. In many cases, readers will not encounter the same things [[***<u>at all</u>***|formatting]]
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]Did you notice how that text was **bold**, <u>underlined</u> and *italicised*?
Well, that works a little differently in [[Twine]] than you might be used to. When editing a [[passage|passages]], you will be able to add special coding to format the text in different ways.
We will even learn how to change the font and background colour.
Don't worry! It's not too [[difficult]].
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!]There's plenty of extra stuff you can do that **is** difficult, though.
You can add conditional formatting that can be used to reveal new information if a certain condition is met. Perhaps you want new options to become available if your reader picks up a [[sword]]. You can do that!
(if:$sword is true)[Please don't stab me!](set:$sword to true)
You now have a sword! In every [[passage|passages]], you will now see the text "Please don't stab me!"
That text was hidden before, but is revealed through some conditional fomatting.
[[Twine]] is very clever like that.
We can look at this sort of thing if you are grasping everything else very quickly.(if:$sword is not true)[Argh! Don't go near the monster without a weapon!
If it eats you, you will have to go back to the [[start|Untitled Passage]]!]
(if: $sword is true)[**CONGRATULATIONS!!!** You swing your sword and the monster is slain!
You have now unlocked the secrets of this tutorial.
**The end**
*Tell Ciarán that you are the "Twine champion" in order to claim your prize. Do so **secretly**.*]