About the Organizer
Hi! I’m Mike Ren! I’m a game designer based in Shanghai. You may know me from “Touch Our Buttons”, a collective making arcade machines and party games for events.
Previously, I worked at Ubisoft as a Level Designer on Far Cry 5. Before moving to China, I lived in New York City working in the film industry. I graduated from NYU with a Major in Film & Animation and a Minor in Game Design. Here’s my Portfolio for more!
As someone who loves amazing stories and playing games, I started the Branches workshop to give people the tools and knowledge to create their very own game!
In this workshop, we will be using “Twine” to create our stories. By the end of the 4 week workshop, you will have your first story PUBLISHED ONLINE!
WHAT IS TWINE?
Twine is an open-source hypertext program that allows you to create branching stories.
Each box represents a page of text and each line shows how they flow together. Based on how you link the passages, you start to create an interactive story. There’s no limit to how big or complex your story can be, just your own imagination!
Here are some of the top features of Twine:
- Visual flowchart to plot out your story and logic.
- Use math and logic design to create gameplay.
- Add pictures, sounds, and visual customization for more immersion.
- Completely free to use, even for commercial purposes.
- Publish anywhere on the web as a webpage!
Depending on your knowledge of story structure, game design, CSS, and javascript, Twine becomes a powerful tool to create all sorts of interactive experiences. I’m super excited to see what you make!