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(text-colour:black)[But before that,] [[Thoughts on HTML ->html]] [[Thoughts on Bitsy->bitsy]]

(text-colour:black)[HTML is definitely easier to learn than people may think, however if <a href="https://easelings.neocities.org/" target="_blank"> the website this is going to be published</a> on says anything; it; HTML is hard to master. Shameless plug aside, HTML did end up being relevant to me anyways, so it gets credit for that.] [[Bitsy ->bitsy]] [[Twine on the otherhand... ->twine1]]

(text-colour:black)[Bitsy has a visuals forward format, which I appreciate. However I can't think of anything worst to draw on. To be fair, the way I went about it was needlessly difficult, there's a reason why the graphics for many Bitsy projects are simple. That's the point of Bitsy anyways. However, I think I can do more, and it turns out; you can do more with Bitsy, it's just equally as cumbersome. I had to find an archived version of Bitsy so that Pixsy would work with it, luckily for me that ended up making Bitsy Color+ work better. If you try to use Bitsy color+ with a modern Bitsy file, the tiles end up getting glitched quite badly. ] [[ HTML->html]] [[Twine on the other hand...->twine1]]

(text-colour:black)[Twine can do everything I'd want to do with HTML or Bitsy faster and easier. It for sure has its own shortcomings but it was by far the least frusturating to use, at worst I just made slow process. It also greatly benefits from having a visual flow chart format, my HTML is a mess and Bitsy is also a mess but especially with the way I was using it, which caused the UI to start lagging. This is entirely my fault to be clear.] [[Writing->twine2]]

(text-colour:black)[Between all the stories I wrote, <a href="https://easelings.neocities.org/projects/Overtime" target="_blank">Overtime</a> is my favorite. It was based on a short story I wrote for a creative writing class, so it felt like adding onto that world when I otherwise didn't really have an excuse to do so. My other two projects also feel much too personal to share publically, outside the classroom, meanwhile I would willingly share Overtime once I tweak some things. I like how the ultimate product came out, but it wasn't a walk in the park.] [[complaints->twine3]] [[more about writing->overtime]]

(text-colour:black)[Oh how I wish Twine had a spell checker. I don't doubt there's some really embarassing typos in Overtime. There's some things I also would've liked to do, formatting wise, but they weren't immediately obvious nor necessary for me to do in the moment so I didn't. The thing that took the longest was any sort of visuals. I also don't especially appreciate that everything defaults to white text on a black screen. Oh well,] [[praises->twine4]]

(text-colour:black)[What's also in Twine's favor is that it's so easy to make and sure, I've actually played / read some Twine projects beforehand, and one for Bitsy; <a href="https://bagenzo.itch.io/madotsukis-closet" target="_blank Madotsuki's closet </a> <img src="https://easelings.neocities.org/images/madocloset.png"> Well won't you look at that. I also want to shout out <a href= "https://qrowscant.itch.io/mybrother-theparasite" target="_blank"> My Brother; The Parasite</a> for being an excellent showcase of what Twine is capable of. Being a more mainstream engine means there's way more resources, references, and examples for it, which is just really nice to have. ] [[Final thoughts->twine5]]

(text-colour:black)[There's actually a scrapped route for Overtime. Maybe It's possible to enable it, and it's mostly complete. It's just a sidequest where Vanessa gets a snack from the breakroom. I ultimately ended up scrapping it since I didn't feel like making more background visuals, it wasn't vital to the story anyways. (align:"==>")+(box:"===XXXXXXX")[I like mundane stuff like that though. In traditional writing it could be grating and boring to read but Twine's structure easily lets the player explore or speedrun as they desire. I probably could've added several more little routes and other pieces had I had time.] I truly do hope to revisit Overtime and tweak it so it's more polished. If you couldn't tell already, there's plenty of places to expand visually and probably some typos. ] [[Back->twine2]]

(text-colour:black)[I do think I would make another project with Twine. I've always been fond of visual novels, but I know they aren't for everyone. I think Twine is another way to convey what visual novels do but in another way than just clicking to read more. It's not that I think that format is bad, but I think format can truly enhance the overall story. There's a reason why someone would play a visual novel over reading a book, and there's reasons why someone would go with Twine instead of something like Ren'py. I look forward to seeing what I and everyone else can do with Twine. ] [[<img src="https://easelings.neocities.org/images/icecweam.png" width="100px" height="150px"> ->home]] (text-colour:black)[Click this image to return to the beginning]