Play ‘choose your own adventure’ on Twitter

When I was a kid, I loved spending hours poring through Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy books. The idea that you get to dictate what happens with the protagonist and are responsible for their success or failure really grabbed me, as it did anyone who got into the genre.

While I don’t find (or make) a lot of time for Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) books in my life any more, I’m pleased to see interesting uses of Twitter to tell a narrative in a way I might actually consume.

This, for example, from Terence Eden is a short Twitter adventure story that puts you in the driver’s seat.

They’re here. Oh god! They’ve found you! Run: @wnd_run Hide: @wnd_hide

— A dreadful start (@wnd_go) January 11, 2015

Eden notes that he’s not by any means the first person to try and conduct a CYOA story via Twitter, but he’s the first person we’ve seen try and do it in a fully self-contained way – most use tweets to link to external URLs to continue the story or make choices. The downside of this is that each link cuts down on the amount of the story that can be told in a single tweet. It also ends up with users being redirected all over the place, so the chances of finishing it are probably slimmer.

We’re not going to ruin the story for you, but if you have a few minutes to spare and fancy trying to get through the story without meeting a grisly ending, then you can do so at the starting point above.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Interestingly, Eden said that writing the story was simple enough thanks to Inklewriter, but the real challenge was in collecting enough Twitter accounts to carry out the story, as each part requires a separate account. Eden added that he might try and find a way of automating the story-making process if this outing proves popular enough.

➤ Writing A “Choose Your Own Adventure” Story On Twitter [Terence Eden’s Blog]