Campfire Story

I had two goals with “Campfire Story.” The first was to explore Twine and interactive storytelling. I’m a screenwriter by trade, so my experience is with direct narratives, ones with no option for agency or choices. With “Campfire Story,” I want to take advantage of the ability to make choices. This is my first ever interactive project, so there’s a lot of exploration in the creative process for it. Ideally, “Campfire Story” will play out like a choose-your-own-adventure campfire story.

Any good campfire story relies on imagination and words to provide fun, light-hearted scares. Twine also relies on language rather than visuals, so the two seemed to be a perfect fit. Like those classic campfire stories, this game isn’t looking to straight-up horrify, but have a bit of fun with its scares. The forest setting not only fits perfectly with the “Campfire Story” theme, but it also fits well with the idea of branching paths and opportunities. The ability you have in a forest to follow a large or a small path or forge a totally new one seems like a very fitting metaphor for interactive storytelling.