Out Line

I made a short, experimental interactive-fiction game. You can play it in your browser in a matter of minutes.

I’ve toyed around with games/stories written in Twine for a while, but it’s been easy to bite off way more than I can chew. To actually finish a Twine project, I fished out this old idea. It’s based on a notion that has occurred to me regarding zen koans: often, they end in a way that declares the master or the student or another student the “winner” of the argument merely by giving them the last line. This happens in movies and TV shows as well, since they’re so dependent on cuts: if someone delivers a sharp line and we cut away, the feeling is that they’ve been victorious in the scene. In real life, it doesn’t really work out that way—the other person likely has a comeback, and arguments tend to simmer and bubble and eventually cool off.

Hope you like it!