Tech Tip: Twine and OU Create

For this tip, you will active your OUCreate webspace (if you have not activated it already) so that you can publish your Twine file in that space. So, this is a two-step process: 

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY WEBSPACE

To publish your Twine game, you will need some webspace of your own. You may already have some webspace, but if not, you can do this Tech Tip to set up free webspace with OUCreate: Getting started with OUCreate.

The following instructions assume you will be using OUCreate, but the same upload process will work in any webspace that you control.

Here is a screenshot of the OUCreate Control Panel; scroll down to the Files area and click on File Manager; that is where you are going to save your Twine file.

STEP TWO: PUBLISH YOUR TWINE FILE

When you made your first Twine file, did you download it already? If not, go back to that Getting Started with Twine Tech Tip and read the instructions at the end about downloading the HTML file. Save the file to your desktop or files area on your computer.

Then, go to the File Manager area of OUCreate. Click on the WWW icon to get into the public files area of your space. Then, once you are inside the WWW files area, you can click on Upload to upload your file (or you can create a subdirectory inside WWW to use instead; how you organize your space is all up to you: it's your space!). 

When you are done, you should be able to play the game where you uploaded it to your OUCreate address. For example, if your OUCreate name is hercules, and your twine file is twine.html, then you will find the file at:

https://hercules.ou.create/twine.html

File names are case-sensitive, so make sure you have the correct file name there.

Here's the Twine file I published: https://lauragibbs.net/Sample.html

As you can see, that's a webpage with an address that you can link to, so now you can write up a blog post, and you can link to your Twine file! That means anybody can play the game just by clicking on the link in your post.

Finishing Up: If you have published a blog post with a link to your Twine game, you are good to go! Make sure to include the phrase "Tech Tip: Twine Game Link" in your blog post title and also use "Tech Tip" as the label on the post; then you can do the Declaration. If you want to do some more Twine tips now (like embedding the story in your blog or website), you will find them in the Writing section of the Tech Tips list, and you can do all the tips you want for future weeks now; there's no need to wait. :-)