Guide: Using Twilio Studio for Branching Narratives

Twilio Studio is our primary alternative to using Hive Mechanic. It is a tool that is widely available, relatively inexpensive to use, has similar basic functionality as Hive Mechanic, and has a lower back-end technical skill threshold for independent use.

Contents:

Overview and Pre-Requisites
Video 1: Sending Text and Pictures
Video 2: Branching Stories
Quick reference: screen shots of making a flow, the text message ‘trigger’, and for branching narratives

Overview and Pre-Requisites

In our opinion, Hive Mechanic is easier to use on the front-end (the actual narrative-making side of things) and has a more powerful tool set for making games (keeping score, creating player inventories, and more!) However, we recognize that without our direct assistance, establishing a Hive Mechanic installation is more technically advanced and expensive because you have to be able to set up and pay for your own server.

Some things to keep in mind before diving into Twilio Studio:

Tech Confidence: For using Twilio Studio, we assume some tech savvy for you (or a friend who will sit next to you!). What does that mean? To us, this means that you might feel comfortable figuring out the web interface for something like WordPress or Squarespace. You do not need programming experience.

Time Involved: Setting up a temporary phone number and new Twilio account, plus building a small test narrative to see how it works will take approximately 30-60 minutes.