I've recently played the game Breakfast on a Wagon With Your Partner, which uses the <<cyclinglink>> macro, and it's inspired a few brief thoughts about the user interface of text choices.

Generally, the interface used for choice, especially dialogue trees, in videogames and Twine games, resembles the following:

^{Fig. 1: A doctored page from "Breakfast on a Wagon With Your Partner"}
A list, usually exhaustive, of the possible choices one could make, usually in an egalitarian fashion. Its exact shape is highly variable, but the important aspect is that every choice is simultaneously visible.

However, the introduction of my <<cyclinglink>> macro has unwittingly introduced an alternative arrangement:

^{Fig. 2: An actual page from "Breakfast on a Wagon With Your Partner"}
A single hyperlink that cycles between choices when clicked, displaying only the current choice. The choice is confirmed by clicking a proper link below.

This differs from the former in a number of interesting ways. Firstly, when you initially approach the page, all of the other options are concealed. Only by clicking the link successively does each option become briefly visible - the choices are presented in a temporal sequence, rather than a spatial sequence. And, not only are the choices themselves hidden, but their quantity as well - a list of 20 choices takes up the same screen space as a list of two.

I feel as if these differences slightly more closely resemble the actual human process of making a decision. Seldom do we, in our minds, see two drastically opposing options appear side-by-side, when confronted with a tough decision. Rather, our minds actively scour themselves for choices, possibilities - the few that appeal to our intuitions rise immediately, and others must be forced up to our conscious realisation, whereupon we focus intently on it. Neither of these link presentations can be said to truly capture this marvelous process, but I like to think that the cyclinglink presentation has more superficial similarities.

One other difference I feel is worth examining is the way in which cyclinglink, in this particular usage, reverses the usual meaning of clicking a hyperlink. Consider the text "I'm not opposed to settling down" in both illustrations. In the first one, the act of clicking it means to commit to the decision - to perform these words. But in the second, the act of clicking it is the act of revising the decision, replacing it with a different possibility. This strikes a somewhat discordant note within me.

Of course, usually a Twine hyperlink doesn't translate to the player verb "act according to these words" - most often it simply means "provoke the computer to delve further into this subject" or "continue a line of thought paused at this point", any of which could somehow revoke or reverse the link text's meaning, relevance or significance. Porpentine has previously called the hyperlink an "omniverb", commenting that its meanings within a game are as varied as the words you could put inside it, and the text that results when you click it. And, indeed, my original impetus for creating this macro was to extend the mechanical potential of links in a playful fashion - links that change unexpectedly when clicked, like a puzzle switch, or a toy, or an animate object in Windosill. Links that are multifaceted, multifarious, capricious. And, indeed, many uses of cyclinglink that I've seen thus far have used it for playful or cute subject matter, where rubbing and touching the story text, and seeing unexpected changes appear, is in keeping with the tone of the story.

I only came to think of cyclinglink as a genuine replacement for the 'choice list', and began considering the implications thereof, when I encountered the above choice in "Breakfast on a Wagon With Your Partner". This story, to its credit, does a very good job of establishing a "hyperlink vocabulary" - a link at the bottom of each page, reading "(o)", serves as the 'confirm choice' button, and is the only one that is used to advance to a subsequent passage. Nevertheless, the cyclinglink still runs contrary to the grain of the traditional hyperlink's meaning - its underline suggests a button waiting to be pushed, rather than a dial waiting to be turned. I hesitated conspicuously when I got to that page, for I had become quite invested in the path of the story, and of my performance as the player-character.

What shall we conclude from this? I believe that the cyclinglink is entirely in keeping with the standard interface of Twine games, and of the versatility that the hyperlink is afforded within a Twine game. I believe further that the use of a cyclinglink for choices, particularly especially mental choices, lends the selection some superficial resemblance to the human act of reaching and developing decisions. However, it is also important that they are sufficiently differentiable from normal links, in situations where it's important the player has full confidence in the presented hyperlinks. This could be through establishing a firm in-game vocabulary, or, more directly, it could be through CSS. (I do not include CSS within the cyclinglink script that forces them to appear differently to normal links, but I do provide CSS hooks that enable them to be styled differently from normal links.)

For a time after adding the variable-alteration functionality to cyclinglink, I wondered if I had perhaps erred by making it produce a Javascript-augmented link - perhaps a more familiar interface element, like a dropdown menu, would be more appropriate for the use cases of this macro. But, I committed to the justification that the hyperlink is the player interface element in Twine games, far more so than even familiar website navigation elements. They are, after all, not web sites, but videogames. So, let the hyperlink's scope be extended so.

Game File: 

CWACP_V2.zip

You are a clown testing your virility. You are attempting the most dangerous show of all. The infamous knife and fireball swallowing ceremony. The trick is, you can only eat fireballs while on the ground and only eat knives while in the air. If you fail to do so, you'll mess up and kill yourself.

A game made for Damian Sommer.

Credit: Music and Sound by Thomas Burton

Game File: 

Tournament_2015.html

Tournament 2015: the glory, the winning, the not-losing… it's all here! The official Twine game of the event sees you face off against the world's finest Tournament 2015 competitors in the quest to win Grand Finals. Use your mouse, and may your wins be great, and your defeats tiny.

Game File: 

MagnificentPlanet.zip

You are having a good time reading this website when suddenly the urge overcomes you to venture towards a MAGNIFICENT PLANET. The urge cannot be quelled, you hear a voice deep inside your brain... "move with the arrows"... where does it come from? Who knows, however it is clear that you have been waiting for it your entire life unit. By vigourous manipulation of the computer you are able to crunch the link and start the process. Beads of sweat roll down your face as you have done this. "Well, there's no going back now," you think, grimly, as you watch the download counter fill up, "I've made my decisions, I did what was right, and now, god help me, I find myself sucked in, towards the vortex of a... MAGNIFICENT PLANET!"

Compatible with Windows. 24 hour game.

Game File: 

flickmabel.html

How much mileage can you get out of clicking Mabel's face? The answer may not surprise you.

Game File: 

terrifyingdrive.zip

Not all that terrifying really.

The Klik of the Month Klub meets right here on this very website on the third Saturday of every month at 4pm Pacific Time (taking daylight savings into consideration) for a two hour Klik & Play Showdown. Everyone who participates gets two hours to create something from scratch in Klik & Play. Abusing the stock objects is encouraged. If you really loathe Klik & Play you can use whatever game development platform you want. Two hours is a pretty tight time limit, though, so choose wisely!

Klik & Play is absolutely free to download, and learning it takes minutes, so everyone can get in on the action. Want to talk to your fellow Klikwreckers? Join us on IRC -- server irc.freenode.net, channel #glorioustrainwrecks. Join the mayhem!

For more information, check out the KotM N00B FAQ.

Sign up below to get reminded by email the day before the klikkening begins!

Games made for Klik of the Month Klub #24

Game File: 

SantaWorkshop.zip

With this INTERACTIVE program, members of the whole family can come and enjoy working at Santa's workshop, wrapping presents with Santa's amazing gizmos! Does not involve The Grinch in any way, shape or form!

Does not involve The Grinch!
Does not involve The Grinch!
Oh hell, I lied. It does involve The Grinch.

Features multiple endings based on moral decisions!

Game File: 

SpaceChase.swf

SPACE CHASE!

Very quick game where you're being chased by kamikaze space ships. They've chased you into an Asteroid field.

Survive as long as you can by tricking the enemy ships into crashing into the Asteroids!

Controls are WSAD or ARROWS. (Up = accelerate, Down = turn tighter)

Was going to implement a timer but ran out of time!

Use the dropbox link for updated versions.

Game File: 

RandomGenerationMaze.zip

Alright this game is mostly pointless. Just try to get to the top with a combination of shooting the walls and exploiting glitches in Multimedia Fusion's platforming engine.

CONTROLS: arrow keys to move, shift to jump, ctrl to shoot, crashing into a wall while on the descending part of a jump while holding shift and then probably pressing the arrow key in the opposite direction of the wall immediately after collision/during collision to wall jump, which can be repeated as many times as you want if you figure it out

MUSIC: Made by Safety-Based Rope. He lives on soundcloud.com

SOUND EFFECTS: The sound of the gun shooting is some guy pronouncing a click, the kind that are found mainly in African languages. The sound of a block being destroyed is a voiceless velar fricative, which is a German ch or a Russian x or a Chinese h or an Arabic kh probably or whatever transliteration is being used at the time or Scottish ch. Yeah.

Okay have fun.