Is Twine optimized for mobiles?

Authoring Twine
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Hello,

I’m currently working on a visual novel for smartphones (iOS and Android), I’m a complete beginner.
Twine seems like a good tool to developp it, however I’m a bit concerned about the final result on a mobile screen, because Twine seems mostly used on desktops.

Can I be sure once all my project is over on Twine it will be possible to have it optimised for mobiles (responsive and everything) ?

I have some solid bases on CSS, so the coding part in itself won’t be a problem, however I never released an app before.

Thanks,

Sylvain

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You know, I’m kind of in the same boat as you. I’m looking forward to more insight on this as well.

If you have CSS knowledge, you are over half-way there. The one thing that you have to make a decision over is what story format to use. Harlowe is great out of the box. SugarCube is the choice for most who want as much freedom as Twine stories can offer, but you have to will most likely want to use Tweego (compiler) and VS Code (code syntax highlighting) and you have to configure both with some effort… which means you aren’t using Twine’s editor at all.

It’s funny, because while I’m technically savvy with computers, I still struggle with understanding how Github actually works (very user un-friendly) and setting up Tweego… I need a step-by-step instruction manual. But ask me to write some JavaScript that controls SVG elements to create dynamic radial health gauges and such, I’m your man. :wink:

Edit: Sorry, I missed that you put SugarCube in the tags of your post.

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The base UI for SugarCube has been optimised for mobile view.
However, if you edit the UI in StoryInterface or add large items in a passage, you may need to add some @media rules in your Stylesheet to make it work.

EDIT: here are the base CSS StyleSheet for SugarCube

EDIT EDIT: Twine was not created with Visual Novel in mind, more text-based projects. It might not be the best program to use.
Also Twine output is an HTML file, one you can host on a website or platform like itch. If your goal is to turn it into an app, you will need to use programs like Cordova.

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This might interest you.

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@manonamora

Thanks so much! I’m waist deep in Harlowe at the moment, but when the water reaches my chin, I’ve got a folder of SugarCube shortcuts ready to read. Your page is now at the top of the list. :slight_smile:

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Simply put, the default HTML structure & CSS being applied to it of the main Story Formats should appear ok on a mobile device.

And if the Passages of your project only consist plain textual content, and you use standard links to transition between those Passages, then it should still appear ok on a mobile device.
eg. something along the lines of a Chose Your Own Adventure.

However, once an Author start moving away from such a project, and start:

  1. using a Story Format’s built-in features, or HTML & CSS, to customise the default layout & appearance of the page
  2. adding visual media content.
  3. adding more advanced web-development features to the page.

…then it is up to the Author to make sure those things are still mobile friendly.

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Thanks for your replies

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this is false. you can use sugarcube with the twine editor app, unless things radically changed recently.

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@piearty
You are correct.

Yes, Twine supports SugarCube, but it is less than ideal without syntax highlighting… which is probably the main reason why most SugarCube developers encourage the use of VS Code and Tweego. I should have been more clear with the intention of my statement as it could create confusion.

I’ll edit my post.

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