collecting data from a game

avaarndt

Hello All, I'm new to Twine but am consdering using it for an educational game in a course at UC Riverside. However, I would need to be able to get the data out from the game from any student player.  Is this possible? I would need to know how they played the game (what branches they took etc) as well as some sort of ID on who they were.
thanks
Ava

Sharpe

The short answer, without going into databases and additional programming languages such as Ajax, is no, not with pure Twine.

There is, however, Google Analytics: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/tweecode/ENbun6TbfiI

You might consider simply asking the users to print out a page for you with all the relevant information. For example, you might want to know what the user's name is and what choice they made for question 1, 2, and 3. Just <<print>> the variable values of those results at the end. To store the user's name, try this:

<<textinput $variable PassageName ButtonName>>

Attached is an example TWS. A TWS is a "Twine file" so you can open it in Twine and see an example of what I'm suggesting.

Hope that helps!

mykael

If you can build it all up into a string as you go, you can put up a 'Click to Get Credit' field on the last page that will do an external http call to a CGI script running on your web server.  That can save the strings in a file for you.

Galejade

This may be useful, if you need a document to "store" some values:

http://blog.ivybaumgarten.com/twine-macros-for-google-drive-spreadsheets/

mykael

Very nice.  Now if L and Co. can get them working with Twine 2, we have a base for  Twine server platform that will allow multiple editors.

Sharpe

Galejade wrote:

This may be useful, if you need a document to "store" some values:

http://blog.ivybaumgarten.com/twine-macros-for-google-drive-spreadsheets/

Wow. Gunna have to try that with, like, a high score table or whatever. If I ever manage to get back into making Twine games again. XD

Surprised this isn't being shouted from the rooftop.

greyelf

The concept of using a script on a web-server to store data from a Twine story has been know for a while and has come up in other topics on this forum before, though the blog article listed by Galejade makes it easy for someone to implement.

The general problems with using this method are:

1. Having access to a web-server to host your story and the storage script.

Both a server (virtual or real) and bandwidth cost money which someone has to pay for.

2. The username / password for Google. (or whichever similar service you choose to use)

Do you hard-wire these values within you story so everyone is accessing the same account and therefor invalidate your terms of service with said service by handing out your account details. Or do you get the user to supply the username/password of their own account with the service, therefor restricting your story to only those people that have accounts with that service.