Pick an
Adventure
Twine is an open-source program for writing choose your own adventure stories. You can use Twine online or you can download the software for Mac or Windows.
To write a choose your own adventure story with Twine online start by giving your story a title. After titling your story you will be taken to a grid canvas on which you can write short passages in a series of sticky notes. Each sticky note should be given its own title. To link elements of your stories you place brackets around the title of note within a note. Each note can be linked to two or more other notes in your story. When your story is complete you can read through it and click through it in your browser.
If you use Twine online there are a couple of things you should know before you start. First, there is not a log-in or registration option. Your work is saved in your browser. To save your work permanently, use the "publish to file" option to download your work. Your Twine file can be opened later in your web browser where you can edit it further or simply read through your story. Second, to share Twine stories you will have to email the file to the person you want to read your story. (www.freetech4teachers.com)
Total Darkness free online game from the Science Museum in London. It’s like a “Choose Your Adventure” interactive. When the power goes out, it’s time for action in our brand new game. Venture into the dark, explore different locations and meet new characters – creating your own unique adventure as you play! Use your science skills to get the power back on and see if you can discover the real reason behind the sudden darkness covering the whole town. This game puts you in control, it’s your choices and decisions that will guide you through the story to discover the cause.
Castaway is both entertaining and accessible to Early Intermediate English Language Learners. You are stuck on a deserted island and have to get off.
Inklewriter students create an interactive/choose your own adventure style stories. story and then share w/ others via a unique URL. These stories allow for others to create their own path or choose an existing one. Best of all there is a nice feature for teachers to create student accounts w/ a unique username/password.
Twine http://twinery.org is an open‐source program for writing choose your own adventure stories. You can use Twine online or you can download the software f
RootbookThe site has lots of choose your own adventure stories you can read without registering or signing-in. In addition, if you register (which takes seconds), you’re also given the ability to create your own. And it seems to be pretty easy to do so — the only trick I found was that you have to make sure to upload a photo cover page first to your story or else it won’t let you continue.
Playfic is a tool for creating text-based, choose your own adventure stories. When
authors plan and write their stories they can include multiple paths
for readers to pursue as they progress through their stories. Readers
navigate through the stories by entering directional commands such as
"go north" and "go south." Click here to try a sample story and learn a bit about the logic of Playfic.
Twine is a free, open source software program and browser-based platform for creating “choose your own adventure” style stories. I
loved these books when I was in elementary school. You can read these
books several times and choose different options, so you end up with a
different story and plot sequence each time. Another term for this type
of writing is “interactive fiction.”
Edventure Builder is an innovative site for sparking student's creativity by providing a online platform for creating: scavenger hunts, interactive stories, or choose your own adventures. Also, this is a tool that educators can use to build mobile lessons, interactive tours (think Back to School night or outside activities), and more.
The way this works is quite simple, from a browser a user can create an adventure (i.e., lesson, hunt, tour, etc) by adding text, images, video, and links. Then by clicking a button it gets published to any browser based mobile device. Best of all, are the different features that allows a user to fully customize their adventures and edit, save, and publish them easily.
Youtube Interactive Choose Your Adventure Videos By using the spotlight annotation tool in the YouTube video editor you can insert into your videos a hyperlink to other videos or websites. By inserting multiple links into your videos you can create "choose your own adventure" series of videos.
“Be George Washington” In This New Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Activity
The Caves of Mull was written by an English class in Australia (using a wiki), and is accessible to Intermediate ELL’s. It’s filled with “death, destruction and treasure” (and fun).
In the Frontier Alaska game, you having a very hard time in a dog sled. It’s a “choose your own adventure” activity where you are regularly giving challenging scenarios and then have options on how to proceed.
Life Or Death: In The Jungle, Life Or Death Game: Snow; and Life Or Death Game:Lost At Sea are all similar games from the Discovery Channel.
A Seat At The Table is a “choose your own adventure” game related to hunger issues and is accessible to high Intermediate ELL’s. It’s from Oxfam.
Take A Walk is a “Choose Your Own Adventure” game from World Vision. Players assume the role of the head of a Rwandan family, and have to make a variety of survival decisions. It would be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.
“Centre Of The Cell” is a very engaging and accessible interactive simulation about the outbreak of a flu epidemic in London. Users have to make decisions about what actions should be taken to get the outbreak under control. It’s like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” game — with potential “deadly” consequences.
Klondike: Rush For Gold is an online game from the Virtual Museum of Canada. It’s in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” genre, and the player puts him/herself in the position of being part of the Gold Rush frantically heading to the Yukon. It’s a nice game, though it’s not animated and has a fair amount of text. However, it should be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.
The Medieval Game of Life is from the Museum of London. The player takes on the role of someone who lived in the Middle Ages and has to make various decisions along the way.
The Sydenham River is a “choose your own adventure” game about early settlers in Canada. You get the play the part of a couple coming from Europe. The language is fairly simple and is accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.
Fairy Tales from Penguin Books (part of its “We Tell Stories” series) seems particularly well-suited to English Language Learners. It’s short, the language is accessible, and the reader actually helps “write” the story.
Niki’s Adventures, Choose your own adventure” genre. You’re given various options for actions Niki the Hummingbird can take, or responses he (maybe Niki is a she?) can make. It’s a fun language development activity for Early Intermediate English Language Learners.
National Geographic has its well-known Lewis and Clark Adventure, where the reader is a member of the Expedition.
The National Geographic has an equally well-known simulation where you the play the role of an escaped slave on The Underground Railroad.
It’s Your Story is a series of stories designed to teach about the law and abused women.
Quest -
An innovative site/app for creating text based games that will
show/hide the programming language while it is being worked on.
Against All Odds is an online game created by the United National refugee agency. In it, you play the role of a refugee in various scenarios. It’s probably accessible to high Intermediate English Language Learners.
In The Jamestown Online Adventure, you play the role of an early settler in…Jamestown.
Muck and Brass is a game from the BBC that puts you in the role of a city leader during the Industrial Revolution. You have to make decisions on how to respond to various problems that resulted from industrialization. The English is much more complex, if not arcane, than it has to be, but Intermediate English Language Learners should be able to understand it.
Zap Dramatic creates “online negotiation games” and “interactive dramas” that use the “choose your own adventure” technique. The games are generally designed to teach negotiation skills. Their games, though, are probably only appropriate for high school students and above. They include:
Ambition 1
Ambition 2
Ambition 3
Ambition 4
Ambition 5
Ambition 6
Ambition 7
Ambition 8
Ambition 10
Gangs, Guns & Knives Awareness has a British bent, and focuses on how young people can stay safe.
Play a “choose your own adventure” game when you pretend to be Thomas Edison. Click on “Inventing”.
Tales Of Twentieth Century London lets the user play the role of a child in….twentieth century London. It’s sort of a “choose your own adventure” interactive, and is quite engaging and well-designed, not to mention accessible to English Language Learners.
Over The Top is an exceptional online game from the Canadian War Museum that puts you in the role of a soldier in the trenches. It’s like a “choose your own adventure” game. It’s particularly accessible to English Language Learners because it provides audio support to the text.
A Dog’s Life is a simple choose your own adventure story from Scholastic. It’s about…a dog.
National Geographic has a simulation you can play called Border Agent Simulation.
Man vs. The Wild is another game from the Discovery Network.
Connect With Haji Kamal is an intriguing game developed for the U.S. Army to help soldiers develop better skills at communicating across cultures.
If you’ve ever wanted to be a dragon, Choice of the Dragon is the game for you. You get to be one — as nice or as mean as you want!
Journey To The End of Coal is a pretty amazing documentary on coal-mining in China that uses a “choose your own adventure” method.
A. Pintura: Art Detective lets you try to identify who was the artist of a painting.
In The Crime Scene Game, players have to solve a crime.
The Lost Lunch Box is sort of a “choose your own adventure” game where players have a variety of choices to make. In the process, players have to answer math, science, and history challenges.
Be a good or bad dragon in Choice of the Dragon.
The Curfew Game is from Channel 4 in Great Britain. It’s a “choose your own adventure” game that’s described by its creators as “a large-scale futuristic adventure with a political thriller theme of trust, privacy and liberty.”