Jim Brown, the professor who created the Twine game Green Room, has generously offered to drop in to our class via Skype to discuss his game design experience. I’m still working out details and logistics with him—in particular when—but it’ll probably happen in the next week. I want this conversation to be worth his time, so let’s take a few minutes to come up with good questions for him.
Everyone should submit at least one thoughtful, insightful question in the comments section below in preparation for our forthcoming conversation with him.
Writing Across Media 
As a professor, what was the academic motivation for creating this game? If it was directed towards one of your classes, what did you hope to illustrate to your students?
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Was your intention to make a game with no ending or with no way to “win” the game?
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What is the argument that you wanted the players to understand? And is there a way to win?
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Why did you choose Twine over other platforms for this game?
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Is there a way to win? (Why is it so hard to win?)
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In the beginning of your game is there any significance to the changing verbs that describe the sound in the room?
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Why is the prompt for a name later on in the game, not in the beginning? Does this have any significance to the objective of the game?
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How did you come up with the idea for the game?
How is the number for the number people who have played the game before you generated? Or is figuring out part of the game?
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Even though the game is so simple in design, and it seems like there’s not much to it, I couldn’t help but spend a large amount of time trying to figure out the tricks to the game and if I could beat it. My question is, is there even a way to actully beat the game? Or is the point of it to show how such a simple idea and construct can capture people’s attention and draw them?
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Why did you decide to include an “inaccurate” number of players (or an amount that changes each time) to the last part of the game? What do you feel it added to the game?
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In creating this game, did you find it difficult anticipating the player’s choices? For instance, you as a the game originator can think about your perspective, but how were you able to think about the other players and how they might like a particular game?
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How were your design processes influenced by artistic schools of thought?
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Is there any motive of procedural rhetoric built into the game at all?
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