Final Project Reading: Ivar the Viking

Ivar the Viking was a story that I decided to create after I had read a research paper on studies made about the genetic diversity of mice in correlation to Viking raids during the late 800s AD. I decided that it would be fun to tell the story from the rat’s perspective, since as long as there have been ships used in trade, there have been mice and rats that travelled along as stowaways.

I created the story using Twine and some basic CSS and JavaScript additions. For the most part, the story and game are all standard Twine elements. I did change to the SugarCube 2.0 format on the story because some of the game elements are easier to code using that syntax and format.

When the user has explored Ivar’s main story and reached Vinland, the player is offered a chance to play an open-ended game. The game has random Ivar events and Viking facts built in. The Viking facts are used for educational purposes from http://www.getthespecialists.co.uk/101_Viking_Facts.html. The Ivar random events were created by me.

The goal of the game is to collect as many items as possible before you retire or have lost all your lives, represented by rats, and are sent to Valhalla. There is a random chance that an enemy rat appears to take one of your rats. This chance increases each turn that a rat does not appear. For each rat you have remaining, you gain a chance to loot on a random 1-10 table.

The goal of the story and game is to entertain with Ivar’s travels and educate young readers about the Vikings through Ivar’s story and game. The game allows for some additional learning opportunities and replay value.

When the user ends a game by retirement or Valhalla, they can choose to restart the story from the beginning or restart the game only. This allows for multiple replays each session.