Tiny Games: Handmade Playables

Dates: June 9th to June 13th 2025

Part of IDARE Summer University 2025: “Handmade Digital”
IDARE: INTERACTIVE DIGITAL ARTS, RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

 Tiny Games: Handmade Playables

Please note: in-person or virtual attendance is possible for this workshop.

Instructor: Jeremy Andriano

Video games can be tiny! In this course, you will be introduced to several digital authoring tools that can be used to take a slow, personalised, handmade approach to making small video games and interactive stories. You will learn how to make one scene single player role-playing games (RPGs) with Twine 2 and Inky; you will learn how to use Bitsy for constructing pixelated visual poems; and you will explore making short, parser-based escape rooms in Inform 7. By focusing on tiny ludic experiences, we will give you everything you need to create your own complete tiny game and share it with the world!

On Day 1, we will explore examples of tiny games and learn how to access and install Twine 2, Inky, Bitsy, and Inform 7. There will be short demonstrations of each program, and you will start ideating your own tiny game. Subsequent days will focus on one style of game — hypertext RPG, pixelated poetry, or escape room — and the associated authoring tool(s), with demonstrations and instruction in the morning and a guided, open workshop in the afternoon. At the end of the week, we will showcase our tiny video games!

Jeremy Andriano (he/him) is a Master’s candidate in the joint graduate program in Communication and Culture at Toronto Metropolitan University and York University. His research investigates electronic media, culture, and technology with a focus on game studies, multilinear narrative, digital humanities, algorithm and human-computer interface. He has an undergraduate degree in English, Honours (TMU 2023), is a frequent contributor to the Unarchived Podcast, and has taught multiple workshops on Ink/Inky for the Electronic Literature Organization. He is the author of Creating Playable Stories with Ink and Inky (2023).