Dan Cox
@videlais.bsky.social
360 followers 130 following 260 posts
Pronouns: they/them Assistant Professor of Game Design 📗Dynamic Story Scripting with the ink Scripting Language 📗Twine Cookbook 🌐: https://dancox.me/ 📺: https://www.youtube.com/@DanCox ✍🏼: https://videlais.com
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I've added a post on IntFiction asking for feedback on Snowman 2.1.0 and Snowman 1.5.0.

intfiction.org/t/snowman-up...

If you are currently using Snowman for a project, please let me know if my code breaks anything. I've added many more tests, but it could still break things.
Snowman Updates (October 2025): Snowman 2.1.0 and Snowman 1.5.0
After a very long delay, I have finally updated both Snowman 1.X and Snowman 2.X branches with new builds. While there are no API changes in Snowman 1.5.0, the build process has been updated and autom...
intfiction.org
New Snowman builds!

I'm trying something new with an automated GitHub Action to copy files from across the branches, 1.X, 2.X, and main (3.X currently) to the documentation branch, read the files, and show links and the current version of each.

videlais.github.io/snowman/buil...
Snowman Story Format - Build Files
videlais.github.io
I am thrilled to announce the opening of the Call for Submissions for Electronic Literature Volume 5.

eliterature.github.io/elc5-info/

I am serving along with @zachwhalen.bsky.social, @elikaortega.bsky.social, and Dani Spinosa.

This call launches with translations in 12+ languages!
Call for Submissions
The Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) seeks submissions for Volume 5 of the Electronic Literature Collection.
eliterature.github.io
Posted too soon. Had to just do a quick update to remove some older CJS builds that were still in the project. It is now updated to 1.3.5 on NPM.
I very slowly did a re-factor of Quis from Parsing Expression Grammar (PEG) to Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) usage over the last week. PEG was useful, but way too hard to update without major changes.

Quis (1.3.4): github.com/videlais/quis

Demo: videlais.github.io/quis/
Quis DSL Parser - Interactive Demo
Interactive web demo of the Quis DSL Parser - a lightweight domain-specific language for data sorting and filtering
videlais.github.io
I very slowly did a re-factor of Quis from Parsing Expression Grammar (PEG) to Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) usage over the last week. PEG was useful, but way too hard to update without major changes.

Quis (1.3.4): github.com/videlais/quis

Demo: videlais.github.io/quis/
Quis DSL Parser - Interactive Demo
Interactive web demo of the Quis DSL Parser - a lightweight domain-specific language for data sorting and filtering
videlais.github.io
I wasn't going to update SFA this month, but then decided to add SHA256 check-sums to the files (github.com/videlais/sto...).

This change led to updating the tool (github.com/videlais/sto...), which has been updated to 1.3.0, to verify using those checksums, if asked.
GitHub - videlais/story-formats-archive: An archive of Twine 2 story formats and tool for downloading their files
An archive of Twine 2 story formats and tool for downloading their files - videlais/story-formats-archive
github.com
I've been playing around with Copilot to see what it says about my projects and code. Truly, the following is the most accurate response to most of my work:

"The current approach isn't wrong, but for a project like yours, it's significantly over-engineered."
Code changes for Oct. 2025:

(NEW) Story Grammar (github.com/videlais/sto...). Think of it Probably Too Complicated Tracery(TM).

(UPDATE) Quis (github.com/videlais/quis). Handles complex expressions.

(UPDATE) SimpleQBN (github.com/videlais/sim...). Added event-based state.
As there has not been a new Twine update, I'm also not updating the Story Formats Archive this month.

However, I did update the search functionality (videlais.github.io/story-format...) and provide some new API endpoints.

You can now ask for JSON results or use files from GitHub Pages directly.
Story Format Archive Search
Search the story format database programmatically:
videlais.github.io
Reposted by Dan Cox
The #DiGRA2026 conference theme is Intersectional Pleasures. The theme invites a critical and celebratory exploration of how digital games enable, mediate, or restrict pleasure across lines of identity, genre, platforms, politics and more. www.digraconference2026.com #DIGRA
DiGRA 2026 Conference | Maynooth University
Join the DiGRA 2026 conference at Maynooth University, 14–18 June 2026. Theme “Intersectional Pleasures.” A global hybrid event for game research, culture, design, and industry.
www.digraconference2026.com
Reposted by Dan Cox
Roll with Advantage: Creative, Collaborative, and Critical Responses to Dungeons & Dragons (Play Story Press 2025) edited by Suzanne Richardson & Edmond Y. Chang: playstorypress.org/books/roll-w... - in print or open access PDF! #analoggamestudies #creativewriting #dungeonsanddragons #dnd
Snowman has also now been updated to latest dependencies across all branches.

3.X: github.com/videlais/sno...

2.X: github.com/videlais/sno...

1.X: github.com/videlais/sno...
As we get near to Oct., I've been messing around with Extwee to prepare for its minor update. Tonight, I put together a quick demo of how the web build of Extwee could be used.

In the example, you can type or paste Twee code and create a HTML file without Twine.

videlais.github.io/extwee/demos...
Extwee Story Format Compiler Demo
videlais.github.io
Reposted by Dan Cox
🗓️ We are thrilled to announce the Call for Papers for the conference+journal track of the 5th annual Conference of Computational Literary Studies, May 28-29, 2026, in #Potsdam, #Germany! #CCLS26 #CfP

Submit your article by January 8, 2026, and be part of our big 5-year jubilee edition! 🥳🥳🥳
Call for Papers
jcls.io
*Points at screen* Twine! That's Twine!
The Bitsy book needs to be done first, but, yes, I'm also basically sitting on a mostly done "Volume 1" of a series I started back with my Twine 2.6 -- now Twine 2.10 -- video tutorial series a couple years ago. Currently, it is around 145 pages, but it needs new screenshots and an editing pass.
Screenshot of the title of a book labelled "Twine Handbook: Volume 1: Harlowe" with an author line of "by Daniel Cox".  The lower, left-hand corner reads Page 1 of 145 with a total of 27,368 words.
And finally for the night (and mostly for the month of September), there is also a new Snowman 3.0.0 build as well (github.com/videlais/sno...).

The extensive (github.com/videlais/sno...) end-to-end testing doesn't work, so I can't verify past code, but folx can at least try it!
snowman/dist at main · videlais/snowman
An advanced Twine 2 story format designed for people who already know JavaScript and CSS - videlais/snowman
github.com
For those feeling adventurous, a beta build of Snowman 2.1.0 is available now (github.com/videlais/sno...).

I've been trying to address some long-standing JavaScript issues.

I have no fixed timeline for when it will make it to Twine itself, but hopefully by the end of the year (2025).
snowman/dist at 2.X · videlais/snowman
An advanced Twine 2 story format designed for people who already know JavaScript and CSS - videlais/snowman
github.com
Reposted by Dan Cox
NEW ‼️ TWINE TEMPLATE:
🗺 DESTINATIONS

a fully customizable template for the sugarcube format, featuring a navigation dropdown

check out the demo and download directly on itch!
gcbaccaris.itch.io/template3
Twine Template ✦ Destinations by Grim Baccaris
a spell from the Twine Grimoire ✦
gcbaccaris.itch.io