Share a Twine story or game as a link

A Twine story lives inside the Twine app until you publish it. Publishing writes a single .html file that contains the passages and the story format code, so it runs in any browser. Sent as an email attachment, that file often arrives as a download or as raw code on a phone. Why HTML files don’t open from email explains the reasons. A hosted link avoids all of it.

Step 1: publish the story to a file

• ✓Twine 2.6 and later: open the story, then choose Build › Publish to File.
• ✓Earlier Twine 2 versions: in the story library, open the story’s menu and choose Publish to File.
• ✓The result is one .html file. Harlowe, SugarCube, Chapbook and Snowman stories all publish the same way.

Step 2: check images and sound

Twine does not pack images or audio into the published file. A passage that shows <img src="forest.jpg"> looks for forest.jpg beside the file, and that file is not uploaded with it. Open the published .html from a different folder: any missing picture or silent sound will also be missing once hosted.

Two fixes work: point each image and sound at a full https:// URL, or embed small images directly in the file. Making an HTML file self-contained covers both.

Step 3: upload it and send the link

Drag the .html file onto the FileShare Pro dashboard and copy the link. The story runs as a web page, so links between passages, variables and macros run as they do in Twine’s own Play view.

Readers need no account and nothing to install, on a laptop or a phone. Shared pages carry a noindex tag, so an unfinished draft does not appear in search results. On Pro you can add a password for a private playtest: password-protecting an HTML page.

Fix a typo without sending a new link

Publish to File again and upload the new file over the old one. The link stays the same, so playtesters reopen the same URL and get the latest draft. The previous file is kept in version history. Updating a shared link without changing it has the details.

Saved games in Harlowe and SugarCube are stored in the reader’s browser. They stay on that device and do not follow the reader to another phone or computer.

Collect playtest notes

Turn on comments and readers can leave a note on the page after typing a name: a typo, a dead end, a choice that felt unfair. The view count and 30-day graph show whether the people you sent it to have opened it.

For a public release with downloads and a store page, itch.io is built for that. A link like this one suits drafts, classes and stories shared with a few people.