Games, Play, and Digital Literacy: Ben Derksen’s Murder on the Boolean Express featured in NIAGARA Seminar

How can libraries use play to strengthen digital literacy skills? Ben Derksen, from Copenhagen University Library, explores this question in his latest contribution to the NIAGARA Online Seminar Series.

NIAGARA (Navigating the digital landscape: universities partnering for change) is an Erasmus+ project (2023–2025) uniting partners from Norway, Poland, Tanzania, and Zambia. Its aim is to strengthen the digital competencies of LIS students and professionals so they can, in turn, support the development of digital skills in their communities.

As part of the BALTIC Urban Knowledge Hub (UKH) project, Ben created the interactive Twine game Murder on the Boolean Express. By providing a ready-to-use and adaptable resource — and highly relevant to NIAGARA’s mission — the game offers a concrete way for institutions to build capacity around digital literacy. Libraries and library schools can integrate it into workshops, curricula, or staff training to help learners acquire technical skills while also reflecting on the broader role of play, creativity, and agency in digital environments.

The video workshop covers the use of Twine and the Twine game, Murder on the Boolean Express, in the Copenhagen University Library contribution to the Urban Knowledge Hub project. It points out a means by which to understand the role of play in learning, namely C. Thi Nguyen’s concept of disposable agency, and how this agency can be recycled into different aspects of life. The second half of the video is an introduction to the usage of Twine, with the goal of making Murder on the Boolean Express more reusable to local needs. The information conveyed could lead viewers to make something in the program themselves or download the Murder on the Boolean Express game and edit it. It begins by covering the creation of passages and links and moves through macros and hooks, and ends with the creation of variables to affect the “world” of the game.

Ben’s game shows how project outputs can be transformed into tangible teaching and training tools. By embedding such resources into library education and professional development, NIAGARA partners — and the wider LIS community — can expand institutional capacity and ensure that future professionals are equipped to guide their communities in an increasingly digital world.

Watch the full presentation here: NIAGARA Online Seminar Series

Additional Links to Explore:

• Twine website https://twinery.org/
• Twine cookbook https://twinery.org/cookbook/
• Murder on the Boolean Express (game) https://learninglib.org/2025/03/24/murder-on-the-boolean-express/
• Interactive Fiction Database https://ifdb.org/

Programme Manual Online

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