The 'Interactive'of Interactive Storytelling: Customizing the Gaming Experience (original) (raw)
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FUNDAMENTALS OF INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING
silentblade.com, 2012
The focus of interactive storytelling should not only be on the attributes of the technology or characteristics of the medium, such as the AI techniques, planning formalisms, story representations, etc. but also on the computer-mediated communication processes, such as the relatedness of transmitted messages with previous exchanges of information, the number of attributes to be manipulated by the player, or the level of player control on the messages. This article argues that an approach to maximize player enjoyment in a computer game is to customize/personalize the gaming experience and the associated computer-mediated communication processes. To this aim and to provide answers to "how" and "what" should be customized, first the problematic notions of interactivity are explored and then the discussion is framed in the context of interactive storytelling systems. Secondly, table-top role-playing games (RPGs) -the live counterpart of computerized interactive storytelling systems -were analysed in an attempt to find "what" to customize. In particular, the article focuses on the Dungeon Master whose role in co-ordinating human-to-human communication process of interactive storytelling provides valuable insights into how to handle the humanto-machine/game communication process. Finally, the article proposes a framework to explain "how" to customize for maximum player enjoyment and optimal game experience within an interactive storytelling system.
From computer games to interactive stories: interactive storytelling
2002
Abstract: Interactive storytelling can be based either on explicit plot representations or on the autonomous behaviour of artificial characters. In such a character-based approach, the dynamic interaction between characters generates the actual plot from a generic storyline. Characters' behaviours are implemented through real-time search-based planning techniques.
Fundamentals Of Interactive Storytelling İnteraktif Hikayeciliğin Temelleri
2012
The focus of interactive storytelling should not only be on the attributes of the technology or characteristics of the medium, such as the AI techniques, planning formalisms, story representations, etc. but also on the computer-mediated communication processes, such as the relatedness of transmitted messages with previous exchanges of information, the number of attributes to be manipulated by the player, or the level of player control on the messages. This article argues that an approach to maximize player enjoyment in a computer game is to customize/personalize the gaming experience and the associated computer-mediated communication processes. To this aim and to provide answers to "how" and "what" should be customized, first the problematic notions of interactivity are explored and then the discussion is framed in the context of interactive storytelling systems. Secondly, table-top role-playing games (RPGs)-the live counterpart of computerized interactive storytelling systems-were analysed in an attempt to find "what" to customize. In particular, the article focuses on the Dungeon Master whose role in coordinating human-to-human communication process of interactive storytelling provides valuable insights into how to handle the humanto-machine/game communication process. Finally, the article proposes a framework to explain "how" to customize for maximum player enjoyment and optimal game experience within an interactive storytelling system.
A Study of Interactive Narrative from User's Perspective
Handbook of Multimedia for Digital …, 2009
The topic of interactive narrative has been under research for many years. Many regard the term itself as an oxymoron [1] [2], while others see narrative as an integral part of every interactive production [3] . While there has been much research exploring the development of new algorithms that enable and enhance interactive narratives, there has been little research focusing on the question of how players understand and internalize their interactive narrative experiences. In this chapter, we discuss the interactive narrative experience as seen through the users" eyes. Specifically, we report on a study we conducted using a phenomenological approach to explore the participants" lived experience of playing an interactive narrative. We chose to use Façade, as an example interactive narrative for our study due to its accessibility and its focus on social relationships, conflict, and drama as its core mechanics. As we look into the experience of interactive narrative, we reflect on enhancements to the design of future interactive narratives and discuss open problems in the field of interactive narrative.
Novella: A Proposition for Game-Based Storytelling
2018
Video game narrative has many complexities that are difficult to capture due to the broad range of interactions the player may have and the numerous presentation methods found within games. While existing models of digital narrative do address interactivity, they do not always address the full breadth of agency available to players in games. We contribute a meta-analysis of select existing models in the context of video games, and present Novella, a new game-centric model of narrative intending to capture these difficulties.
Techniques for AI-Driven Experience Management in Interactive Narratives
Collected Wisdom of Game AI Professionals, 2015
Recently, there has been a trend to include open-world gameplay in story-rich video games (e.g., [Petit 14]). Giving the player agency can lead to his or her affecting the original story in a way that the game designers may not have anticipated. To illustrate, imagine a game version of the Little Red Riding Hood story [Perrault 1697, Grimm 1812]. Suppose that the player, controlling Red, kills the wolf early in the game. The rest of the story is then broken, since the wolf is unable to eat the grandmother. This chapter describes several artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that can help game designers provide players with more agency while still maintaining a desired narrative feel for their games. In the example of Red killing the wolf, the AI techniques can automatically revise the story upon the wolf's demise (e.g., another predator appears) so that certain authorial goals are maintained (e.g., the grandmother is eaten).
Story and Narrative Structures in Computer Games
Computer games can involve narrative and story elements integrating different forms of interactivity and using different strategies for combining interaction with non-interactive story and narrative elements. While some forms of interactive narrative involve simple selection between fixed narrative sequences, computer games more typically involve the integration of narrative with game play based upon a simulation substrate. These three forms, simulation, game play and narrative, involve pre-authored time structures at different levels of time scale. Simulation involves the lowest levels of time structure, with authored principles specifying how time develops from frame to frame based upon physics, the representation of game objects and their behaviour, and discrete event simulation. Games involve pre-designed game moves, types of actions that may be realized as abstractions over patterns of low level changes at the frame level. Linear and interactive narratives form the highest level of predesigned time structure, framing low-level simulation processes and intermediate level game moves within a high level structure typically based upon classic models of narrative form. Computer games may emphasise one or more of these primary forms as the focus of meaning in the play experience. Story construction within computer games is a function of how these different levels of time structure interact in the play experience, being the result of pre-designed narrative content, story potential and the actual unfolding story created by the actions of the player. There are many strategies for integrating these forms. However, a crucial issue in the design of story content is the relationship between how the resulting game experience relates to user play preferences. In particular, categories of play style can be extended to include preferences for how story content is experienced, based upon audience, performance and immersionist orientations to story. Perceived tensions within computer game form, such as the tension between game play and narrative, are explained, not as fundamental formal issues, but issues of player preferences and how these are satisfied or not by different strategies for story content within a game system.
Interactive Storytelling: Approaches and Techniques to Achieve Dynamic Stories
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008
In this paper we review different techniques which can be used to achieve interactive storytelling in games, most notably the employment of planning algorithms to decide which and how events should be presented to the player at a given time, and the definition of non playing characters actions and behaviours as a response to the player's actions. Furthermore we will consider game world with more interesting characters that react to other characters actions and behaviour, while forming bonds and relationships with them and the player. We will consider the use of emotional characters to this effect. The incorporation of narrative techniques into the storytelling used in games can help not only to increment the level of interaction between the player and the world and characters, but also to keep the story fluent, thus achieving more realistic narrative. We will examine and discuss some of them, along with some existing approaches and possible applications for interactive storyline generation. We will also review and discuss some areas in which emotional characters have been used to support the player, and in the development of interactive storytelling.
Table-top Gaming Narratology for Digital Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2009
In the current environment of digital games and immersive role playing systems, we often overlook previous methods of conveying and experiencing, interactive narrative-based entertainment. We present a fresh perspective on interactive digital storytelling systems based on table-top role playing games. top games offer players the ability to negotiate and determine outcomes of a game with a referee. The nature of table-top gaming is such that players evolve, grow and maintain a rule set that represents an imaginary world. As such this form of gameplay provides a unique opportunity to study complex interactive storytelling structures under controlled circumstances. Using table-top role playing games as a model, we propose terminology and concepts that are different from the traditional literary or dramaturgical perspectives normally applied to interactive narrative systems.
2019
This paper discusses a design methodology for developing interactive storytelling projects based on character-driven stories. Shaped as a three-year research through design, it was applied in the educational context of Politecnico di Milano, School of Design, from 2015 to 2017. To open up the issue of the degree of interactiveness and agency that different media allow toward the story, we merged knowledge from cultural, media and game studies. Aiming at building brave, fresh interactive narratives for contemporary media (analogue, digital or hybrid), each year we experimented the implications of initiating the design activity from a different starting point: 1) archetypal characters, 2) thick and compelling storyworlds, and 3) real testimonies shaped as short stories and fragments of memories. We discuss the different tools and methods employed, and the reasons why behind their evolution through time. Then, we conclude with a critical analysis of the results obtained, looking at the...