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What is a story? What is interactivity? Why are the two so hard to put together? This talk takes a journey into some of the most interesting recent developments in interactive storytelling in games, and looks at my most recent thesis work on coherent emergent stories.
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Interactive Storytelling in Games: Next Steps
Gail Carmichael
www.gailcarmichael.com
What is a Story?
ACTORS perform actions
THE WORLD changes
EVENTS relate to each other
About people, not things STORIES:
conflict
Interactivity
Two or more agents
Understand each other
Respond properly
Game + Story: Why is it Hard?
STORIES: Linear
GAMES: Non-Linear
“Divergence from a story's path is likely to make for a less satisfying
story; restricting a player's freedom of action is likely to make
for a less satisfying game.”
Greg Costikyan
What should we do?
…puzzle➭story➭puzzle➭story…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqkJuSV-23U
Creativity
> Technology
Playable Game Stories
Sullivan, Anne. The Grail Framework: Making stories playable on three levels in CRPGS. PhD Thesis, 2012.
Playable Story
Meaningful, Interesting Choices
Player
Quest
Game
World
Player
Quest
Game
World
Social Mechanics
Player
Quest
Game
World
Goal-based Quests
Player
Quest
Game
World
Dynamically Arrange Plot
Points
Player
Quest
Game
World
Coherent Emergent Stories
Complete freedom? No freedom?
Somewhere in the middle.
1 2 3 4 5
6
1 2 3 4 5
6 Example:
Player chosen as hero to stop threat of a nearby
enemy
1 2 3 4 5
6
1 2 3 4 5
6
Example: Learn that nobody has dared face this enemy
before
Example: Hero previously acquired his
weapon and is too scared to use it
Available based on player action. Allow player to choose consumption.
Dynamically modified to fit story.
Satellite Scenes
Quantifiable story elements
Desire value of element
Quantifiable story elements
Relevance of element
Scene state: used to tag scene with info about how it functions in the
story
Rules to determine availability of scene
Collection of quantifiable story elements used to
calculate scores for scene nodes
Max of all scores for quantifiable story elements in a category (e.g. max
theme relevance), multiplied by desire value
Result:
A strong core story with additional flexible but relevant nodes that react to gameplay.
In other words, a coherent emergent story.
Want to know more?
Foundations of Digital Games (April 2014)
Gail Carmichael www.gailcarmichael.com
Books - Andrew Glassner’s Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for the 21st Century - Chris Crawford’s Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling - Josiah Lebowitz and Chris Klug’s Interactive Storytelling for Games - Mieke Bal’s Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative
Other
- Greg Costikyan’s Games, Storytelling, and Breaking the String -Pohjola M. 2004. “Autonomous Identities: Immersion as a Tool for Exploring, Empowering and Emancipating Identities” in Montola M. and Stenros J. (eds.). Beyond Role and Play: tools, toys and theory for harnessing the imagination. Ropecon ry, Helsinki, 81-96. -Anne M. Sullivan, THE GRAIL FRAMEWORK: MAKING STORIES PLAYABLE ON THREE LEVELS IN CRPGS. (PhD thesis)
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