Planning Technologies for Interactive Storytelling

Since AI planning was first proposed for the task of narrative generation in interactive storytelling (IS), it has emerged as the dominant approach in this field. This chapter traces the use of planning technologies in this area, considers the core issues involved in the application of planning technologies in IS, and identifies some of the remaining challenges

A review of interactive narrative systems and technologies: a training perspective

As an emerging form of digital entertainment, interactive narrative has attracted great attention of researchers over the past decade. Recently, there is an emerging trend to apply interactive narrative for training and simulation. An interactive narrative system allows players to proactively interact with simulated entities in a virtual world and have the ability to alter the progression of a storyline. In simulation-based training, the use of an interactive narrative system enables the possibility to offer engaging, diverse and personalized narratives or scenarios for different training purposes. This paper provides a review of interactive narrative systems and technologies from a training perspective. Specifically, we first propose a set of key requirements in developing interactive narrative systems for simulation-based training. Then we review nine representative existing systems with respect to their system architectures, features and related mechanisms. To examine their applicability to training, we investigate and compare the reviewed systems based on the functionalities and modules that support the proposed requirements. Furthermore, we discuss some open research issues on future development of interactive narrative technologies for training applications

A review of interactive narrative systems and technologies: a training perspective

As an emerging form of digital entertainment, interactive narrative has attracted great attention of researchers over the past decade. Recently, there is an emerging trend to apply interactive narrative for training and simulation. An interactive narrative system allows players to proactively interact with simulated entities in a virtual world and have the ability to alter the progression of a storyline. In simulation-based training, the use of an interactive narrative system enables the possibility to offer engaging, diverse and personalized narratives or scenarios for different training purposes. This paper provides a review of interactive narrative systems and technologies from a training perspective. Specifically, we first propose a set of key requirements in developing interactive narrative systems for simulation-based training. Then we review nine representative existing systems with respect to their system architectures, features and related mechanisms. To examine their applicability to training, we investigate and compare the reviewed systems based on the functionalities and modules that support the proposed requirements. Furthermore, we discuss some open research issues on future development of interactive narrative technologies for training applications

Extending character-based storytelling with awareness and feelings

Most Interactive Storytelling systems developed to date have followed a task-based approach to story representation, using planning techniques to drive the story by generating a sequence of actions, which essentially "solve" the task to which the story is equated. One major limitation of this approach has been that it fails to incorporate characters' psychology, and as a consequence important aesthetic aspects of the narrative cannot be easily captured by Interactive Storytelling. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to Interactive Storytelling, which aims at reconciling narrative actions with the characters' attributed psychology as stated in the narrative. Our long-term goal is to be able to explore Interactive Storytelling for those narrative genres which are based on the characters' psychology rather than solely on their actions. We used as a starting point the formalisation by Flaubert himself of his novel Madame Bovary, which includes a detailed account of characters' desires and feelings. We describe a prototype in which characters' behaviour is driven by a real-time search-based planning system applying operators whose content is based on a specific inventory of feelings. Furthermore, the actual pattern of evolution of the character's plan, as measured through the variation of the search heuristic, is used to confer a sense of awareness to the characters, which can be used to generate feelings about its overall situation, from feelings of boredom to hope

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications

Controlling Narrative Generation with Planning Trajectories: The Role of Constraints

Abstract. AI planning has featured in a number of Interactive Storytelling prototypes: since narratives can be naturally modelled as a sequence of actions it has been possible to exploit state of the art planners in the task of narrative generation. However the characteristics of a “good ” plan, such as optimality, aren’t necessarily the same as those of a “good ” narrative, where errors and convoluted sequences may offer more reader interest, so some narrative structuring is required. In our work we have looked at injecting narrative control into plan generation through the use of PDDL3.0 state trajectory constraints which enable us to express narrative control information within the planning representation. As part of this we have developed an approach to planning with such trajectory constraints. The approach decomposes the problem into a set of smaller subproblems using the temporal orderings described by the constraints and then solves these subproblems incrementally. In this paper we outline our method and present results that illustrate the potential of the approach.

Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity