Planning formalisms and authoring in interactive storytelling

Interacting Storytelling systems integrate AI techniques such as planning with narrative representations to generate stories. In this paper, we discuss the use of planning formalisms in Interactive Storytelling from the perspective of story generation and authoring. We compare two different planning formalisms, Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning and Heuristic Search Planning (HSP). While HTN provide a strong basis for narrative coherence in the context of interactivity, HSP offer additional flexibility and the generation of stories and the mechanisms for generating comic situations

Mosaic narrative a poetics of cinematic new media narrative

This thesis proposes the Poetics of Mosaic Narrative as a tool for theorising the creation and telling of cinematic stories in a digital environment. As such the Poetics of Mosaic Narrative is designed to assist creators of new media narrative to design dramatically compelling screen based stories by drawing from established theories of cinema and emerging theories of new media. In doing so it validates the crucial element of cinematic storytelling in the digital medium, which due to its fragmentary, variable and re-combinatory nature, affords the opportunity for audience interaction. The Poetics of Mosaic Narrative re-asserts the dramatic and cinematic nature of narrative in new media by drawing upon the dramatic theory of Aristotle’s Poetics, the cinematic theories of the 1920s Russian Film Theorists and contemporary Neo-Formalists, the narrative theories of the 1960s French Structuralists, and the scriptwriting theories of contemporary cinema. In particular it focuses on the theory and practice of the prominent new media theorist, Lev Manovich, as a means of investigating and creating a practical poetics. The key element of the Poetics of Mosaic Narrative is the expansion of the previously forgotten and undeveloped Russian Formalist concept of cinematurgy which is vital to the successful development of new media storytelling theory and practice. This concept, as originally proposed but not elaborated by Kazansky, encompasses the notion of the creation of cinematic new media narrative as a mosaic – integrally driven by the narrative systems of plot, as well as the cinematic systems of visual style created by the techniques of cinema- montage, cinematography and mise-en-scene

Pivoting the player:a methodological toolkit for player character research in offline role-playing games

This thesis introduces an innovative method for the analysis of the player character (PC) in offline computer role-playing games (cRPGs). It derives from the assumption that the character constitutes the focal point of the game, around which all the other elements revolve. This underlying observation became the foundation of the Pivot Player Character Model, the framework illustrating the experience of gameplay as perceived through the PC’s eyes. Although VG characters have been scrutinised from many different perspectives, a uniform methodology has not been formed yet. This study aims to fill that methodological void by systematising the hitherto research and providing a method replicable across the cRPG genre. The proposed methodology builds upon the research of characters performed in video games, fiction, film, and drama. It has been largely inspired by Anne Ubersfeld’s semiological dramatic character research implemented in Reading Theatre I (1999). The developed theoretical model is applied to three selected cRPGs, which form an accurate methodological sample: The Witcher (CD Projekt RED 2007), Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios 2008), and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Troika Games 2004). The choice of the game genre has been incited by the degree of attention it draws to the player character’s persona. No other genre features such a complex character development system as a computer role-playing game. <br/

Children’s story authoring with Propp’s morphology

This thesis applies concepts from Vladimir Propp’s model of the narrative structure of fairy tales (Propp’s morphology) to a story authoring tool for children. A computer story authoring application based on Propp’s morphology is developed and evaluated through empirical studies with children. Propp’s morphology is a promising model of narrative for a children’s story authoring tool, with the potential to give children a powerful mental model with which to construct stories. Recent research has argued for the use of computer-based interactive narrative authoring tools (which enable the construction of interactive narrative computer games in which the player can affect or change the plot) to support children’s narrative development, and a number of interactive narrative systems use Propp’s morphology as their underlying model of narrative. These interactive narrative tools have many potential learning benefits and a powerful motivational effect for children, who enjoy using them to create narrative games. The potential of an interactive narrative system based on Propp’s morphology to support children’s construction of narratives seems great, combining Propp’s rich narrative model with the motivational benefits of interactive narrative. Before the application of Propp’s morphology in an interactive narrative game creation tool to support children’s writing could be pursued, it was necessary to study children’s story writing with Propp’s morphology. How can Propp’s morphology be represented in a story authoring tool for children? Can children apply Propp’s abstract narrative concepts to the task of creating their own original stories? How does using Propp’s morphology affect the stories written by children? Using the Propp-based authoring tool that is presented in this thesis children were able to grasp Propp’s abstract concepts and apply them to their own story writing. The use of a story authoring tool based on Propp’s morphology improved some aspects of the narrative structure of the stories written by children, and children reported that they enjoyed using the tool and felt it was helpful to their story writing. This thesis lays the foundation and identifies the methods for further study of children’s appropriation of narrative structure by constructing stories using a story authoring tool based on Propp’s morphology

Digital games as hypermedia literature

Digitale Spiele waren schon lange Gegenstand von wissenschaftlichen Studien, in letzter Zeit häuften sich die Diskussionen, ob Ansätze der traditionellen Medienwissenschaften auch auf digitale Spiele angewendet werden können, oder ob ein völlig neuer Zugang notwendig ist. Im Kontrast zu diesen Diskussionen stehen Publikationen aus dem Bereich der Spieleentwicklung selbst, die sich primär mit produktionstechnischen und ästhetischen Aspekten beschäftigen und damit oft Werke normativer Poetik hervorbringen. Diese Arbeit versucht, die Struktur von digitalen Spielen in einem Referenzsystem mit anderen Hypermedia-Artefakten zu platzieren um aufzuzeigen, welche Erzählstrukturen vorhanden sind und wie sie zustande kommen. Die Strukturen von untersuchten Spielen, Filmen und Hypertexten werden als Knoten-basierende Hypermediaartefakte behandelt. Darüberhinaus werden etliche Methoden untersucht, Erzählstrukturen zu generieren die nicht diesem System entsprechen. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit werden visuelle Aspekte von digitalen Spielen denen der Kinofilme gegenübergestellt. Die Analyse der Strukturen zeigt, dass die Knoten-basierende Herangehensweise für eine Vielfalt von Hypermedia funktioniert, auch digitale Spiele. In diesem Sinne können digitale Spiele wie jede andere Form der Hypermedia behandelt werden ohne dass das Element der Interaktivität das Modell stört. Die behandelten dynamischen und teilweise autonomen Systeme Erzählstrukturen zu schaffen können in der kommerziellen Anwendung noch nicht beobachtet werden. Hier zeigt sich eher ein Trend zu linearen, film-artigen Strukturen. Dies wird auch im zweiten Teil der Arbeit bestätigt, wo gezeigt wird, dass auch die visuelle Seite der Spiele immer filmischere Qualitäten annimmt.Digital games have long been a focus of research; recently there have been more and more discussions whether traditional methods of media studies can be applied to digital games, or if an entirely new frame of reference is needed. This thesis attempts to put the structure of digital games into a frame of reference with other interactive and non-interactive hypermedia artefacts, showing which narrative structures exist and how they are generated. The narrative structures of the examined games, films and hypertexts are treated as node-based hypermedia. From this starting point, a number of strategies for the creation of dynamic narratives are examined that do not conform to the node-based approach. In the second part the visual side of digital games are examined with cinematic film as a comparison. The structural analysis shows that the node-based approach is useful for examining many forms of hypermedia, including games. In this sense, digital games can be treated as any other form of media, without the element of interactivity disrupting the model. The dynamic and sometimes autonomous methods of creating narratives cannot be observed in mainstream game development yet, the current trends in the field point towards more linear, film-like presentation and layout of narratives. This analogy is confirmed on the visual side well, where digital games acquire more and more filmic traits

Notes on Narrative as Medium and a Media Ecology Approach to the Study of Storytelling

Storytelling, as a distinctively human characteristic, is a product of our capacity for language and symbolic communication. Just as language is considered a medium within the field of media ecology, so too can narrative be understood as a medium of communication, as well as a kind of language, and as a fundamentally social phenomenon. As a medium, narrative interacts with and is modified by other media, undergoing significant change as it is expressed through oral tradition, dramatic performance, written documents, and audiovisual media. In particular, major changes in the nature of character and plot accompany the shift from orality to literacy, and writing and especially printing make possible new forms of tragedy as opposed to comedy, prose as opposed to poetry, and fiction as opposed to nonfiction. Storytelling continues to mutate through the introduction of new media, with increasingly greater emphasis on narrative as an environment, especially one associated with social interaction and gaming