Showing papers presented at "International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling in 2020"

A systematic analysis of user experience dimensions for interactive digital narratives

Abstract: Providing intelligent feedback to aid authoring has been proposed as a way to speed up authoring, give the author more control, and to enable the authoring of more complex interactive narratives. However, there is little research investigating what concrete feedback items would be useful for interactive digital narrative (IDN) creators. In this paper, we discuss potentially useful feedback items in relation to authoring goals and concerns. We perform a systematic literature review to make a list of concrete feedback items of interest related to the most emphasised concern of authoring - the effect of the interactive narrative on the user. We identify 47 User Experience (UX) dimensions in the IDN literature that could serve as useful feedback items, covering 8 categories - Agency, Cognition, Immersion, Affect, Drama, Rewards, Motivation and Dissonance. This list combines and untangles how different IDN researchers have interpreted and expressed interest in the complex idea of UX in the past decade and gives us insight into what concrete aspects of UX might be useful to estimate via automated feedback.

GFI: A Formal Approach to Narrative Design and Game Research

Abstract: We present the GFI framework (standing for Goals, Feedback, and Interpretation), inductively developed to address the MDA framework’s shortcomings as a lens and tool for modeling games. GFI stands parallel to MDA as a formal approach that offers bridging the gap between narrative design, game development, story analysis, and game research. Through GFI, we analyze foundational narrative design problems and systematically peek through the game design space, in order to evidence its analytical and generative traction. We believe these discussions signal GFI’s potential to elucidate the narrative design process, making it easier for researchers and practitioners to decompose, study, and design a broad class of game artifacts.

Letters to José: A Design Case for Building Tangible Interactive Narratives

Abstract: The field of interactive digital storytelling has been largely focused on screen-based, algorithm-driven narrative systems. While a considerable number of tools, models and experimental cases have been built to explore different aspects of the narrative and system design, very few of them are applicable for the category of tangible narratives. This paper presents a design case, Letters to Jose, to contribute to the body of works in tangible storytelling. Conducted through a research through design process, the building and evaluation of this case reveals key design aspects and considerations for authoring tangibles narratives, as well as the interactive narrative experience it brings. From the design process and the study findings, we identify a critical design category – artifacts for storytelling – whose characteristics and roles in an interactive narrative system are discussed. In reflecting the decision-makings, we address the complex design problems for building tangible interactive narratives.

“How Do I Restart This Thing?” Repeat Experience and Resistance to Closure in Rewind Storygames

Abstract: Interactive stories are a kaleidoscopic form that both encourages and rewards repeat experience, allowing players to try out different variations of a story or see the story from different perspectives. This may be one reason for the increasing use of rewind game mechanics, where players are required to repeatedly play a storygame before eventually reaching some form of conclusion. While this seems to be playing to the strengths of the medium, what is not clear is how rewind structures can be explained by current models of repeat experience in interactive stories. Through a close reading of the storygame Elsinore, we explore the impact of rewind game mechanics on repeat play, in terms of the player’s ability both to determine when the end has been reached, and to subsequently replay beyond closure. Our observations suggest that rewind mechanics may frustrate, rather than support, closure and repeat experience of storygames, and may require a revision of current theories of rereading and repeat experience.

The Case for Invisibility: Understanding and Improving Agency in Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch and Other Interactive Digital Narrative Works

Abstract: With the launch and popularity of Bandersnatch (2018), interactive storytelling reached a mass audience in a different way to earlier works. However, as a narrative experience, Bandersnatch belongs to a particular class of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs): highly restrictive, nonlinear, branching structure films that offer limited agency and, in many ways, have less to offer than more sophisticated IDNs. While the simple format is appealing to new audiences, there is clearly scope for improvement. In this paper, Bandersnatch is examined as a representative of its format in an attempt to identify alternative design choices for improved agency, as well as assessing the choices’ suitability for the format. The methodology for the analysis is Hartmut Koenitz’s SPP model as well as its extension, the hermeneutic strip, which is applied to understand and assess the experienced agency. The final reflection on alternative design recommendations for Bandersnatch type works demonstrates that, by implementing features of invisible agency, the overall feeling of control of the player could be improved without losing narrative momentum. The improvements could be achieved by maintaining state of the behavioural tendencies (e.g., risk-taking behaviour) of the audience in their decision-making process and screening plotlines or endings that match their assessed tendencies.

A Natural History Museum Experience: Memories of Carvalhal’s Palace – Turning Point

Abstract: Teenagers are a large pool of potential museum audiences. This age group is identified as an audience group that is often excluded from a museum’s curatorial strategies [1] and appears to be generally disinterested in what museums might offer [2]. Without some degree of digital interactivity, it is challenging for a museum to remain interesting and relevant to a young tech-savvy audience [2]. Our application is a location-specific gamified narrative deployed at the Natural History Museum of Funchal (Madeira island, Portugal) which embraces the potential of mobile interactive technologies and digital storytelling to promote engaging tours for teenage visitors, encouraging more active, enriching and tailored experiences. Through our interactive story app, the audience is challenged to explore the museum to unlock fragments of a narrative that relates to the main story.

Toward a Block-Based Programming Approach to Interactive Storytelling for Upper Elementary Students

Abstract: Developing narrative and computational thinking skills is crucial for K-12 student learning. A growing number of K-12 teachers are utilizing digital storytelling, where students create short narratives around a topic, as a means of creating motivating problem-solving activities for a variety of domains, including history and science. At the same time, there is increasing awareness of the need to engage K-12 students in computational thinking, including elementary school students. Given the challenges that the syntax of text-based programming languages poses for even novice university-level learners, block-based programming languages have emerged as an effective tool for introducing computational thinking to elementary-level students. Leveraging the unique affordances of narrative and computational thinking offers significant potential for student learning; however, integrating them presents significant challenges. In this paper, we describe initial work toward solving this problem by introducing an approach to block-based programming for interactive storytelling to engage upper elementary students (ages 9 to 11) in computational thinking and narrative skill development. Leveraging design principles and best practices from prior research on elementary-grade block-based programming and digital storytelling, we propose a set of custom blocks enabling learners to create interactive narratives. We describe both the process used to derive the custom blocks, including their alignment with elements of interactive narrative and with specific computational thinking curricular goals, as well as lessons learned from students interacting with a prototype learning environment utilizing the block-based programming approach.

Twine and DooM as Authoring Tools in Teaching IDN Design of LudoNarrative Dissonance

Abstract: Teaching Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs) to undergraduate students ought to be more than branching narratives and using popular authoring tools. Exposing them to challenges of IDNs and pushing them to address these issues can help students think beyond the conventional. Authoring tools may fail to provide functionality to support tackling such issues but coupling a popular branching narrative authoring tool such as Twine with a gameplay focused level editor such as one for DooM provides for interactive narratives that reflect upon one such challenge: LudoNarrative Dissonance. A team of three students’ submission using such tools is described and its outcome discussed in terms of its relevance to the ICIDS community interested in teaching IDNs to undergraduate students.

Digital Storytelling in a Museum Application Using the Web of Things

Abstract: The traditional notion of museum has changed. Museums’ mute character is transformed into storytellers that communicate experience to their audience. Innovative technologies enhance the interactivity of storytelling and enable the audience to experience learning and entertainment. In this paper, we present WoTEdu, an interactive storytelling project based on the Web of Things (WoT) paradigm. WoTEdu enhances the audience edutainment experience through interaction with museum artefacts.

The Story Maker - An Authoring Tool for Multimedia-Rich Interactive Narratives

Abstract: In our previous work, we have experimented with branching narratives in cultural heritage, seeking to validate the efficacy of such narratives in this context and identify best practices in their creation. In this work we present the Story Maker, an authoring tool designed as a result of an iterative co-design process with heritage domain experts. The tool is situated within the domain of Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) authoring tools and was created to support both the design and the production of multimedia rich interactive narratives. We briefly present the motivation for the creation of the tool and describe its main features concluding with the future directions of our research.

What Might an Action do? Toward a Grounded View of Actions in Interactive Storytelling

Abstract: Interaction is central to interactive narrative experiences, but our understanding of player actions remains relatively shallow. Recent works have widened our view of what an action might do, but we still lack a way to identify, compare, and discover different kinds of action that an interactive narrative’s player might perform. In this work, we present a way to model the interaction that occurs in an interactive narrative process, offering a common ground upon which many kinds of action can be distinguished, including kinds that might never have been used. We demonstrate our method on The Ice-Bound Concordance, an interactive narrative system that offers complex actions.

Magic and Immersion in VR

Abstract: The rise of the notion of “immersion”, thanks to interactive VR productions, provokes creators and experiencers to think of new design frameworks. The concept of immersion is frequently mentioned together with the notion of illusion. In this paper I will outline a way to think of the sense of immersion in VR that is based on the science of magic. Based on this particular view of immersion as a magical experiment I will present an outline of a possible parallel between experiencing immersion in VR and in a magic trick.

Vim: A Tangible Energy Story

Abstract: Vim is a tangible narrative about energy futures. It is designed to illustrate how a story about a public issue could be designed for physical interaction and whether that interaction can encourage participation in that issue. To date, much research into tangible narrative has focused on fiction and childhood education. Energy, as a wicked problem, provides a challenging context for exploring how tangible elements could be used to tell public interest stories. In this paper, we offer an overview of key energy issues in Australia and the role of design in addressing community concerns. We describe Vim and outline how our design research approach informed decisions about form and interaction. An initial critique of our prototype suggests that public interest stories have qualities that diverge from fictional tangible narrative. In particular, factors such as where a story exists and the role of the reader need to take account of the real-world context and role of ‘characters’ and ‘settings’ outside of the story.

Capturing User Emotions in Interactive Stories: Comparing a Diegetic and a Non-diegetic Approach to Self-reporting Emotion

Abstract: Capturing the player’s emotions in an interactive story can serve many purposes, such as to understand player response to a story or to alter the story’s path. The concept of diegesis defines the boundary between the story world and the real world, and has been used to explore different ways of conceptualizing user interface (UI) elements in interactive media. This paper explores methods of capturing players’ emotions during an interactive story and the concept of diegesis. Specifically, we posit that whether emotion capture exists in a diegetic versus a non-diegetic space can affect its accuracy when capturing player emotion. We developed two interactive stories with two emotion capture methods, one using a diegetic approach, and the other using a non-diegetic approach. We conducted a study with 64 participants to compare the two emotion capture approaches. Our results show that a diegetic approach leads to a better story experience, but that a non-diegetic approach leads to the player’s emotion being captured more accurately. We discuss the implications of the study results for integrating emotion capture in the design of interactive stories.

Circuits, Cycles, Configurations: An Interaction Model of Web Comics

Abstract: We are accustomed to thinking about multimedia technologies as a coming-together: consider the convergence of still images and sound in film, for example. This approach, however, struggles to accommodate the slippery distinction between different components in a digital space. This paper approaches new technology as a perceptually-generated matrix holding discrete components in relation to one another. These temporary formation of interacting components facilitate a unique structure which is other than the sum of its component parts. It outlines the unique lifecycle of the webcomic, and its relationship with infrastructures both of feedback and distribution, through the systematic evaluation of the specific calibration of technology-based interaction found in the medium.

Crafting Interactive Narrative Games with Adversarial Planning Agents from Simulations

Abstract: This paper describes Adversario, an implemented system for creating interactive narrative games centered around an adversarial planner directing autonomous agents to achieve goals that conflict with player goals. Through our implementation, we present a novel framework for creating interactive narrative games wherein the autonomous agents guided by the adversarial planner have rich and varied attributes derived from a complex social simulation. By doing this, we show that it is possible to craft interactive narrative games with a set of carefully curated domain actions to produce interactions in a procedurally generated world with rich characters. Our system bridges several gaps between interactive narrative game design, procedural content generation, and classical AI planning. We demonstrate this by transforming a simulation-planning based narrative generation system into a system for streamlining the process of crafting interactive narrative games involving rich procedurally generated agents.

A Novel Design Pipeline for Authoring Tools

Abstract: Interactive digital narrative research presents a diverse range of authoring tools [1, 4, 8, 12, 14]. Although our field often publishes the technology, it less often publishes a refined UX design pipeline for those tools’ authoring experience. This is despite the UX of these tools long being identified as a key challenge [14] and UX design pipelines being an active area of research in adjacent technologies such as the games that sometimes deliver our stories [3, 10, 11]. We present a three-stage design pipeline targeting the creation of interactive narrative authoring tools that is informed by existing design pipelines that consider the user and their experience at all stages. We then detail our own application of this pipeline to the design of a new authoring tool, reporting on the methodologies, analyses, and findings of each step.

Archiving Interactive Narratives at the British Library

Abstract: This paper describes the creation of the Interactive Narratives collection in the UK Web Archive, as part of the UK Legal Deposit Libraries Emerging Formats Project. The aim of the project is to identify, collect and preserve complex digital publications that are in scope for collection under UK Non-Print Legal Deposit Regulations. This article traces the process of building the Interactive Narratives collection, analysing the different tools and methods used and placing the collection within the wider context of Emerging Formats work and engagement activities at the British Library.

Using Reverse Interactive Audio Systems (RIAS) to Direct Attention in Virtual Reality Narrative Practices: A Case Study

Abstract: Game audio is widely implemented as being reactive to player actions and environmental influences. However, with virtual reality narratives, there is a growing need to be able to direct audience attention. ArrivalVR is the first nationally co-created storytelling project presenting curated immigration/migration stories of Americans in virtual reality (VR). In this paper, we discuss how reverse interactive audio systems could direct audience attention using ArrivalVR as a case study.

Embedded Narratives in Procedurally Generated Environments

Abstract: Procedural Content Generation can help alleviate the workloads of designers, with the drawback of reducing their control over the final product. At the same time, many games have a growing focus on conveying a narrative using environmental storytelling which requires a high degree of control to embed in a virtual environment. This paper seeks to reconcile the apparent conflict in these two approaches, and explores a method in which Procedural Content Generation can be used to create virtual environments with embedded narratives. This is done using a Space-Time Drama Manager to dynamically place narrative elements in the virtual environment. A prototype game was developed and evaluated in a between-groups test (n = 69). Participants in the control condition all experienced the same environment, while those in the experimental condition each experienced a different procedurally generated environment. No significant difference was found for any of the measures. This was attributed to the fact that it is possible to convey an embedded narrative consistently to players, even when the environment which contains the narrative elements is procedurally generated, yielding a different experience for each participant.

Dramatic Narrative Logics: Integrating Drama into Storygames with Operational Logics

Abstract: Many videogames seek to be story-driven, incorporating story elements such as a hero-driven plotline, dramatic conflict and story structure in order to increase player immersion and engagement. Storygames have been discussed by theorists such as Buckles, Murray and Reed. However, the issue of the integration of dramatic devices with the playable system and operational logics in interactive narratives has not been adequately explored. Through close readings of two storygames, Disco Elysium and Her Story, this paper aims to investigate how narrative logics can be integrated into storygames in the context of Aristotelian drama, and how dramatic narrative units integrate operationally with the playable system. It also proposes a type of storygame, the dramatic storygame, where the playable system is closely tied with the processing and production of dramatic narrative units.

When the Fourth Layer Meets the Fourth Wall: The Case for Critical Game Retellings

Abstract: Game retellings are when a player tells of the significant moments arising from their experiences of a game. It has been suggested that retellings are a marker of a game’s success, insofar as they are evidence that the game has produced something worth telling to others. This paper argues that a subset of retellings take a critical stance towards their ‘own’ game, surfacing failures and breakdowns and rendering them the objects of shared public scrutiny. These are self-reflexively critical retellings, and they present an underutilized tool for scholars and designers of interactive narrative.

Interpretive play and the player psychology of optimal arousal regulation

Abstract: Building on previous discussions of interpretive play in story-focused digital games, a psychological foundation of narrative interpretation is proposed. First, how narrative information is synthesized with prior experiences and expectations into ‘situation models’ in long-term memory. Second, how pleasure is derived from increased arousal through engaging with novel, unfamiliar stimuli. This psychological foundation is then compared to contemporary approaches to narrative design, particularly in Her Story and Dear Esther. The relevance of the proposed cognitive psychological foundation is also considered in regard to digital games with no documented intentional use psychologically, primarily through an analysis of player behaviour and response in Gone Home. Results are comparable to the psychological model, particularly the prominent roles of recalling and forming expectations, and how player attention is often attracted to novel, unfamiliar, or unexpected stimuli. The ongoing aim of this work is to further investigate interpretive play in the context of digital games and continue to develop the cognitive psychological foundation. Future work shall also contextualise the research and findings though the development of commercial games.

Honey, I’m Home: An Adventure Game with Procedurally Generated Narrative Puzzles

Abstract: We present Honey, I’m Home, a short 2D adventure game which makes use of the SPHINX framework for procedurally generating narrative puzzles. The player guides the protagonist, a journalist for a local newspaper, through four game areas, interacting with numerous characters and objects along the way. The player must solve puzzles to complete each area, combining objects and interacting with characters in the game. The procedural generation of puzzles ensures that while the gameworld remains largely identical between replays, the puzzles encountered are different. The aim of Honey, I’m Home was to serve as a tool for our two-fold evaluation of the SPHINX algorithm, from its functionality in game development, as well as its effect on player experience. To this end a small user study was also conducted on Honey, I’m Home.

Weird and Wonderful: How Experimental Film Narratives Can Inform Interactive Digital Narratives.

Abstract: An analysis is made of historical experimental films in order to determine if alternative models and techniques of narration are in use that may inform current and future creators of interactive digital narratives (IDN). An overview of experimental film leads to five case studies chosen as being of most relevance to narrative: these discuss works by Deren, Greenaway, Frampton, Markopoulos and Rybczynski. All these works predate the establishment of digital and interactive technology. Characteristics of verticality and repetition, spiral structures, ‘interlexia’ transitions, voice-over disjunction, trance narratives, multiscreen and multilayering, and the use of equations and set theory to determine the form of the film, are shown to be of potential interest to IDN.

Tale of T(r)ails: The Design of an AR Comic Book for an Animal Welfare Transmedia

Abstract: Storytelling is a fundamental component of a child’s early development stages, informing their world view and promoting self-growth. Comic books are a common medium in these development stages, for their power of communication and expression. Inspired by narrative branching structures and technological advances in Augmented Reality (AR), we developed Tale of T(r)ails, an AR branching comic book, targeting pre-teenagers (10–12 years old). This paper’s contribution focuses on the design of an AR comic book aiming at critically engaging pre-teens with Animal Welfare and motivating them for real-world actions.

The Procedural Nature of Interactive Digital Narratives and Early Literacy

Abstract: Interactive digital narrative (IDN) has characteristics that challenge the traditional assumptions about narratives, in this sense IDN is defined as composed of system, process, and product, in a model which highlights the procedural nature of IDN as a reactive and generative system [14]. In this paper, we argue that educational applications of IDN can be enhanced by placing the emphasis on the procedural nature of IDN given by the specific framework. We present an authoring tool for IDN to support early literacy practices in pre- and primary school children and discuss how the preliminary findings benefit from an analysis oriented by the Specific Theory for IDN. We propose that the inclusion of system, process, and product in the analysis and the pedagogical use of IDN bring up two crucial aspects of young children’s language development: embodied cognition (specially supported by the system) and interaction (specially benefited by the process). Finally, we argue that the procedural nature of IDN can provide a learning opportunity in educational applications of IDN, whereby we highlight the prominent role of the user within the proposed IDN framework.

Digital Narrative, Documents and Interactive Public History

Abstract: To date, the implications and potential of interactive digital narrative have had a limited effect on history as an academic discipline. This project is an attempt to form a dialogue between the practice of historians and the rich scholarship on interactive narrative already undertaken by literary theorists, researchers of interactive systems, scholars of media studies, and practicing creative technologists. Probing the narrative devices common to the production of historical work, this VR project uses Maya, Unity, and a range of visual and aural historical sources from Republican-era China (1912–1949) to offer a digital demonstration of the possibilities of combining interactive digital narrative with long accepted materials and modes of historical production. Specifically, our project focuses on making accessible to a global audience the stories of several scientists and historical factories key to the rise of the renewable energy industry in China during the 1940s. In turn, we hope that we can offer participants in the interactive digital storytelling community a few thoughts on the potential of collaboration with historians via the avenue of “public history”.

Tell a Tail 360$^{\circ }$: Immersive Storytelling on Animal Welfare.

Abstract: Immersive technologies aligned with storytelling can create novel and powerful tools to inform and ponder on social issues. This demo paper describes a cinematic virtual reality project, Tell a Tail 360\(^{\circ }\), on the rescue of abandoned companion animals. Tell a Tail 360\(^{\circ }\) was designed targeting teens (13–19 years old) and its inclusion in a classroom setting. By using 360\(^{\circ }\) videos of a rescue kennel, animal hospital and the field work of non-governmental organizations, we intend for the target audience to be exposed to different animal welfare issues relevant to their context.

Gated Story Structure and Dramatic Agency in Sam Barlow’s Telling Lies

Abstract: Sam Barlow’s story-based video game Telling Lies (2019), like his previous game, Her Story (2015), is based on an interaction mechanic in which the player searches a fixed archive of videoclips using keywords found in the dialog of the fictional characters. This storytelling strategy can be situated within traditions of epistemic narratives in which the interactor navigates through a set of unchanging narrative segments, motivated by the desire to increase knowledge of the story. Such stories offer the pleasure of revelation, and they hinge on hiding information so that it is later revealed in a way that maximizes the experience of dramatic agency. This paper explores the expressive potential of Barlow’s signature database search mechanic for creating the experience of dramatic agency through managed revelation. By mapping our own experience and examining Barlow’s development documents and code, we describe how the artfully gated search mechanic creates temporal disjunctions that provide glimpses of narrative situations that pique curiosity while suppressing explanatory revelations. Using Telling Lies as an example, we identify some characteristic design challenges and opportunities afforded by the constrained database search approach and point to unexplored design opportunities that could make this strategy the basis of a more widely-practiced genre.