Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling (2 page)

 

The Artist’s Mathematical Palette

 

Weighting Factors

 

How to Set Values

 

PART III Strategies for Interactive Storytelling

 

Chapter 7
Simple Strategies That Don’t Work

 

Branching Trees

 

Foldback Schemes

 

Constipated Stories

 

Kill ‘Em If They Stray

 

Storified Games

 

Chapter 8
Environmental Strategies

 

Emergent Story

 

Possible Extensions

 

Extending the Size of the Three-dimensional World

 

More Props

 

More Agents

 

Smarter Agents

 

More and Better Puzzles

 

A Journey Structure

 

All of the Above

 

Storytelling in The Sims

 

Chapter 9
Data-Driven Strategies

 

Story Components

 

Connectivity Data

 

A Short Digression

 

The Aarne-Thompson Catalogues

 

Applications

 

Vladimir Propp

 

An Application

 

Georges Polti

 

Chapter 10
Language-Based Strategies

 

An Inside-Out Approach

 

Language and Reality

 

Vocabulary

 

Grammars

 

Meaning

 

Inverse Parsing

 

Semantic Networks

 

Graphical Languages

 

Basic English

 

Pictorial Languages

 

PART IV Core Technologies for Interactive Storytelling

 

Chapter 11
Personality Models

 

Factors in Developing a Personality Model

 

Completeness

 

Conciseness

 

Orthogonality

 

Tied to Behavior

 

Overspecificity

 

Types of Personality Variables

 

Polarity of Variables

 

Moods

 

My Preferred Personality Model

 

Intrinsic Variables

 

Mood Variables

 

Volatility Variables

 

Accordance Variables

 

Relationship Variables

 

Automatic Relationship Adjustment

 

Calculating with Personality Variables

 

Putting a Personality Model to Work: An Exercise

 

Chapter 12
Drama Managers

 

Listen

 

Think

 

Speak

 

Environmental Manipulation

 

Goal Injection

 

Shifting Personalities

 

The Ticking Clock of Doom

 

Dropping the Fourth Wall

 

“Correcting” the Player

 

Scoring Systems

 

Example: An Arthurian Storyworld

 

Tragedy

 

Chapter 13
Verbs and Events

 

Verb Counts

 

Specific Versus Generalized Verb Handling

 

Events

 

Chomskian, or Recursive, Data Structures

 

Flat Data Structures

 

Chapter 14
HistoryBooks and Gossip

 

HistoryBooks

 

Gossip

 

Recording Events

 

Constructing Tales

 

Finding a Gossip-Mate

 

Lies

 

Intent to Harm Relationships

 

Gain Benefit Through Misdirection

 

Defensive Denial

 

Secrets

 

The Grapevine

 

Chapter 15
Anticipation

 

Including Anticipation

 

Choosing Verbs

 

Including Logical Inferences

 

Inference Engines

 

Tree Analysis

 

Chapter 16
Roles and Sequencing

 

Selecting Options

 

Hard-wired Versus Soft-wired Approaches

 

Roles

 

From Plan to Execution

 

Deferred Reactions

 

Chapter 17
Development Environments

 

Historical Background

 

The Importance of Development Environments

 

Elements of Development Environments

 

Algorithmic Entry

 

Some Suggestions

 

Setting the Context

 

Threadtests and Rehearsals

 

ComeFrom Analysis

 

Debuggers

 

A Programming Note

 

Script Editing

 

PART V Applications

 

Chapter 18
The Erasmatron

 

Early Efforts

 

The Erasmatron Engine

 

Data Types

 

Roles

 

Scripts

 

Inclination Formulae

 

Time in the Erasmatron

 

Plan Execution

 

Movement and Space

 

Additional Odds and Ends in the Engine

 

Future Directions

 

Chapter 19
Research

 

Generic Issues

 

Hammers and Nails

 

Boolean Thinking

 

The Oz Project

 

Experience Management

 

Story Traces

 

Façade

 

The Dr K- Project

 

HEFTI

 

IDTension

 

The Virtual Storyteller

 

InterTale

 

Story Grammars

 

Interactive Drama Architecture

 

DraMachina

 

Personal Narrative Agents

 

HTN- and HSP-Based Technologies

 

Chapter 20
Distant Relatives

 

Interactive Fiction

 

Hypertext Fiction

 

Digital Storytelling

 

Scriptwriting Software

 

Role-Playing Games

 

Simulations

 

Narrative Intelligence

 

Chapter 21
Prognostications

 

The Evolutionary School

 

The Wrong Verbs

 

The Wrong Themes

 

Market Factors

 

A Marketing Fairy Tale

 

A Marketing Nightmare

 

The Revolutionary School

 

Implications of the Market-Driven Approach

 

Increasing Awareness

 

Predictions

 

Index

 
About the Author
 

Chris Crawford
was one of the leading lights of the computer games industry. He led the games research group at Atari, where he wrote
The Art of Computer Game Design
, one of the classics in the field. He designed and programmed fourteen published computer games and wrote five books on software design. He founded and led the Computer Game Developers Conference, now known as the Game Developers Conference. Then in 1992 he walked away from computer games to work on interactive storytelling. Over the intervening years, Crawford has created and developed the Erasmatron interactive storytelling technology, portions of which he has patented. Crawford continues to advance the state of the art through his writings, lectures, and Phrontisterion, an annual conference on interactive storytelling. Crawford lives in the mountains of southern Oregon with his wife, Kathy, and with two dogs, eleven cats, three ducks, three burros, and one pig. He also had two goats and two emus, but the mountain lion ate them.

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