Interactive Narrative Intelligence: Modeling, Design, and Support
- 1. LABORATORY FOR QUANTITATIVE EXPERIENCE DESIGNqed.cs.utah.edu Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera, Ph.D. Assistant Professor School of Computing, Entertainment Arts and Engineering Program University of Utah November 30, 2020 Interactive Narrative Intelligence Modeling, Design, and Support Invited Talk, Visual Language Lab—Tilburg U. rogelio@cs.utah.edu http://rogel.io @recardona
- 2. We have no clue what (interactive) narrative design is, how to intentionally structure it, nor how to best support it
- 3. Playable systems with significant narrative elements • Mediate interaction through dramatic framing • Understanding story and game is needed to advance Interactive Narratives
- 4. Message Objective We need mathematical study of minds, machines, medium, and message • What is narrative design? • How can we design narratives intentionally? • How can we best support narrative design?
- 5. Message Objective We need mathematical study of minds, machines, medium, and message (systems) (psychology) (AI) (VR, Games) (Narrative) • What is narrative design? • How can we design narratives intentionally? • How can we best support narrative design?
- 6. What is narrative design?
- 7. • New language: Goals, Feedback, and Interpretation ‣ Complements: Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics What is narrative design? Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera, José P. Zagal, and Michael S. Debus; GFI: A Formal Approach to Narrative Design and Game Research. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS 2020), pages 133-148, 2020. (Best Paper Runner Up)
- 13. Game Design Language for Narrative Design Needs Mechanics Dynamics Aesthetics How you can act How the system reacts How you feel Goals Feedback Interpretation Why you would want to How you would know Why you feel it Gaps 🕳
- 15. Ultimate Goals To Finish In-game objectives or conditions players are expected to meet to succeed at a game
- 16. ! 3 Types To Win To Finish To Prolong In-game objectives or conditions players are expected to meet to succeed at a gameUltimate Goals José P. Zagal, Michael S. Debus, and Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera; On the Ultimate Goals of Games: Winning, Finishing, and Prolonging. In Proceedings of the 13th International Philosophy of Computer Games Conference (PoCG 2019), St. Petersburg, Russia, 2019.
- 17. To Finish
- 18. To Finish And how do you accomplish that?
- 19. To Finish Remove Imperative Goals Closer-to-gameplay conditions players are expected to meet to accomplish the ultimate
- 20. To Finish Remove And how do you accomplish that? Imperative Goals Closer-to-gameplay conditions players are expected to meet to accomplish the ultimate
- 21. To Finish Remove Reach Imperative Goals Closer-to-gameplay conditions players are expected to meet to accomplish the ultimate
- 22. ! 10 Types Choose Optimize Configure Reach Create Remove Find Solve Obtain Synchronize Imperative Goals Closer-to-gameplay conditions players are expected to meet to accomplish the ultimate Michael S. Debus, José P. Zagal, and Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera; A Typology of Imperative Game Goals. Game Studies, 20(3), 2020.
- 25. What does this mean? To Finish
- 26. To Finish Save the Princess
- 29. To Finish Save the Princess
- 30. Imperative Goals Interpretation of a ludological goal that depends on the player and the game’s feedback To Finish Save the Princess Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera, José P. Zagal, Michael S. Debus; Narrative Goals in Games: A Novel Nexus of Story and Gameplay. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2020), Malta, 2020.
- 31. To Finish Remove Save the Princess Defeat Bowser
- 32. To Finish Remove Reach Save the Princess Defeat Bowser Destroy Bridge
- 33. To Finish Remove Reach Save the Princess Defeat Bowser Destroy Bridge Parallel Goal Hierarchy What does this mean?
- 34. To Finish Remove Reach Save the Princess Defeat Bowser Destroy Bridge Why do you want to do this? Parallel Goal Hierarchy
- 35. To Finish Remove Reach Save the Princess Defeat Bowser Destroy Bridge Why do you want to do this? Parallel Goal Hierarchy
- 36. • New language: Goals, Feedback, and Interpretation ‣ Complements: Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics • Framing: Games as Conversation What is narrative design? Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera and R. Michael Young; Games as Conversation. In Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Games and NLP at the 10th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (GAMNLP-14), pages 2-8, Raleigh, NC, USA, 2014.
- 37. •You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door. •There is a small mailbox here. •> Zork •open mailbox •Opening the mailbox reveals: A leaflet. •> - Games •The mailbox is relevant. Why would it be communicated otherwise?
- 38. • New language: Goals, Feedback, and Interpretation ‣ Complements: Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics • Framing: Games as Conversation What is narrative design?
- 39. • New language: Goals, Feedback, and Interpretation ‣ Complements: Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics • Framing: Games as Conversation • Open Question: Theoretical Orientation for Design? ‣ Preliminary Answer: Situated Function-Behaviour-Structure What is narrative design? Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera; Foundations of a Computational Science of Game Design: Abstractions and Tradeoffs. In Proceedings of the 16th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE 2020), Online, 2020.
- 40. How can we design narratives intentionally?
- 41. • Intention requires goal setting ‣ Question Answering How can we design narratives intentionally? Arthur disenchants Excalibur Excalibur disenchanted Arthur wants disenchanted Arthur wants Excalibur Consequence Outcome Reason Event State Goal Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera, Thomas W. Price, David R. Winer, and R. Michael Young; Question Answering in the Context of Stories Generated by Computers. Advances in Cognitive Systems, 4, pages 227-246, 2016.
- 42. • Intention requires goal setting ‣ Question Answering ‣ Role-play How can we design narratives intentionally? Fighter Wizard Rogue Ignacio X. Domínguez, Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera, James Vance, David L. Roberts; The Mimesis Effect: The Effect of Roles on Player Choice in Interactive Narrative Role-Playing Games. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2016), pages 3438-3449, San Jose, CA, USA, 2016. Mimesis Effect
- 43. • Intention requires goal setting ‣ Question Answering ‣ Role-play • Open Question: Theoretical Orientation for Intentional Effect? ‣ Preliminary Answer: The Visual Narrative Parallel Architecture ‣ The Visual Narrative Engine ‣ The interactivity grammar? How can we design narratives intentionally? Chris Martens, Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera, and Neil Cohn; The Visual Narrative Engine: A Computational Model of the Visual Narrative Architecture. In Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems (ACS 2020), Online, 2020.
- 44. Parallel Interfacing Narrative Semantics Dual (Syntax/Semantics) Process Reasoning
- 46. The Visual Narrative Engine Model of the combined VNG+PINS = Visual Narrative Parallel Arch. • Research Question: Can we describe procedures to match posited interfaces?
- 47. The Visual Narrative Engine Model of the combined VNG+PINS = Visual Narrative Parallel Arch. • Research Question: Can we describe procedures to match posited interfaces?
- 48. The Visual Narrative Engine Model of the combined VNG+PINS = Visual Narrative Parallel Arch. • Research Question: Can we describe procedures to match posited interfaces? Scene Graphs
- 49. Scene Graphs A Representation from Computer Vision
- 50. The Visual Narrative Engine Model of the combined VNG+PINS = Visual Narrative Parallel Arch. • Research Question: Can we describe procedures to match posited interfaces? Scene Graphs HTN Plans
- 51. Hierarchical Task Networks A Representation from Automated Planning
- 52. Representations are Compatible! Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera and Boyang Li; PlotShot: Generating Discourse-constrained Stories around Photos. In Proceedings of the 12th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE-16), pages 2-8, Burlingame, CA, USA, 2016.
- 54. The Visual Narrative Engine Model of the combined VNG+PINS = Visual Narrative Parallel Arch. • Research Question: Can we describe procedures to match posited interfaces? Scene Graphs HTN Plans
- 55. • Intention requires goal setting ‣ Question Answering ‣ Role-play • Open Question: Theoretical Orientation for Intentional Effect? ‣ Preliminary Answer: The Visual Narrative Parallel Architecture ‣ The Visual Narrative Engine ‣ The interactivity grammar? How can we design narratives intentionally? Chris Martens, Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera, and Neil Cohn; The Visual Narrative Engine: A Computational Model of the Visual Narrative Architecture. In Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems (ACS 2020), Online, 2020.
- 56. • Understanding Players ‣ Goal Elicitation How can we best support narrative design? Adam Amos-Binks and Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera; Goal Elicitation Planning: Acting to Reveal the Goals of Others. In Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems (ACS 2020), Online, 2020.
- 57. • Understanding Players ‣ Goal Elicitation • Invisible Support How can we best support narrative design? Justus Robertson, Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera, and R. Michael Young; Invisible Dynamic Game Adjustment in Virtual Reality Games. To appear in Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, Online, 2020.
- 58. • Understanding Players ‣ Goal Elicitation • Invisible Support • Open Question: Theoretical Orientation for Design Tools? ‣ Preliminary Answers: - The Visual Narrative Engine - Metaphors How can we best support narrative design?
- 59. Message Objective We need mathematical study of minds, machines, medium, and message • What is narrative design? • How can we design narratives intentionally? • How can we best support narrative design?
- 60. Recap We need mathematical study of minds, machines, medium, and message • What is narrative design? • How can we design narratives intentionally? • How can we best support narrative design? • Next Generation Open Questions ‣ VNE (and VNG): Where does interaction fit in? ‣ How does fluency mediate tool use? (VLFI for Games?)
- 61. Recap and Wrap: Join me? We need mathematical study of minds, machines, medium, and message • What is narrative design? • How can we design narratives intentionally? • How can we best support narrative design? • Next Generation Open Questions ‣ VNE (and VNG): Where does interaction fit in? ‣ How does fluency mediate tool use? (VLFI for Games?)