Urs Richle

3D simulated interactive drama for teenagers coping with a traumatic brain injury in a parent

This paper describes the current state of a pedagogical immersive 3D story TBI-SIM and the changes that have been made to it. The system is a narrative simulation in a fully immersive 3D world in which the user controls a character that can interact with non-player characters (NPCs). The users achieve goals and make decisions that have an impact on the course of the story.

Propositions for innovative forms of digital interactive storytelling based on narrative theories and practices

This paper takes a look at narrative forms as of yet unexplored in the field of digital interactive storytelling, and proposes methods for how they can be used in engaging ways for the user. Digital Interactive Storytelling, while nearly two decades old as a field of research, has yet to produce a tool capable of producing masses of narratively interesting and engaging pieces for the end user. Although the various prototypes available produce several different story genres, they stem from the same classic narrative form. With this paper, we aim to introduce narrative techniques that have successfully been used in cinema, literature and the gaming world, and show how they can be adapted to DIS. We believe that by presenting these techniques authors can gain a better understanding of how to use existing systems.

Towards a Computational Model of Dramatic Tension

One of the approaches to generate narrative consists in modeling narrative in terms of a deep structure, as introduced by narrative theories in the middle of the 20th century. This papers revisits this computational approach, and raises the central issue of dramatic tension: Would it be possible to build a computational model of dramatic tension, where tension could be managed according to the well known ascending/descending dramatic curve? The paper describes a new computational model of narrative, based on a set of structural narrative elements (goals, tasks, obstacles, side-effects), a hierarchical and modular approach, a paradox-based model of dramatic tension and a solution for managing endings. The papers illustrates this theoretical model with a full example.

Using highly interactive drama to help young people cope with traumatic situations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of disability and has a devastating impact on all family members. The goal of our project is to design, develop, and evaluate a pedagogical interactive drama to support uninjured youths aged 12 to 19 years who have a parent or sibling with a TBI. We used IDtension, a highly interactive drama engine, to develop a text-based interactive game, in which young users play the role of Frank, who has to prepare a dinner with Paul, his father, who suffers from a TBI.

Structural writing, a design principle for interactive drama

Computer-based highly interactive drama involves different authoring approaches, compared to linear media. Underlying design principles needs to be understood in order to guide the authoring process, to teach authors and to design better systems. This paper identifies a fundamental design principle termed Structural Writing that underlies some of the most generative approaches in interactive drama. A theoretical description of this principle is proposed, which leads to a general architecture for interactive drama that may help authors and researchers to design systems that better exploit the principle of structural writing.

Educational narrative games with choice: the simula family

This paper presents a demonstration of a pedagogical highly interactive drama, which provides the user with many choices on the course of the narrative, by controlling a character in an immersive 3D story.

Workshop on Authoring Methods and Conception in Interactive Storytelling

The ICIDS 2009 post-conference workshop on authoring methods and conception takes up open issues that were identified at previous conference workshops on authoring. The emphasis is on the abstraction processes that are involved when interactive story ideas are adapted to certain IS systems.

Qualifying and Quantifying Interestingness in Dramatic Situations

Dramatic situations have long been studied in Drama Studies since they characterize tension and interestingness in a plot. In the field of Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS), integrating knowledge about dramatic situations is of great relevance in order to design improved systems that dynamically generate more narratively-relevant events. However, current approaches to dramatic situations are descriptive and not directly applicable to the field of IDS. We introduce a computational model that fills that gap by both describing dramatic situations visually and providing a quantitative measure for the interestingness of a plot. Using a corpus of 20 Aesop’s fables, we compared the calculations resulting of the model with the assessments provided by 101 participants. Results suggest that our model works appropriately at least for stories characterized by a strong plot structure rather than their semantic content.

Scaffolding for computer supported writing to learn activities in vocational training

Dual-T project investigates how ICT can support learning activities involving sharing and reflection about professional experience in order to harmonize school learning with practical experience. In this study we tested the effects of low and high scaffolding on collaborative writing activities on professional procedures. We expected longer, more correct texts to emerge from strongly scaffolded activities than from weakly scaffolded activities.