Exploratory Automated Analysis of Structural Features of Interactive Narrative

Authors

  • Nathan Partlan Northeastern University
  • Elin Carstensdottir Northeastern University
  • Sam Snodgrass Northeastern University
  • Erica Kleinman Northeastern University
  • Gillian Smith Worcester Polytechnic Institute
  • Casper Harteveld Northeastern University
  • Magy Seif El-Nasr Northeastern University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1609/aiide.v14i1.13019

Keywords:

Interactive Narrative, Narrative Structure Analysis, Metrics, Mixed-Initiative AI, Automated Playtesting, AI, Games

Abstract

Analysis of interactive narrative is a complex undertaking, requiring understanding of the narrative's design, its affordances, and its impact on players. Analysis is often performed by an expert, but this is expensive and difficult for complex interactive narratives. Automated analysis of structure, the organization of interaction elements, could help augment an expert's analysis. For this purpose we developed a model consisting of a set of metrics to analyze interactive narrative structure, enabled by a novel multi-graph representation. We implemented this model for an interactive scenario authoring tool called StudyCrafter and analyzed 20 student-designed scenarios. We show that the model illuminates the structures and groupings of the scenarios. This work provides insight for manual analysis of attributes of interactive narratives and a starting point for automated design assistance.

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Published

2018-09-25

How to Cite

Partlan, N., Carstensdottir, E., Snodgrass, S., Kleinman, E., Smith, G., Harteveld, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2018). Exploratory Automated Analysis of Structural Features of Interactive Narrative. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment, 14(1), 88-94. https://doi.org/10.1609/aiide.v14i1.13019

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2018): Fourteenth Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference

Section

Full Oral Papers