Integrating Story-Centric and Character-Centric Processes for Authoring Interactive Drama

Abstract

Computer aided interactive drama has been widely applied for entertainment and pedagogy. Most existing approaches for authoring interactive drama use either story-centric or character-centric processes. In this work, we present a new framework that integrates both types of processes to support authoring. This framework uses a multi-agent system to control virtual characters in a story. The characters’ motivations are encoded as the agents’ goals, and are configured based on well-structured story paths generated using a partial order planner. This framework allows the use of a planner that has an equivalent model of the story as that in the multi-agent system or models the story at a more abstract level, e.g. only the plot points. We explore the use of this new framework for authoring interactive dramas. Preliminary examples of application are presented.