From Emergence to Planning: A Triangle Framework for Scalable, Controllable Interactive Storytelling

Abstract

Interactive story systems today sit at three extremes. Emergent multi‑agent simulations give each character local intelligence but no global view, often losing plot structure. Reactive systems makes fast, state‑based decisions. They form plans using hand-authored rules without searching for action sequences, so these systems can respond quickly but can wander if long-term rules are not explicitly authored. Centralized narrative planners reason globally to craft coherent, goal‑directed plots, yet are computationally expensive. In my doctoral work I treat these not as isolated choices but as the three corners of a triangle spectrum of narrative generation. I propose hybrid, landmark‑guided approaches that can scale to larger domains. I am also exploring how large language models (LLMs) can be embedded within these hybrid approaches themselves. This paper outlines research questions, methodology, progress to date, evaluation plan, and requested feedback.