Non-linear Interactive Storytelling

Narration and interaction are often viewed as contrary properties in computer games. Games with a high degree of interaction fail to provide a coherent narration and the player’s interaction seldom has any direct impact on the narrative. Games with a high degree of narration often tells a linear story similar to books or movies with little room for the player to interact. We propose non-linear interactive storytelling (NOLIST) as a first step towards developing games with a high degree of interaction and a coherent narrative. The main idea is that the narrative is not fixed from the beginning but instead constructed as the game progresses based on the player’s interaction. We provide a simple model that allows writers to specify a NOLIST as a set of actions which the game engine then combines to create the narrative. Finally, we propose to develop a game engine using Bayesian networks to model the probability of the possible narratives that can be created from the actions, and use this knowledge to create better narratives.