PAStE: A Platform for Adaptive Storytelling with Events

We present ongoing work on PAStE, a system that supports a narrative director by describing a virtual world and managing the behavior of its characters. Rather than operating in the action domain of each individual actor, PAStE works at the scope of events ‐ pre-authored multi-actor sequences describing interactions between groups of actors and props. A director can select which event to perform, and populate that event with characters in the virtual world. Once an event is chosen, PAStE handles the event’s execution with support for high-fidelity character animation on fully-featured 3D virtual humans. Events are an accessible tool for assembling narrative arcs, invoking contextual activities, and conceptualizing user intervention. We explore the possibilities presented by an event-centric behavior environment for conducting stories, and address some of the potential limitations.

[1]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Selecting Agents for Narrative Roles , 2011, Intelligent Narrative Technologies.

[2]  Joseph Bates,et al.  Guiding interactive drama , 1997 .

[3]  Daniel Thalmann,et al.  Modeling Objects for Interaction Tasks , 1998, Computer Animation and Simulation.

[4]  Stacy Marsella,et al.  THESPIAN: An Architecture for Interactive Pedagogical Drama , 2005, AIED.

[5]  Glenn Reinman,et al.  A modular framework for adaptive agent-based steering , 2011, SI3D.

[6]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Virtual Crowds: Methods, Simulation, and Control , 2008, Virtual Crowds: Methods, Simulation, and Control.

[7]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Smart Events and Primed Agents , 2010, IVA.

[8]  Boyang Li,et al.  Creating Customized Game Experiences by Leveraging Human Creative Effort: A Planning Approach , 2010, AGS.

[9]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Virtual Crowds: Methods, Simulation, and Control (Synthesis Lectures on Computer Graphics and Animation) , 2008 .

[10]  Vadim Bulitko,et al.  Interactive Narrative: An Intelligent Systems Approach , 2012, AI Mag..

[11]  Glenn Reinman,et al.  A Behavior-Authoring Framework for Multiactor Simulations , 2011, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[12]  Andrew Stern,et al.  A Behavior Language: Joint Action and Behavioral Idioms , 2004, Life-like characters.

[13]  Andrew Stern,et al.  Integrating Plot, Character and Natural Language Processing in the Interactive Drama Façade , 2003 .

[14]  David Thue,et al.  Interactive Storytelling: A Player Modelling Approach , 2007, AIIDE.

[15]  Brian Magerko,et al.  AI Characters and Directors for Interactive Computer Games , 2004, AAAI.

[16]  Demetri Terzopoulos,et al.  Autonomous pedestrians , 2007, Graph. Model..

[17]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Event-Centric Control for Background Agents , 2011, ICIDS.

[18]  Robert Michael Young,et al.  Managing interaction between users and agents in a multi-agent storytelling environment , 2003, AAMAS '03.

[19]  Craig W. Reynolds.  Steering Behaviors For Autonomous Characters , 1999 .

[20]  Mark O. Riedl,et al.  Dynamic Experience Management in Virtual Worlds for Entertainment , Education , and Training , 2008 .

[21]  Norman I. Badler,et al.  Parameterizing Behavior Trees , 2011, MIG.

[22]  Helbing,et al.  Social force model for pedestrian dynamics. , 1995, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics.