While conducting my research on how to allow users into the process of creating a story, I came across the topic of interactive stories. Interactive storytelling in short is a form of digital entertainment in which the storyline is not predetermined. The user decides how the story will continue and end based on the characters, setting and elements provided to them. For my research on the topic I have found several different approaches to interactive story-telling and will discuss them below in order to get a better understanding of the topic and to decide whether or not this is a direction I would like to take my project.
The first example of interactive storytelling I found is a format that allows users to add a chapter or sequence to a pre-existing story set out by a random individual. The readers are given a set of rules they must follow for the story, a list of characters that are involved and the setting in which it takes place. The users may also be given the end goal of the character and are instructed to read through what has already been written and to add a chapter based on how they want the story to continue. This form of interactive storytelling is quite linear and does not involve any animations or visual elements. It is probably the most basic form allowing a large group of people come together and write a story together. The topics available can be vast as there are no limitation to software or digital framework, all the user has to do is type. The form of interactive storytelling allows the story to go in many directions and the only limitations are the rules given at the beginning and the creativity and imagination the writer has. The stories also have no time limitations. As there isn’t a digital framework guiding the user, some stories can be over five hundred chapters long, obviously for my project five hundred chapters would be a bit excessive but I like how the users must follow on from each other to create an interesting tale.
The second example of interactive storytelling I found was a format that allows the users to chose different paths for the main character. All of these options are pre determined by the original writer and the users chose which one they want to proceed with. Less linear than the format about these interactive stories generally come accompanied with still images or small animations to get the user involved with the storyline. The story may anywhere from 5-20 chapters and within each chapter the user has several options to choose from meaning one story could have up to one hundred different storylines in total. From the research I have conducted many of the sites available for this kind of interactive story creation are aimed at young kids and used as an E-learning solution. I did enjoy the process of this but I don’t think this is an option for my project as I want the user to fully come up with the story from start to finish, not just have them pick options I have pre-determined.
The third example of interactive story telling I found are stories that act as games. The user is given the character, setting and situation and must work to get through the story and complete the end. Within this format there are two example; the first aimed at children to help them improve their reading. The user, being a child, looks at the picture given with the line of the story. One of the words is missing and the child must look at the picture and fill in the gap. Once they provide the correct word, the story continues moving forward to the next stage. For example it may look like this; Jane climbed under the _________. On the screen you see a small child under the kitchen table, the child notices this and fills in the word. The second example of this format is aimed at teenagers and above, these stories are a lot more interactive and challenging to the user. The story can only continue when the user come up with the correct solution for the character for example if the story is about a young knight trying to find his princess in a tower, the character might come across an evil wizard. The user has to come up with a solution to get past the wizard without being noticed. The story only progresses once an appropriate solution has be decided on. With this format, the story does allow for several solutions the user can input once it make sense to the story. From what I can gather, I believe the solutions are based on key words rather than exact sentences, for example using the knight, if the user was to say “the knight walked down the river and swam across it” the words swam and river would allow them to progress to the next stage in the story. This type of interactive storytelling is very entertaining but for the purposes of my project, it is unsuitable. As stated above I want my users to come up with the story themselves and I will produce the final product from what I am given not create the story myself and allow the user to follow along with it.
References:
- Writing.com. (2018). Random Adventures.: Welcome to the Story! – Writing.Com. [online] Available at: https://www.writing.com/main/interact/item_id/2163197-Random-Adventures/map/1 [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
- Writing.com. (2018). The real world remote controller – Writing.Com. [online] Available at: https://www.writing.com/main/interact/item_id/1875153-The-real-world-remote-controller [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
- Education.com. (2018). Ellie’s Scarf Positional Words Story | Story | Education.com. [online] Available at: https://www.education.com/game/ellies-scarf/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
- Education.com. (2018). My Shadow Classic Poem | Story | Education.com. [online] Available at: https://www.education.com/game/my-shadow-poem/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
- Medium. (2018). What is interactive storytelling? – Benjamin Hoguet – Medium. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/@benhoguet/what-is-interactive-storytelling-46bfdd2a8780 [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
- The Story Element. (2018). What are Interactive Stories?. [online] Available at: https://thestoryelement.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/what-are-interactive-stories-3/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
- Episodeinteractive.com. (2018). Episode Interactive. [online] Available at: https://www.episodeinteractive.com/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
- En.wikipedia.org. (2018). The Stanley Parable. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanley_Parable [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].
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