iMyth

Category: Interactive Storytelling

  • Interview with Jeff Wirth

    • Not so much expert on immersive as interactive
    • Engage the audience in co-creator role
    • Implied Story
      • Audience is generating story
      • Guests are generating story
    • Role of Interactor is CRITICAL
      • Humans are better informed
      • Only they have the understanding of the capacity of other humans
    • Children do it best
      • They can fully engage in any world they want
    • It’s not so much a “suspension of disbelief”
      • Its really an investment of belief
    • Implicative Technologies
      • “sound”
      • “Smell”
      • communicating in ambiguous terms and allowing immagination to fill in all of the blanks
      • “reading” is an implicative activity
      • avoid the explicit
      • The audience becomes participants in the co-creation of reality
    • The spectrum if interactivity is a personal and aesthetic choice
      • However, if the experience is tailor made to the individual then it becomes a risk of becoming a “google Search”
      • The experience becomes bland, un-exciting and unchallenging
      • The individual does not grow
      • Things from outside become less valued
      • The experience becomes a “MonoCulture”
        • individuals needs are not addressed
        • Can’t grow
    • Objective of interactive experience is to transform
      • Objective of games is to win
      • Objective of Film, novel is to communicate theme
      • Objective of interactive experience is to create an opportunity for transformation
        • Transformation is rarely the same for every individual but that’s OK
        • Creating the “opportunity” for the transformation is where the magic happens
    • Interactivity is not an accident
      • good interactivity needs to originate in initial design
      • Interactivity needs to be included in the early stage\
    • Talk with Ken Ingraham – Interactor training!

  • The Coming Cyberbard

    I recently copied an excerpt written by Janet M. Murray from her book Hamlet on the Holodeck. The article is called The Coming Cyberbard.

    This is the follow up portion to the text I referenced, The Shaping Role of the Human Storyteller. In this excerpt, Murray describes a possible model upon which such an immersive theme-world experience might be implemented. The concept is based on Minsky’s theory of Frames. There will be more to come on the implementation of frames to come. Upon the implementation of this model onto an immersive theme-world engine, a solid structure to generate infinite possible theme-worlds is provided.

    I am currently looking into this model not only as a foundation for Grammar Based Universes but as an authoring platforms for rewarding, narrative experiences.

  • The Shaping Role of the Human Storyteller

    I recently copied an excerpt written by Janet M. Murray from her book Hamlet on the Holodeck. The article is called The shaping Role of the Human Storyteller.

    Murray does an excellent job in describing what an immersive, interactive experience might look and feel but within the context of a specific story-world. What really is attention getting is that she departs from the experience as being game-like and focuses on components such as “moral physics” as being the glue which holds the world together and the interactor, (the participant), t o the immersive experience.

    I strongly encourage the audience to read the article to understand the difference between thematic immersive experiences, interactive stories and games. The IMyTH experience is designed to be a prototype very similar of Murray’s mechanic.

  • Artanim VR at Siggraph

    There is a non-profit research oriented group in Switzerland called Artanim. I have never heard of them before but they recently submitted a project to Siggraph and been accepted as a finalist. Their project is really inspiring.


    This is exactly what an Immersive Theme-world could look and behave like. The first adventures would be primitive for sure. There would be immediate dialogue with characters. However, it is the beginning.

    I have read the white-page description of the story. It is a rough description of their technology and an overall description of what VR is what applications it has.

    This is very exciting development. Researchers and others are doing what what IMyTH is expecting to do. There will be a lot of competition for sure. While this is very similar what they are doing in SLC and The Void, this is some of the first footage I have actually seen using this technology in this way.

  • Chris Crawford Inspiring the future of Interactive Storytelling

    In an interview posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Chris Crawford admits his visions for an full interactive storytelling experience is still off in the future.

    Crawford believes the foundation for interactive storytelling lies with language and social intelligence. These are very hard beasts to tame. I personally believe these elements are a huge component to the overall experience. However they are not everything and they are really hard to deal with. I applaud Chris Crawford trying to get “Siboot” off the ground. He is trying to inspire a new wave of ideology and sway the technology to tame issues such as character-driven stories. If he, and others, can demonstrate there is a commercially viable application to develop this tech, then we will see a landslide of attention and these beasts will soon be tamed.

    Chris Crawford has inspired me. While I myself am focusing on the more presentational aspects of the interactive narrative experience, it is my hope we can attract enough attention to motivate other innovators to help conquer these phenomenal barriers and create a truly enriching and rewarding interactive experience.

  • Hyde Horror Maze

    When it rains it pours. I also encountered an article today on Kataku about the Hyde Horror Maze.

    Not entirely dissimilar to The Void or the IMyTH experience, these folks wish to create an interactive maze where the players must navigate through a real maze in order to “survive” the experience. The maze is evidently sentient and monitors and controls the players progress through the maze in order to ensure a challenging and horrifying experience. I know they are on to a good thing. Let’s hope they can raise their money and display the commercial viability of the interactive narrative experience.

  • The Link between GBUs and Interactive Storytelling

    Things in the VR/AR world have been going crazy lately. My website went down recently. However, after many hours of keyboard pounding, my lovely wife was able to get my site back up and running.(Thanks Ha!)

    I was very pleasantly surprised to bump into a couple of articles written by a young programmer from Cambridge, UK, Josh Newland. He posted two very nice articles on Gamasutra about procedural world building in Unity and Interactive Storytelling.

    Josh’s first article on Procedural World Building in Unity gives a brief description the the techniques Josh utilizes to generate procedural worlds in the Unity game engine. Throughout the article he provides helpful links to explanations of the algorithms he employs and how he integrates them into one system. This is an outstanding example of how GBUs can be generated utilizing basic modern game engines.

    Josh’s second article on Games and Interactive Storytelling, provides a wonderful introduction to the currently locked puzzle of Interactive Storytelling. He quickly describes the inevitable contradiction of Player Agency Vs. Linear Narrative. Reduced to a simple sentence, “How does one generate an engaging interactive, linear narrative experience while without constraining the full immersive experience?” He goes on to describe one possible solution to resolve this by employing social agents (Smart NPC’s) to marshal an enriching interactive experience. This is the approach legendary game designer, Chris Crawford, is employing to create Interactive Storytelling.

    I find it very refreshing to encounter yet another soul who has paired procedural world building with Interactive Storytelling. Anyone familiar with this blog is aware this is the entire foundation with which this blog is written. Great Job Josh!

  • So Far So Good For The Void

    Although information has been rare, it can be found.

    Here is a review of The Void and things seems to be working for this fledgling startup.

    VRScout at the Void

  • Facial MOCAP for VR

    The developments just keep flowing!

    Although I knew this barrier would eventually need to be breached, it’s happening much sooner than I had imagined. I had even given up hope that that such technology was readily available. But now that action was in vain.

    Hoa LI, an assistant professor at USC has come up with a way to track facial motion in real time while wearing the HMD. Click this link for the article. By using a camera mounted on a boom in front of the HMD, nose and mouth positions can be tracked in real time. With the addition of sensors in the HMD itself, Eyes and upper facial motion can be tracked as well.

    Keep it coming!

  • Physical Immersion

    I have a couple of article to share today that relate to the physical immersion potential of VR.

    The first article is the first “documented” experience of The Void. I have been suspect of the claims The Void has been making concerning its abilities to do what it is claiming to do. However, according to the experience in this article, it would seem The Void is on the correct path. I’m am just surprised how out of left field this technology is coming. However, given enough will and enough money, anything is possible. Go Team – Go!

    The next article, on the contrary comes as no surprise. This is a report of what they are doing at a lab at NYIT headed by CG godling Ken Perlin. The Holodeck lab is exploring the possibilities of physical immersion within the virtual environment while still maintaining a physical presence. I look for very big things to come out of this lab. I am very excited to hear about procedural pioneer Ken Perlin heading this endeavor. I look for the solutions or at least directions fro generating Grammar Based Themeworlds to come from this lab.

    Being an optomist, I am always impressed with the results of an overwhelming intention and some time an money. Miracles can happen. However, when I hear about the giants of the industry working on the same problems, I can’t help but be biased towards their solutions.