iMyth

Tag: Chris Crawford

  • 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.

  • 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!

  • Possible Directions for VR?

    I came upon an article from Gamasutra lately discussing the possible avenues upon which VR could entertain:

    http://gamasutra.com/blogs/KimberlyVoll/20141028/228726/Game_Design_in_VR_Pushing_Off_from_a_New_Frontier.php

    Ultimately the article says that if VR is only good for first person shooters, what else can it be used for?

    The article mentions that one of the possible uses of VR could be towards interactive storytelling:

    “Interactive narrative (an opportunity to generate different points of connection brought about by presence in a story)”

    I concur with this belief for it is one of the angle upon which I believe I will be able to launch Raconteur. Interactive Storytelling is still in its infancy. There is a mountain of work needed to be done before anything like the Holodeck is created. In the US, money for research flows where there is opportunity to make money. This is where I believe VR can help interactive Storytelling. I consulted Chris Crawford about this opportunity. He concluded the more substantial problems of language were slowing the progress of Interactive Storytelling, “the central problems in interactive storytelling are not matters of presentation; our killer problems are matters of language.”

    Indeed, VR may be a superficial aspect of Interactive Storytelling especially concerning interpersonal interactions within the story. However, VR Is “virtually” here. By exploiting this wave I feel we could piggy-back the realm of Interactive Storytelling to increase attention and ultimately funding for addressing the big problems within the field. The more people and we have creating demand for Interactive Storytelling, the greater the opportunity to mature it to its full potential.

  • Chris Crawford’s On Interactive Storytelling

    I have been crazy busy at work delivering the next big installment to the annual video game empire.  I have not had much time to do any research let alone do any blogging.

    I finally finished reading Chris Crawford’s On Interactive Storytelling, V2. It is dramatically different from the first version. In my humble opinion the second version is easier to read and overall less biased by Chris Crawford’s ego. The overall tone of the book is not necessarily one of optimism but of sobering reality. Crawford believes in the inevitable evolution of interactive storytelling. However, he warns of the present and future pitfalls. He also does a fair job of tearing down current attempts to create the new media form. I found this to be disappointing. I wanted to find directions and signposts that would help guide new interactive storytellers on the path of success. That is not to be found here. What you will find are descriptions of others’ attempts and why Crawford believes they failed. He outlines what he thinks to be a stable foundation for an interactive storytelling engine. But he himself can not guarantee success. To be fair, Crawford does a good job interpreting his own attempts and justifying their failures. In all I found this version to be an essential text describing the current state of the art in interactive storytelling. It explains the successes and failures of the evolution. Anyone who is thinking of pursuing interactive storytelling should read this to help guide their own development and be entertained as Crawford playfully rips apart everyone and himself.

  • Modeling

    Over the weekend I read Chris Crawford’s chapter on “Modeling”. Overall I like his approach to modeling human response and behavior. I think he’s got a good thing going. I especially like the way he translated boolean into numerical form. It makes a lot of sense. Hi eight steps for establishing modelling rules seem like good guidelines.

    Crawford mentioned during an earlier chapter that to represent the vast and numerous storyworlds, interactive storyworld creators would need to employ more procedural methods for modeling reality. I think this approach needs to be extended to modeling behavior. While his technique for contracting multiple rules with one numerical equation is pretty nift, I can’t help but wonder if this can’t be pushed further.

    Boolean logic is also another attribute that can be improved upon. Boolean expressions are good for modelling simple transitional states. However, reality is very rarely black and white. More often it is multiple shades of grey. I like to replace my Boolean expressions with Fuzzy Logic operations. I feel I get a more organic response with Fuzzy Logic where boolean tends to be mechanic. Extending this further I would like to get my hands dirty with Fuzzy Cognitive maps. Instead of creating rules to represent behavior, Fuzzy cognitive maps create vast matrices keeping record of those sensitive relationships. I have not been able to implement  FCM’s yet. However, they will be one of the first features included on the Raconteur Engine.

  • Chris Crawford’s Part III

    I’m about half way through reading Chris Crawford’s “On Interactive Storytelling”. I am glad I picked up this version. After reading the older version I realized he has made many changes; mostly for the better.

    I do have to admit I am a bit concerned after reading Part III in his book, “Evolutionary Strategies”. He spends the four chapters analysing and criticizing all other attempts at Interactive Storytelling.  While his observations seem to hold water I am a bit concerned of his decided fatality of each of the prior media formats leaves very little opportunity to jump to the next level.

    The branching tree strategy seems very limited by its pure scale. I would agree this is far too limiting and not a good way to go..

    Interactive Fiction seems very interesting. I can’t help but wonder if the obstacles this format faces are not similar obstacles a successful interactive story telling engine will have to overcome. It seems like limited vocabulary and the rut stuck in puzzles will be very formidable to overcome.

    Role playing games are very dear to my heart. I loved playing Dungeons and Dragons when I was a kid. I love playing it with my kids. However, the warnings of the genre being too specialized and refined are valid. Folks who love role playing game don’t want interactive storytelling. However, I feel as if some kind of Juxtaposition between Interactive Fiction and Role Playing games is where Interactive Storytelling will need to grow from.

    I also agree that Video games can not be Interactive stories. they are two separate mediums and combining them will not only be expensive but time consuming and ultimately wasteful. I do love the end note of the chapter that hints at  procedurally generated environments. I like to deviate from the word “Procedural” and focus on Grammar Based Universes instead. I feel that GBU’s are a key component to Interactive Storytelling and thus I have devoted a large portion of my web site to this study.

    I wonder why Crawford did not consider movies. He basically tore apart this concept earlier in the book. I guess he felt it was not necessary to beat a dead horse. Indeed fil is almost as non-interactive as you can get. But there are some very important components in film which will need to migrate. Timelessness, witty dialogue, strong character rapport, mystery, suspense, thematic representation and allegorical reference will all need to be found in Interactive Storytelling if it will ever gain popularity.

    Interactive Storytelling will need to grow from one or all of these mediums. I hope Crawford can provide a little guidance in the rest of the book. Up to now I’m feeling a bit “hopeless”.

  • Future Angle for Interactive Storytelling

    After having read Chris Crawford’s book on Interactive Storytelling he tells of a definite upward struggle to get the genre of Interactive Storytelling off the ground. Indeed for the amount of time he has been working on this topic it seems as if it will never take off.

    In contemplating how to make a living off of Interactive Storytelling I came to the quick realization that indeed there is no market. The field is just in its infancy. What the field really needs is a vehicle that demonstrates that Interactive Storytelling to be an economically viable field. That has not happened yet. When that does however, I believe there be an enormous landslide of attention devoted to the development and expansion. There is a lot of ground to cover.  The idealistic dreams of pioneer is still a pipe dream away.

    One possible way of demonstrating the economic viability of Interactive Storytelling is to marry the interactive experience with social media. The story of the actual experience is enjoyable. In fact, escapism may be underlying goal of many of the participants. However this is only an first person experience. The emotional experience is contained only within the individual. However, as Chris Crawford mentioned, storytelling arose from the interaction of the language and social nodes trying to rationalize the visio-spatial and environmental understanding of reality. Thus the storytelling experience calls out to be shared socially. The stories about the stories are what will give life to the genre and act as the vehicle which will transport it to its future incarnations.

    The Raconteur engine will be a juxtaposition of the classical Story Telling Engine and an interface to the on-line social media which so predominates our current society. Its hard to tell how long this social media boom will last. Regardless, like it or not, it is here and it must be considered as a vehicle for almost all social interaction. (Gen X’ers and older may argue.) Thus it is my hope to exploit the social media aspect in order to help drive and fund the Interactive Storytelling elements. Regardless of the longevity of social media, storytelling is part of what it means to be human and will be with us for as long as we exist.

  • Immediate Plans for the Future

    I have to admit I’m a bit concerned I don’t yet have a grand vision for where all this is headed.  However, I do have a small handful of small projects which may help provide some vision. This particular blog doesn’t really fall within the Grammar Based Universes or Interactive Storytelling categories but is really a combination of both.

    The projects I pursue have two purposes:

    1. To push the field of Interactive Storytelling into the next big wave. (Don’t know what the next big wave is yet? Hold on it is coming!)
    2. Create Business opportunities such that I may be able to focus 100% in this direction and provide abundance for my family.

    Keeping those themes in mind, here are the next projects to focus on:

    • Create First Unity Project 11/25/13
    • Integrate Houdini with Unity using Houdini Engine
    • Create a moving character in Houdini and get it into Unity
    • Create an articulated character in Houdini and get it into Unity
    • Develop FLOPS engine (It’s gotta be portable, fast and easy to use!)
    • Finish up my HDA builder
    • Test some of Chris Crawford’s ideas
    • Create a Plot Driven Story Universe
    • Port Houdini Engine to other packages such as Cry, Unreal, Frostbite and Touch.
    • Create a story Language based on Chris Vogler’s Writer’s Journey
    • Create larger, all media encompasing story language.

    That’s a lot to do … and get it all done by the end of the week? – SURE!

  • Concerns About Plot-driven devices

    I too have my concerns about a plot-driven device. If you follow just one plot then you’re not really in an interactive story anymore, you’re on rails … such as Uncharted. How could you possibly visualize all the possible plots? It’s like looking at an infinite 4 dimensional hypercube. You could constrain the fourth dimension … isolating your domain to a three dimensional cube within one relative time epoch. Even then you are left with an infinite number of paths traversing the cube; each path representing a unique plot. How could you possibly focus only on the interesting or entertaining plot lines without once again putting yourself on rails?

  • Crawford’s “on Interactive Storytelling”, part I

    I have bee reading, although very slowly, Chris Crawford’s “On Interactive Storytelling. I’m only about half way through the book but I find it very fascinating.

    In particular his “Data-Driven” strategies. He sites references of Aarne-Thompson, Vladimir Propp and Georges Polti. I can’r help but wonder where Joseph Campbell’s system would fit or more particular, Chris Vogler’s interpretation of the Writer’s Journey. When writing screenplays, I would often get ideas by placing Chines Zodiac archetypes in a Vogler situation and let them play against each other. Although the interaction were in my head I could not feel as if I was following a rule based system.

    I’m only part way through the Language-based Strategies, I also find this extremely relative. Before reading this book I had been studying up on compiler design so I might be able to create such a Languages-based system.

    I’ll have more notes as I finish the book.