Refs:
AI Narrative : Virtual Being interaction as a narrative device.
Refs:
Lunarium: phase 3 Project management
I’m continuing with Lunarium project management using Trello. This can be accessed by anyone who is interested (it also details the full progress of the project).
Lunarium: phase 3 Project management
I’m continuing with Lunarium project management using Trello. This can be accessed by anyone who is interested (it also details the full progress of the project).
AI Narrative: The Mystic
AI Narrative: The Mystic
AI Narrative : Narrative mapping (General/VR/AI)
In this post I’m going to further flesh out the relationship between world structure and narrative structure, look at the various models and apply these to my current projects. Ultimately this will lead to focusing on AI Narrative which will firm the bases of practical experimentation over the next few weeks, using the new Charisma.ai app.
Many stories are written using the three act narrative model as it provides a strong narrative arc which emotionally engages the viewer. It is one which is very familiar and can be found in countless stories.
In VR, the player is immersed in a world where they can seemingly go anywhere. They do not necessarily follow a linear track unless the world around them is designed in a way that gives them very little choice but to do so.
Players interaction with the environment or characters in the scene, are pivotal to where players could go next and so are a key narrative device.
My thoughts are that each act could be structured as three levels (3 scenes in unity). Within these worlds there could be a multitude of characters, environments and endings (When I think about this I can’t help but chuckle at the many days and weeks spent reading the fantasy fighting novels as a teenager, and particularly the many fingered and thumbed marking of pages as if doing some kind of hand yoga).
This structure would lead to a high level of complexity. This would be difficult to manage and could lead to a breakdown in narrative structure, leading to the loss of story identity (the hook/tag whatever you pitched the project as anyway).
Narrative Mapping
There are many different structures that are used in game narrative. Below I have used models to illustrate this quickly.All Diagrams used for reference only and are attributed to Kano Ashwell, S. 2015.
The Time Cave
Gauntlet
Branch and Bottleneck
Quest
Open Map
Sorting Hat (Branch & Bottleneck/gauntlet)
Floating Modules (non-structure)
Loop and Grow
I never lift content from another blog but I needed some visual reference on here. Kano Ashwell has a much better grasp of game narrative structure but as I would never use any content on my blog without fair attribution (as I’d hate that to happen to my work) please check out These Heterogeneous Tasks Blog for a much more complete description.
In Lunarium, I have been working with a model that includes a linear structure to begin with in the labyrinth, which then becomes an open world, then branches into two paths which then can be open world but ultimately ends in two endings.
AI Narrative Modelling
There are many really interesting things about the Charisma.AI app, the primary one is that the app makes it easier to write intuitive interactive stories. However, the app also helps to analyse the effectiveness of the narrative structure. This can be used to great effect when identifying which parts work well and which need improvement. It could also be used to modify a story to amplify an experience. This analysis is critical if it is essential that key plot points are experienced by participant/player/reader/audience.
Next Steps
After much research in which I have attempted to better understand narrative, VR Narrative and AI narrative; I’m going to begin conducting sone practical experiments.
I’m going to begin by properly reading the Charisma docs and then apply this to a really simple (and I mean simple) narrative, within the Lunarium world.
So for example, I could begin with the Mystic of Lunarium’s backstory.
Why did she imprison innocent young teenagers in her sinister and aboding world?
I could then think about the Experimental VR Narrative and consider how AI might assist in this narrative experience … (This is a lot more tricky).
References
Recommended Reading:
Story by McKee
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
Evaluation of an automatically-constructed graph-based representation for interactive narrative
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3337722.3341858
Accessed 28/05/2020
Kano Ashwell, S. 2015. Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games.
AI Narrative : Narrative mapping (General/VR/AI)
In this post I’m going to further flesh out the relationship between world structure and narrative structure, look at the various models and apply these to my current projects. Ultimately this will lead to focusing on AI Narrative which will firm the bases of practical experimentation over the next few weeks, using the new Charisma.ai app.
Many stories are written using the three act narrative model as it provides a strong narrative arc which emotionally engages the viewer. It is one which is very familiar and can be found in countless stories.
In VR, the player is immersed in a world where they can seemingly go anywhere. They do not necessarily follow a linear track unless the world around them is designed in a way that gives them very little choice but to do so.
Players interaction with the environment or characters in the scene, are pivotal to where players could go next and so are a key narrative device.
My thoughts are that each act could be structured as three levels (3 scenes in unity). Within these worlds there could be a multitude of characters, environments and endings (When I think about this I can’t help but chuckle at the many days and weeks spent reading the fantasy fighting novels as a teenager, and particularly the many fingered and thumbed marking of pages as if doing some kind of hand yoga).
This structure would lead to a high level of complexity. This would be difficult to manage and could lead to a breakdown in narrative structure, leading to the loss of story identity (the hook/tag whatever you pitched the project as anyway).
Narrative Mapping
There are many different structures that are used in game narrative. Below I have used models to illustrate this quickly.All Diagrams used for reference only and are attributed to Kano Ashwell, S. 2015.
The Time Cave
Gauntlet
Branch and Bottleneck
Quest
Open Map
Sorting Hat (Branch & Bottleneck/gauntlet)
Floating Modules (non-structure)
Loop and Grow
I never lift content from another blog but I needed some visual reference on here. Kano Ashwell has a much better grasp of game narrative structure but as I would never use any content on my blog without fair attribution (as I’d hate that to happen to my work) please check out These Heterogeneous Tasks Blog for a much more complete description.
In Lunarium, I have been working with a model that includes a linear structure to begin with in the labyrinth, which then becomes an open world, then branches into two paths which then can be open world but ultimately ends in two endings.
AI Narrative Modelling
There are many really interesting things about the Charisma.AI app, the primary one is that the app makes it easier to write intuitive interactive stories. However, the app also helps to analyse the effectiveness of the narrative structure. This can be used to great effect when identifying which parts work well and which need improvement. It could also be used to modify a story to amplify an experience. This analysis is critical if it is essential that key plot points are experienced by participant/player/reader/audience.
Next Steps
After much research in which I have attempted to better understand narrative, VR Narrative and AI narrative; I’m going to begin conducting sone practical experiments.
I’m going to begin by properly reading the Charisma docs and then apply this to a really simple (and I mean simple) narrative, within the Lunarium world.
So for example, I could begin with the Mystic of Lunarium’s backstory.
Why did she imprison innocent young teenagers in her sinister and aboding world?
I could then think about the Experimental VR Narrative and consider how AI might assist in this narrative experience … (This is a lot more tricky).
References
Recommended Reading:
Story by McKee
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
Evaluation of an automatically-constructed graph-based representation for interactive narrative
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3337722.3341858
Accessed 28/05/2020
Kano Ashwell, S. 2015. Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games.
AI Narrative: A History (BrainStorm Examples)
When applying AI narrative in a project, it seems important to first look at the narrative of AI narrative. That is to say, the historical context through which AI Narrative is viewed as this could inform how it is used in practical terms.
What is AI? Where did it originate? Has the description evolved ? How is AI used to form narrative in media ? How is it used to form the media through narrative ?
I’m going to look at this pretty broadly and identify some examples that seem important to me (which are by no means exhaustive.. and may even seem off topic).
Automata
https://www.stolenhistory.org/threads/the-draughtsman-writer-automaton-by-henri-maillardet.317/
Animation
Film
Uncanny Valley
Cyborg
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fictionnownarrativemediaandtheoryinthe21stcentury/manifestly_haraway_—-_a_cyborg_manifesto_science_technology_and_socialist-feminism_in_the_….pdf
And the following article in Medium.
https://medium.com/predict/design-manifesto-goodbye-human-hello-alien-f9d607b65e00
The Turin Test
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/
Cybernetic (Systems Control)
Cybernetics or Communication and Control in Animals & The Machine ©️ Norbert Weiner
Full copy of the original Text is available here https://archive.org/details/CyberneticsOrCommunicationAndControlInTheAnimalAndTheMachineNorbertWiener/page/n5/mode/2up
2nd Order Cybernetics
Quantum Mechanics : Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, two slits experiments and the Wave/Particle Collapse.
Policing
Covid – 19 Societal Control – Policing by Consent.
Films
In the same way that typing google into a google breaks the internet (Joke) typing Netflix AI into google to search all films representing AI on Netflix leads to Netflix use of AI (well it amused me..)
I recently watched 2036 Origin Unknown which took a poignant look at humanity and AI.
And it reminded me of HAL 9000.
Games

The Standard News Article
https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/bulletproof-ai-game-charismaai-guy-gadney-interview-a4406041.html
Some of these examples are pretty negative and it’s not my intention to cast a negative light on AI, I’m just trying to understand the narrative that surrounds AI and try to understand it better.
References (TBC)
http://lcfi.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/AI_Narratives_Report.pdf
AI Narrative: Modelling ‘mind’
What is narrative and how is it structured?
Questions such as ‘What do we want players to experience? What story would we like them to hear? Will we need to control the storyline in some parts? How might this be controlled and could this be less invasive? How might we create the right conditions for a ‘naturalised’ Interaction? At what point might the narrative breakdown?, are significant.
When it comes to ‘controlling’ players experience, the notion of control undoubtably raises questions of ethics and best practice, but I think AI appeals to me because the players have more control over their experience. In the next phase of research, I am going to examine Narrative structure, VR Narrative in general and specifically AI Narrative design. To do this, I need to take a closer look at some contemporary examples.