For the final blog post of this series, I have taken the time to prepare a comprehensive demonstration video, which provides a detailed overview of my low-fidelity prototype. This video is designed to give viewers an understanding of the basic functionalities and design elements of our prototype, showcasing its potential and the direction we are heading in with this project.
Video
Conclusions
The process of prototyping has been incredibly valuable in visualizing the potential of Story Teller. It has allowed me to identify key functionalities and design elements and brought to light areas that need further development and refinement. As I move forward, I plan to conduct further user testing to gain valuable feedback and insights. This feedback will inform my next iterations and help me continually improve and refine the tool. My ultimate goal is to create a user-friendly and intuitive platform that supports the creative process of interactive storytelling, as part of my final Master’s Thesis.
After conducting a thorough analysis of different research papers and exploring various existing authoring tools, I embarked on the journey of developing my own prototype. This process involved the examination of the strengths and weaknesses of each tool, as well as an in-depth understanding of the theories and methodologies presented in each research paper. With this knowledge, I then proceeded to apply what I had learned to the creation of my prototype. The objective of this blogpost is to document the process that I underwent during the prototyping phase.
Methodology
I began by listing all the sections I wanted to reimplement from StoryTec, including the G-Flash card system and Story Curve Visualization mode.
Story Editor: This is a free canvas where users can drag, resize, move, and zoom in and out of elements.
Scenes: These contain characters, interactive elements, and behaviors such as actions, dialogue, and events.
Complex Scenes (which I’ll refer to as Stages): These are the environments where scenes take place. They contain stage-specific elements and, of course, the scenes themselves.
Stage Editor: In StoryTec, this was a pluggable framework capable of constructing scenes in various ways. For ease of use, I will integrate this as a function of the Story Editor, utilizing a toolbar with drag-and-drop flashcards, similar to G-Flash. In my version, the cards will be fully customizable through the Property Editor.
Property Editor: This is a separate tab that adapts based on the selected item. It can add any kind of property to any element.
Action Set Editor: In StoryTec, this was a separate editor for setting the logic between element interactions. In my prototype, it will become a button in the Tool tab, connecting elements similarly to how Figma handles prototyping.
Asset Manager: A separate tab where uploaded assets can be dragged and dropped either onto the open canvas as images, videos, or sound, or onto elements as properties.
Story Curve Visualization: This is an option in the top bar that changes how the scenes are displayed, toggling from the free canvas to a double-axis view of the Story Curve.
After identifying the core features and buttons for my tool, I sketched a basic information architecture on paper. Following this, I created preliminary wireframes to visualize the page’s layout.
Pages, tabs and cards
Starting from the sketches, I prototyped a low-fidelity version of the main pages for my authoring tool.
The home page displays all the stories that a user might want to create, presented in a straightforward gallery.
Each Story file features an „infinite“ zoom canvas where elements, cards, and assets can be dragged and dropped, resized, opened, and minimized. This design maximizes flexibility of thought.
When an element is clicked, the Properties tab displays all details of that specific instance, and allows the creation of new properties if necessary. These properties can be used and referenced as logic variables when establishing connections between elements.
The Stage button in the Bottom Tool Bar offers two main interactions: the New Stage card and the Element card. Both can be dragged onto the canvas and resized to create the desired composition.
Similarly, the Scene button in the Bottom Tool Bar enables the user to draw a new scene or select one of the cards for characters, elements, or behaviors.
Finally, the Story Curve View visualizes different scenes on the Narration order/Story order axis. You can personalize this visualization using the settings tab.
Goals & Conclusion
The main goal of this prototype is to thoroughly test the usability of various complex features, particularly for beginners and new storytellers. I aim to conduct an extensive user test to gain insights into whether the basic principles of User Experience (UX) are being followed and function as intended.
After initial testing and result analysis, I’ll create a higher fidelity prototype. This version will focus more on the user interface, using feedback from the initial tests to ensure a smoother, more intuitive user experience.
In my next blog post, I’ll show the main features of this prototype through a detailed demo video. This will help me show the tool’s functionality and potential.
In the realm of digital storytelling, few experiences are as intricate and immersive as „Cyclops,“ an alternative reality game crafted by artist Trevor Paglen. „Cyclops“ serves as a masterclass in nonlinear, interactive narrative, demanding a blend of diverse knowledge areas from its players. This makes it an ideal case study for my authoring tool, which is designed to enable the creation of complex, multifaceted stories that engage audiences in unique and profound ways. Through this blog post, I want to explore how „Cyclops“, with its sophisticated storytelling structure, perfectly aligns with the capabilities of a robust authoring tool.
Summary
„Cyclops“ is an intricate and intimidating alternative reality game designed by artist Trevor Paglen. It features a basic black-and-white digital interface reminiscent of 1970s computer systems and demands extensive knowledge in fields like cryptography, vintage computers, logic, music, and PSYOPS history. Launched at the 2023 Chaos Communication Congress, it required 700 professional hackers three days to reach just the fourth level. Since then, a dedicated group on Discord has continued to collaborate, achieving 53% completion of level three. The game immerses players in complex puzzles and psychological challenges, often guided by Eliza, a reference to the first chatbot, enhancing the sense of psychological warfare.
Paglen’s goal was to create a public art project native to the online world, fostering a community united by shared interests in digital security and coded messages. Cyclops prompts players to reflect on their relationship with digital media and social interactions, blurring the lines between gaming and psychological manipulation. Paglen and his team of experts spent a year developing this intricate digital landscape, which echoes the haunting possibility that today’s internet might be an extension of historical psychological control programs like MK Ultra.
My Conclusions
The main reasons why “Cyclops” is a suited as a case study for my project are:
Its Complex Narrative Structure: „Cyclops“ features a nonlinear storyline that challenges players to navigate through cryptographic puzzles, vintage computer systems, and psychological tests. This complexity requires an authoring tool that can handle multiple narrative branches and interconnected storylines seamlessly.
Interactive and Immersive Elements: The game’s integration of various media forms, such as audio tracks, ASCII scripts, and visual puzzles, demonstrates the need for an authoring tool capable of embedding diverse interactive elements that enhance user engagement.
Collaborative Problem-Solving: „Cyclops“ necessitates collective intelligence and collaboration, which can be facilitated by an authoring tool that supports multi-user interaction and real-time collaboration features. This feature would go outside of the pure realm of an authoring tool for storytellers but could be an interesting future feature to give the player of any ARG a platform where they are able to collaborate, solve and piece together the story that the artist is trying to convey.
In my research for case studies on tools for storytelling I’ve read and analysed the two following papers, „G-Flash: A Simple, Graphical Authoring Environment for Interactive Non-Linear Stories“ and „StoryTec: A Digital Storytelling Platform for the Authoring and Experiencing of Interactive and Non-linear Stories“. They provide insightful perspectives on authoring tools designed for different user groups. These tools vary significantly in complexity and user experience, offering valuable insights for developing a prototype authoring tool for interactive, non-linear storytelling. My goal is to gather the insights from these research papers and use them to design my prototype. Furthermore, I will use insights from the research paper “Visualising Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves”, already discussed in the previous blogpost, to have in mind clear UX goals for my prototype.
Summary
G-Flash and StoryTec are both digital storytelling platforms designed to support the creation of interactive and non-linear stories, but they differ in their specific features and approaches.
G-Flash, as described by Jumail et al. in 2011, focuses on providing guided learning and assistance to young children in creating digital stories using flashcards as the main media element. It emphasizes the tutored approach to guided learning, allowing students to receive the right amount of assistance without compromising their creativity and motivation. The system architecture of G-Flash is Flash-based and web-based, with a focus on using illustrated flashcards to guide story creation.
On the other hand, StoryTec, as introduced by Göbel et al. in 2018, is a digital storytelling platform that enables the authoring and experiencing of interactive and non-linear stories. It provides an authoring environment with different editors for creating and manipulating story units, as well as a runtime engine for controlling interactive scenarios during runtime. StoryTec also includes a Story Editor for managing story structures and an Action Set Editor for defining transitions among scenes..
In summary, G-Flash focuses on providing guided learning and assistance to young children using flashcards, while StoryTec is designed to enable the creation and visualization of interactive and non-linear stories through its authoring environment and runtime engine.
Both platforms aim to facilitate the creation of digital stories, but G-Flash emphasizes guided learning for children, while StoryTec provides a comprehensive authoring framework for interactive and non-linear narratives.
My conclusions
From G-Flash, I could incorporate the concept of guided learning and assistance giving within the digital storytelling application to help beginner creative writers. This can be achieved by providing a tutored approach and using flashcards-like visuals as a media element to guide story creation. According to the study, the use of illustrated flashcards motivates children and helps them recall their experiences; this can be a valuable feature to include in my authoring tool to improve recall of more complex events in a non-linear story.
From StoryTec, I can take the focus on a user-friendly and intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) for the authoring environment to help beginner creative writers without programming skills to create interactive stories. Additionally, the separation of story structure and story content in StoryTec can be a valuable insight to consider when developing your authoring tool, as it allows for flexibility in creating and playing different story elements based on the same structure. A runtime engine for the interactive storytelling platform would be interesting to implement but requires more research.
To enhance the user experience, I want to incorporate the visualization technique of Story Curves, [Blogpost 6] to reveal nonlinear narrative patterns and provide a helpful overview of the story structure. This visualization method can be used to help beginner creative writers understand the nonlinear narrative patterns in their stories and provide a visual representation of the story’s structure. I am going to take in consideration UX issues discussed in the Story Curve paper regarding the Story Explorer tool:
Readability and Learnability: The evaluation of Story Explorer highlighted that some participants had difficulty in reading both story and narrative order at the same time. This suggests that providing a clear distinction between different narrative orders and visual aids for reading two axes could be useful for reading story curves.
Control of Origin and Time Jumps: Participants in the evaluation study of Story Explorer struggled with the initial disorientation caused by the placement of the origin at the upper left corner and confusion between flashforwards and flashbacks. The analysis suggested that providing control of the origin of the axes and visual aids for time jumps could improve user experience.
Scalability and Clean Visualization: Story Explorer integrated mechanisms to ensure a clean and scalable visualization, even for stories with hundreds of scenes. The semantic zoom feature with different representations for story elements was identified as a key factor in preventing clutter in the story graph representation.
In conclusion, by combining the insights from G-Flash, StoryTec and Story Explorer I can develop an authoring tool that provides guided learning, assistance giving, and a user-friendly interface for creating interactive, non-linear stories using the Story Curves visualization Method.
References
Jumail, D. R. A. Rambli and S. Sulaiman, „G-Flash: An authoring tool for guided digital storytelling,“ 2011 IEEE Symposium on Computers & Informatics, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2011, pp. 396-401, doi: 10.1109/ISCI.2011.5958948.
S. Göbel, L. Salvatore and R. Konrad, „StoryTec: A Digital Storytelling Platform for the Authoring and Experiencing of Interactive and Non-Linear Stories,“ 2008 International Conference on Automated Solutions for Cross Media Content and Multi-Channel Distribution, Florence, Italy, 2008, pp. 103-110, doi: 10.1109/AXMEDIS.2008.45.
N. W. Kim, B. Bach, H. Im, S. Schriber, M. Gross and H. Pfister, „Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves,“ in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 595-604, Jan. 2018, doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2017.2744118.
In the realm of digital storytelling, presenting nonlinear narratives can be particularly challenging due to their complex structures and the intricacies involved in their visualization. The paper „Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves“ introduces an innovative approach to tackling this issue through the development of story curves and the Story Explorer tool. As I move on into the creation of my prototype, the insights from this paper will be instrumental in shaping the way I visualize and manage nonlinear narratives. By integrating story curves into my prototype, I aim to enhance the user’s understanding and interaction with complex storylines, providing a more intuitive and engaging experience.
Summary
The paper introduces story curves, a visualization technique designed to reveal patterns in nonlinear narratives by mapping events in a two-dimensional plot based on their chronological and narrative order. The core component of this system is the Story Explorer, an interactive tool that allows users to curate and explore the chronological sequence of scenes in a movie script. The Story Explorer parses scripts to extract scenes, characters, and metadata, presenting them alongside the story curves for a comprehensive view of the narrative structure.
A schematic diagram showing how to construct a story curve from a sequence of events in story and narrative order (left). An example of a story curve of the movie Pulp Fiction (right) showing characters (colored segments), location (colored bands), and day-time (gray backdrop). A nonlinearity index is calculated based on the degree of deviation of narrative order from actual story order.
User tests were conducted to evaluate the readability and learnability of story curves. Participants were asked to answer questions regarding pattern recognition within the story curves, and the results indicated a generally high level of comprehension, with an average correctness rate of 80%. The tests highlighted some challenges, such as the simultaneous interpretation of both story and narrative orders, but overall demonstrated the effectiveness of story curves in conveying complex narrative patterns.
The goals of these tests were to assess the practicality of story curves in real-world applications and to identify areas for improvement. The results showed that story curves are a valuable tool for screenplay analysis, education, and film production, offering new perspectives on narrative structures that were previously difficult to visualize. The feedback from professional writers and scholars further emphasized the potential of story curves to revolutionize the way nonlinear narratives are understood and created.
My conclusions
Story Curves are a type of narrative visualization that is able to help both novice and experienced storytellers build a coherent non-linear narrative in, potentially, any kind media of their choice (ARG, video, web, installation, etc.).
With an improved version of Story Explorer new narrative patterns could arise due to new variables, such as media and readers interaction with the story. Adding new feature related to the challenges of multiple media and community creation would be a very interesting topic to explore and could be the ground for my digital prototype.
References
N. W. Kim, B. Bach, H. Im, S. Schriber, M. Gross and H. Pfister, „Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves,“ in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 595-604, Jan. 2018, doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2017.2744118.
Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are an intriguing fusion of real-world and digital experiences, designed to engage participants in interactive narratives and puzzles. These games rely heavily on web technologies to bridge the gap between fictional elements and players interacting in the real world. My participation in an AI Coding workshop during the International Design Week at FH-Joanneum has opened my eyes to the revolutionary potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in web development, specifically for creating rapid prototypes of websites. In this blogpost I want to explores how AI can be leveraged to enhance the development process of ARGs, ensuring both efficiency and innovation.
What can AI do for an ARG creator?
AI’s integration into software development has been transformative, offering tools that automate coding, streamline processes, and optimize user interactions. In web development, AI technologies have begun to play a pivotal role, especially in automating repetitive tasks and generating code from natural language inputs. For ARGs, which require dynamic and immersive web environments, AI can be a game-changer, offering rapid prototyping capabilities that accommodate the complex, evolving nature of these games.
GPT4, with its 14 million tokens, is an extremely powerful tool to develop HTML, CSS and Javascript code, it’s able to use specific libraries such P5, ML5 or Openprocessing.
The AI Coding workshop at the International Design Week provided practical insights into this tools. One key takeaway was the capacity of AI to not only understand and generate code but also to adapt to the developer’s style and project-specific requirements, which is crucial for the unique narratives and interactive elements of ARGs. The workshop emphasized AI’s role as a collaborator, enabling a more intuitive design process that aligns with the creative demands of ARG developer, which in the case of my thesis project it’s me.
In the context of ARGs, AI can streamline the entire development lifecycle. During the initial concept phase, AI can help simulate different narrative pathways, allowing developers to refine the story before coding begins. In the design phase, AI-powered tools can suggest web design elements that match the theme of the game. For coding, AI can quickly generate responsive layouts and interactive elements, essential for an ARG that might include puzzles or clues embedded in the website.
Conclusion
The integration of AI into the development of ARG websites, as inspired by the AI Coding workshop at the International Design Week of FH-Joanneum, presents a compelling advancement in how interactive narratives are crafted and experienced. As AI tools continue to evolve, so too will the possibilities for creating more engaging, immersive, and personalized interactive narratives.
The paper Plum St: Live Digital Storytelling with Remote Browsers by Ben Taylor and Jesse Allison is really in line with my topic of research, and that’s why I wanted to analyse what it’s their take on Internet Art and Digital Storytelling.
The paper explores the integration of Internet art into remote music performances, focusing on live audiovisual storytelling through web browsers. It discusses the use of socket technology to establish real-time connections between performers and audiences, enabling direct control of audiovisual media within the audience’s browsers. The authors present „Plum Street“ as an example of an online multimedia performance that utilizes various web media, including Google Maps and Web Audio, to convey stories and engage with audiences in a contemporary context.
Summary
These are the main points they go through:
Context: The paper discusses the evolution of remote music performance paradigms and the emergence of internet art movements, highlighting the use of web-based tools and interactive installations in artistic expression.
Plum Street: The authors introduce Plum Street as a platform for remote storytelling, leveraging web technologies like sockets and JavaScript to enable real-time interaction with audiences through their web browsers.
Gesture Distribution: Plum Street enables performers to control audience browsers, creating a distributed performance experience where viewers can actively participate in the narrative.
Media Components: The performance utilizes various web elements such as HTML, JavaScript, APIs, and Web Audio to craft its narrative, focusing on themes of absence, invisibility, and daily life experiences.
Conclusion: The paper concludes by highlighting the potential of web browsers as a medium for live performance, particularly in blending electronic music composition with networked media art. It suggests that advancements in technology, such as JavaScript server toolkits and the Web Audio API, offer exciting opportunities for innovative performance paradigms.
Conclusions
The paper underscores the transformative potential of integrating internet art with remote music performance, presenting Plum Street as an innovative example. It emphasizes the significance of utilizing web browsers as dynamic instruments for storytelling and suggests that the convergence of technology and artistic expression in online performances opens new avenues for creative exploration at the intersection of electronic music composition and networked media art. I believe that this is a piece in the puzzle of my research that I can actually take and utilize as one part of my phygital prototype.
Reference
Ben Taylor, and Jesse Allison. 2013. Plum St: Live Digital Storytelling with Remote Browsers. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression
Exit Reality is a book written by Valentina Tanni, Digital Art Historian and associated professor at Politecnico di Milano as well as my Master’s Thesis mentor. The book talks about internet aesthetics, trends and phenomena that are born online, create community and sense of belonging for those that spend time watching or creating that content. In this blogpost I’m going to analyze the 4th chapter of the book called Lore – Vertigini procedurali: creepypasta, Backrooms e liminal spaces and draw inspiration from these concept for my ARG project, its shape and content.
The Slender Man, SCP Foundation, Backrooms
Creepypastas are horror stories that start, spread and get famous through internet and its communities. They are then expanded, modified and spread into mainstream media through the generation of fan made content that creates a web of connected narrative pieces that paint a hidden lore in the intangible internet canvas. One of the most famous examples is The Slender man a creepy pasta that starts from a blurry photoshopped photo and a post on the famous forum website 4chan then, spreading as if it was a virus, the story took form in the mind of the online userbase through more forum posts, videogames, videos, books and movies. All of them generated by community memeber
First image of the Slenderman by Eric Knudsenon Something Awful forum
The SCP Foundation project starts from /x/paranormal, a famous 4chan thread and uses a storytelling method that is slightly different from the previous example. In fact, if Slender man was the subject of many users ideas that would create and post to anyone online, the SCP Foundation it’s a collaborative narrative, users of the forum are welcome to submit their stories and after a check by the head members of the website they can be accepted if they adhere to the tone of the main story, creating a complex and detailed lore.
The Backrooms is a more recent example of creepypasta turned ARG. A photo of an empty room with yellow floor and walls, and bright neon lights on the ceiling, the uncanny sensation of familiarity spark in the 4chan users a sense of mistery. Story bits and pieces are created by community members, speculating on what that strange building could be, until the youtube channel by the name Kane Pixels starts uploading a series of videos on his channel depicting people entering this “backrooms” and this is were the ARG starts. An clear example of the “This is not a game” concept, online communities start theorising where this place can be found, what are they and who created them. This ARG is still on and many of them are trying to piece the story together to understand not only what is being shown but why, what’s the message that the author, or Puppet Master in ARG terms, wants to convey.
Differences between the Traditional Storytelling Model and The Transmedia Model according to media artist Jeff Watson
Insights and conclusions
I personally find extremely interesting how these different storytelling methods were born as a byproduct of the internet decentralised structure. Both user generated content, like the Slenderman and its lore, and collaborative narratives like the SCP Foundation are, in my opinion, extremely interesting and effective ways to tell a compelling and engaging story, the work done by Kane Pixel demonstrates that starting from that and then evolving it into an ARG is a very coherent process, that’s why for my project it could be useful to start from an existing fan base or internet subject and adding a piece of the narrative myself.
In a world where narratives are increasingly multi-dimensional and user-driven, the concept of interactive storytelling has emerged as a powerful medium through which audiences are not just passive consumers but active participants in narrative experiences. This blogpost delves into the intricacies of interactive storytelling, highlighting its history, various forms, and the defining characteristics of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Furthermore, it explores the strategic use of digital and physical interactions in crafting compelling stories and concludes with practical insights on effectively integrating these elements into ARG projects.
Definition of Interactive Storytelling
Interactive storytelling refers to a narrative form that allows the audience to influence or shape the story’s progression through their decisions and actions. Unlike traditional storytelling, where the narrative is fixed, interactive storytelling is dynamic, with multiple potential outcomes and pathways that depend on audience engagement. This form of storytelling is characterized by a high degree of participant agency, which can significantly affect the narrative’s course and conclusion.
History of Interactive Storytelling and Media Examples
Interactive storytelling is not a new phenomenon. Its roots can be traced back to early role-playing games and choose-your-own-adventure books, which allowed readers to make choices that affected the story’s outcome. With technological advancements, interactive storytelling has expanded into various media including:
Video Games: Games like „The Walking Dead“ by Telltale Games and „Mass Effect“ offer narrative choices that impact the game’s world and outcomes.
Interactive Cinema: Movies such as „Bandersnatch“ on Netflix allow viewers to make decisions that alter the story’s direction.
Virtual and Augmented Reality: These technologies provide immersive experiences where users can interact with the narrative environment in meaningful ways.
Online and Social Media Platforms: These platforms facilitate interactive web series and social experiments where audience inputs directly influence the unfolding events.
ARG and Its Role in Interactive Storytelling
Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) represent a unique blend of real-world and digital storytelling, where players collaboratively solve puzzles and uncover layers of a story that exists across multiple platforms. ARGs are distinct because they blur the lines between in-game and out-of-game experiences, creating a pervasive narrative that engages players deeply and personally.
Key Elements & terminology of ARG
Some of the terms essential to understanding discussions about ARGs are:
Puppet-master – A puppet-master or „PM“ is an individual involved in designing and/or running an ARG. Puppet-masters are simultaneously allies and adversaries to the player base, creating obstacles and providing resources for overcoming them in the course of telling the game’s story. Puppet-masters generally remain behind the curtain while a game is running. The real identity of puppet-masters may or may not be known ahead of time.
The Curtain – The curtain, drawing from the phrase, „Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,“ is generally a metaphor for the separation between the puppet-masters and the players. This can take the traditional form of absolute secrecy regarding the puppet-masters‘ identities and involvement with the production, or refer merely to the convention that puppet-masters do not communicate directly with players through the game, interacting instead through the characters and the game’s design.
Rabbit-hole/Trailhead – A rabbit-hole, or trailhead, marks the first media artifact, be it a website, contact, or puzzle, that draws in players. Most ARGs employ a number of trailheads in several media to maximize the probability of people discovering the game. Typically, the rabbit-hole is a website, the most easily updated, cost-effective option.
This Is Not A Game (TINAG) – Setting the ARG form apart from other games is the This Is Not A Game sentiment popularized by the players themselves. It is the belief that „one of the main goals of the ARG is to deny and disguise the fact that it is even a game at all.
Effective Storytelling Through Interaction
Effective storytelling through interaction transcends traditional narrative forms by transforming passive observers into active participants. This paradigm shift fundamentally alters how stories are consumed, perceived, and remembered, offering a profound depth of engagement that static narratives cannot achieve.
Firstly, interaction in storytelling significantly heightens engagement. When audience members are given the opportunity to influence the narrative, their investment in the content naturally increases. This is because they are no longer merely absorbing information but are also actively shaping the course of events. The sense of agency this provides can make the narrative experience deeply personal and much more engaging. For instance, when a player in an ARG makes a decision that leads to a notable consequence within the game, the emotional stakes are heightened. Their choices feel impactful, which can lead to increased attentiveness and eagerness to see the outcomes of their interactions.
Moreover, this form of storytelling enhances emotional investment. As participants navigate through the story, making choices and experiencing the repercussions of those choices, they develop a connection to the narrative that is far stronger than if they were simply being told the story. This connection is not just about making decisions; it’s about seeing themselves reflected in the outcomes. When a storyline adjusts based on user input, it creates a personalized narrative arc that can resonate on a deeper emotional level, making the overall experience more meaningful.
Additionally, interactive storytelling facilitates a deeper understanding of the narrative and its underlying themes. By engaging directly with the story’s elements, participants can uncover nuances and explore complexities in ways that passive consumption does not allow. This hands-on approach encourages a more active form of learning and comprehension. For example, in an ARG, unraveling a puzzle requires understanding its context within the larger story, thereby promoting a more nuanced engagement with the narrative’s themes and messages.
Beyond just understanding, this method of storytelling also promotes empathy and perspective-taking. Participants who find themselves making moral or strategic decisions in a story can begin to empathize with characters facing similar choices, understanding their motivations and dilemmas on a more intimate level. This empathy is not merely academic but is felt, as participants navigate the emotional landscape of the characters they interact with or portray.
Finally, Interactive storytelling often involves a mix of digital and physical interactions. Digital interactions might include navigating web interfaces, making choices in a video game, or participating in social media-driven events. Physical interactions can involve attending real-world locations, interacting with physical objects, or engaging in live events. Each mode of interaction offers different strengths in engagement and immersive potential.
Applying Interactive Elements in ARG Projects
Creating an ARG is a complex endeavor, especially in an experimental environment such as a my master thesis project. Here’s a few points on how I might approach this challenge, infusing my personal vision and academic goals into the project.
Phygital Interactions
A combination of digital and physical platforms is a must to that captures the essence of ARGs. For example, I might develop a website that serves as the central hub for your ARG, supplemented by social media accounts that characters in the game use to communicate with players. Additionally, incorporating real-world tasks—such as visiting specific locations to collect clues or interact with objects—can significantly enhance the immersive quality of my ARG. By integrating various media, you ensure that participants experience a rich, multi-dimensional story that leverages the strengths of each platform.
Maintaining a coherent narrative
One of the greatest challenges in designing an ARG is keeping the narrative coherent and engaging across all platforms and interactions. I want to tackle this by carefully planning the storyline and having a clear understanding of how each puzzle and task fits into the overall narrative arc. Consider creating a detailed timeline and a flowchart that maps out all the main events and decision points in your ARG. This will help me ensure that regardless of the players‘ choices or discoveries, the story remains cohesive and compelling.
Iterate and Test
Since my project is a prototype, iterative testing and feedback are vital. I could possibly organize test runs with fellow students or volunteers, gather their feedback on various elements of the game, and use this information to refine the experience. This iterative process not only improves the quality of your ARG but also demonstrates your commitment to user-centered design in your thesis, an important aspect of interactive storytelling.
Conclusion
Interactive storytelling, particularly through ARGs, represents a frontier in narrative techniques where the line between storyteller and audience is fluid and collaborative.
By understanding its principles and applying its strategies effectively, creators can craft immersive and impactful narratives that engage participants in profound and unique ways. As we move forward, harnessing the full potential of interactive elements will be crucial in evolving storytelling practices and delivering richer, more participative narrative experiences.
Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are interactive distributed narratives that uses transmedia storytelling and the real world as a platform for delivering a story developed through the actions of the players collective effort. Players interested in “solving” the game are invited through the use of different media, such as telephones, mail, websites, and physical spaces; to collaborate and piece together every clue to reach the final goal of discovering the hidden narration.
Brief history and Examples
ARG takes inspiration from experiments of interactive storytelling made by classic media during the 1900s, starting from Choose your Own Adventure children’s novels, live tv drama shows or Live Action Role-Playing Games.
“Ong’s Hat” is recognised as the first proto-ARG, it incorporates elements of legends and conspiracy theories and it’s gameplay was online puzzle solving. ARG officially starts growing as a genre of gaming after 2001, when “The Beast” and “Majestic” were launched. The first, developed by Microsoft was a murder mystery set in the future and it’s main objective was to promote the movie A.I Artificial Intelligence, while the second one was an award winning ARG. They influenced the way ARG were going to be created and played in the following years. Between 2004 and 2020 ARGs exploded in popularity and the main focus would become promotion, either to another piece of media (tv shows, video games, music albums) or to raise awareness to important topics, and that’s were “Serious ARGs” take place.
Even though ARG had grassroot starts with many players coming together to create similar games, the quality ramped up when corporation started using this style of interactive storytelling to promote their products.
Research Focus and Prototype Direction
My goal in this research journey is to understand how and why ARG are effective in conveying stories and also the different ways in which players interact with it. My aim is to create an ARG so that I can prototype and test different interaction methods and define parameters to see if it is actually a compelling and effective method of storytelling. In the next blogposts I’m gonna explore different aspects of ARGs trying to paint a complete picture before going deep in my personal prototype.
