Narratives and Interactive Storytelling

Narratives and Interactive

Storytelling

General Course Information

Edirlei Soares de Lima

<edirlei.lima@universidadeeuropeia.pt>

Narratives and Interactive Storytelling

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What is a narrative?

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A sequence of connected events (real or imaginary), presented as

written/spoken words or still/moving images (or both).

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What is an interactive narrative?

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Story + Interactivity

How to create an interactive narrative?

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Steps: authoring, interaction design, and dramatization.

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Teaching how to create an interactive narrative is main objective this

course.

Narratives and Interactive Storytelling

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Professor: Edirlei Soares de Lima

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Education:

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B.Sc. in Computer Science – UnC

M.Sc. in Computer Science – UFSM

Ph.D. in Computer Science – PUC-Rio

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Teaching Experience: PUC-Rio, UNIRIO, UERJ, IADE-UE

Research: interactive storytelling, games and artificial intelligence

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Logtell Project: http://www.icad.puc-rio.br/~logtell/

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More Information: http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~elima/

Narratives and Interactive Storytelling

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Interaction Design:

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Study the key concepts of interactive narratives, including the

conception, interaction design, and visual representation of

interactive narratives.

Learning Outcomes:

1

2

3

. Understand the main concepts and processes for the creation of an

interactive narrative;

. Identify the different approaches in the construction of narratives

for interactivity;

. Create interactive digital narratives with technical and

methodological formalism.

Narratives and Interactive Storytelling

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Module Content:

1

. Introduction to narratives and interactive storytelling;

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Linear and non-linear narratives;

Narrative structures (Three-act Structure and Hero's Journey);

Narrative theories (Propp and Aarne-Thompson Index);

Representation of interactive narratives (graphs and event trees);

2

. Generation of interactive narratives:

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Design and authoring of interactive scripts;

Computational methods: plan generation and reuse;

3

. Dramatization of interactive narratives:

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Dramatization in 2D and 3D virtual environments;

Dramatization in video;

Dramatization in virtual/augmented reality;

4

. Interaction methods for interactive narratives:

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Traditional interaction (computational interfaces);

Multimodal and multiuser interaction;

Virtual/augmented reality interaction;

Interaction through natural language and social networks;

Method

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Project-Based Learning:

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Learn by doing;

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"Large" project;

Active and experiential learning:

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Theoretical concepts;

Practical examples;

Implementation exercises;

Evaluation

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Continuous Assessment:

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[50%] Intermediate assessment:

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[100%] Individual exercises on the concepts learned;

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[50%] End of term assessment:

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[100%] Semester’s project with individual discussion.

Final Assessment:

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[100%] Individual project development, delivery, and discussion.

Project Assignments

1

2

. Identification of the narrative in the project.

StorylineA – Without user interaction

. Construction of the narrative as a branching network or a

planning problem.

…

3

. Implementation of the narrative with a comics-based

interactive story_P_i telling system.

^Pi+1

Storyline B – User interacts and changes the girl’s decision

…

^Pi

P_i₊₁

Bibliography

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Crawford, C. (2012). Chris Crawford on Interactive

Storytelling, 2nd edition. New Riders. ISBN: 978-

0

321864970.

Alexander, B. (2017). The New Digital Storytelling:

Creating Narratives with New Media. Praeger.

ISBN: 978-1440849602.

Narratives and Interactive Storytelling

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Blackboard (Narratives and Interactive Storytelling):

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https://europeia.blackboard.com/

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Course Webpage:

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http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~elima/is/

Contact:

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edirlei.lima@universidadeeuropeia.pt

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edirlei.slima@gmail.com