Authoring Game-based Interactive Narrative using Social Games and Comme il Faut Josh McCoy, Mike Treanor, Ben Samuel, Brandon Tearse, Michael Mateas and Noah Wardrip-Fruin

The Prom About high school kids and their dramatic lives in the week leading up to their prom A storytelling game The gameplay is about the fiction

The Prom

Social Games The primary mode of interaction for The Prom Actions characters take to modify social state Influenced by Reiss’ basic needs Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis

An Angry Break Up Social Game

An Angry Break Up Social Game

An Angry Break Up Social Game

An Angry Break Up Social Game

An Angry Break Up Social Game

An Angry Break Up Social Game

An Angry Break Up Social Game

Comme il Faut A computational model of social interaction Characters, relationships, social history, zeitgeist… Designed for player experience and not simulation Authoring Strategy for Game-based Interactive Narrative

Why Karen would want to break up with Robert She has the character trait of jealous Her sense of romance is low with him He did something that could be cheating And possibly many more reasons…

The Social Fact Database Every social action is collectively remembered This history influences character motivations How Karen knew Robert “cheated” on her Can trigger social statuses E.g. guilty, embarrassed, beat up on, etc.

The Cultural Knowledgebase

There are Many Outcomes to Social Games If he didn’t cheat, she could just yell at him She could have made fun of him He could have rejected the social action i.e. convince her that it really wasn’t a big deal to dance with Lily Each outcome changes the social state differently

Authoring for Comme il Faut

Authoring for Interactive Narrative It’s hard! Beads on a string Branching stories

Authoring for Interactive Narrative Computation models and simulation help E.g. physics in FPS, mundane activity in The Sims

Exploring the Design Space

Conclusion Comme il Faut enables: Computational models Specific stories Narratively meaningful player choice Computational models The gameplay of The Prom is the fiction

University of California at Santa Cruz Questions? University of California at Santa Cruz http://eis.ucsc.edu Mike Treanor mtreanor@soe.ucsc.edu