From time to time I’m asked to recommend reading material related to real time story or interactive story in particular. While there is little resources dealing with real time story as a whole, interactive story is just a subset and it has a long history of research. That research can be applied across all forms of real time story – immersive story, story worlds, and of course interactive story.
Books
You might start with the book many credit with introducing the idea of interactive story to the wider public, Brenda Laurel’s Computers as Theatre. I finally read the book a year ago and found it more nostalgic than helpful, but Brenda does have an interesting perspective.
The next book that came along I found much more helpful, Janet H. Murray’s Hamlet on the Holodeck. I actually received this book as a gift from a friend and found it eye opening even if it is a bit dated.
The first book I read on the subject was Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling. I might disagree with some of Crawford’s suggestions but of all the resources he at least lays out a strategy for actually creating interactive story. A strategy he is putting into action at Storytron.
A more recent book and good overview of the interactive story field is Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction.
Online
Two great blogs you can add to your RSS reader would be Grand Text Auto and Emily Short’s Interactive Fiction. A few of the writers behind Grand Text Auto put together the interactive story Facade. The developers of MASQ also have an interesting take on interactive story AlterAction.
Ongoing projects
And If you get tired of reading you can always check out some ongoing projects.
Examples of interactive story
If those aren’t enough of you, why not just jump into some interactive stories.
Continuing updates
When I get some time I’ll move this into a more permanent page which I can continually update. But I hope this helps for now.
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