People are often confused when I talk about interactive story, immersive story, etc. The confusion is understandable, story is a very broad term as is interactivity. People only add to the confusion when they use the terms interchangeably to hype their creations. Real-time story presents certain problems for the artist and it’s only when you can appreciate the nature of the problems that can you devise a solution.
I find its best to define real time story and differentiate its various forms by taking the perspective of a writer and focusing on the storyline.
Storyline
In his book Adventures in the Screen Trade, William Goldman explains that the first thing a writer needs to do is find the spine of their story – that is, the impression you want to leave with the audience, or what the story is about besides the bare events. Once you have that you can select the best events and sequence them to maximize dramatic effect – creating the storyline. I can hear some of you grumbling now – what about the characters? But as Robert McKee would yell in his seminar on Story – a character is their actions and actions take place in an event. So for our purposes it’s all about events or scenes.
Computers allow us to make that real time. I like The Free Dictionary definition of real time.
- real-time
- Of or relating to computer systems that update information at the same rate as they receive data, enabling them to direct or control a process such as an automatic pilot.
Combine the two and you have real time story. Simple right? No, some very smart people have been trying to combine them for years.
It’s a fairly undefined and unproven thing, which makes it a lot of fun to think about, and attempt to build. Frustrating and humbling, too, of course.
The term real-time story is still too broad to be very constructive, so I break it down into various forms or creation strategies.
- Interactive story
- Immersive story
- Story worlds
- Narrative games
Interactive story
With interactive story the Author, or Artist, invites the Player to partake in the creative process.
- interactive story
- Real time story where the Player chooses the events and/or their sequence albeit from an Author constrained universe of possibilities.
Seems pretty straightforward at first but the devil’s in the details.
I think it’s true that the purist concept described above — complete freedom at all times for the player, and the real-time creation a well-formed story — is, simply by definition of the terms involved, impossible, as much as I wish it weren’t. For example, if towards the end of an interactive drama, you suddenly start acting very differently than you did up till that point, that would likely ruin the well-formed-ness of the story as it had been unfolding so far.
Immersive story
Immersive story on the other hand doesn’t place the burden on being truly interactive but tricking the Player to think it’s interactive. Remember the end goal here is entertainment, not a science experiment.
- immersive story
- Real time story where the Player follows an Author created storyline but believes they’re choosing the events and sequence.
Story world
Another form of real time story is commonly known as sandbox mode in video games.
- story world
- Real-time story where the Author populates a rich environment for the Player to connect events but it’s up to the Player to envision the storyline.
Narrative games
Video games may also fall under the umbrella of real time story. The defining feature is the use of challenges to block or allow the Player to progressing from one event to another. At one end it might be no different than traditional story, on the other end it might stretch into true interactive story.
- narrative game
- A real time story where obstacles block players progression from event to event. Players ability to interact with the storyline can stretch from a traditional story to an immersive story or interactive story.
Let me know what you think
In all real-time story still isn’t an easy concept to get your head around. What seems obvious at first quickly unravels. I’ve been trying to explain it for years and these diagrams are just my latest iteration, so please let me know what you think and if they can be improved.
I think people have played RPGs in a formal, directed sense for over 30 years and you should avail yourself of the work that's already been done in the field. Your article is a good basic exploration of these ideas but this sort of stuff has been discussed before.
I agree that much of this isn't anything new, but you might or might not be surprised how many people are unfamiliar with it. I'm constantly having to explain it to friends and acquaintances. And as with screenwriting I've learned that you can never cover the basic three act structure enough.
Also by covering the basics I think it better highlights the difference between interactive story and immersive story – something I would argue is a fresh concept.
I think people have played RPGs in a formal, directed sense for over 30 years and you should avail yourself of the work that's already been done in the field. Your article is a good basic exploration of these ideas but this sort of stuff has been discussed before.
I agree that much of this isn't anything new, but you might or might not be surprised how many people are unfamiliar with it. I'm constantly having to explain it to friends and acquaintances. And as with screenwriting I've learned that you can never cover the basic three act structure enough.
Also by covering the basics I think it better highlights the difference between interactive story and immersive story – something I would argue is a fresh concept.