Generating Non-linear Narrative for Serious Games with Scenario Templates
Koen Samyn, Gaétan Deglorie, Peter Lambert, Rik Van de Walle, Sofie Van Hoecke · 2015
Complex social interactions between NPC’s and players in a serious game remains a challenge. Standard game engines are focused on a game world with a fixed set of rules and linear gameplay. The problem is compounded by the unfamiliarity of many researchers with the basic structure and technicalities of a serious game. In this paper we propose a method to use linear scenario elements as templates for the generation of a non-linear narrative. We implement this method by creating an extra layer on top of the existing ATTAC-L modeling language which is a tool for developing virtual interactive scenarios. Users are thus presented with a language that offers limited flow control and simplifies the authoring process for the creation of scenario elements. Our method uses these existing scenario elements together with metadata, and fills in the templated elements with the contextual information of the current game state. By separating scenario concerns from non-linear narrative concerns, we hope to make it easier to develop interesting non-linear serious games that still conform to the requirements of evidence-based serious game research.