Locative Interactive Storytelling Along Vast Road Networks

Abstract

There are two critical challenges that need to be faced in order to provide games which draw upon journey experiences. First, we need to identify a way to generate media content for very large geographical areas. The genuine mobility of vehicles, and their abundant use, make them travel over large territories and in very complex patterns. Since it is not likely that game designers will manually cover such areas with game content, we have to investigate ways in which to provide game events over vast territories with minimal effort. Second, we need to develop a narrative engine that utilizes the movement of the vehicle and the path of the journey to form a sequential story rather than a random anthology. The concept of a journey through a computer-generated environment has been used in several interactive storytelling systems to enforce linearity. Then the journey is a pre-designed backdrop which determines the unfolding of the story. There is a major difference between such a use of a journey, to provide narrative rigor in a computer game, and using it as a travel path unfolds in real time through a physical landscape.