A New Framework for Plot-Based Interactive Storytelling Generation

Interactive storytelling (IS) is a promising growth area in computer-based technologies, in the entertainment computer industry, and other applied areas. Content/story production is a major bottleneck in the entertainment industry. The plot of the story and the character(s) are the two most important elements of a story. Previous work has identified key problems, such as narrative control, the duality between character and plot, and the tension between interactivity and storytelling. In this paper we developed a new framework for solving the narrative control problem and model the story plot generation based on Petri nets reachability analysis. The idea is derived from the study of both Petri nets (PN) and interactive storytelling technology. The approach uses a Petri nets as a state-based model for story plot generation, where each scene in a plot is regarded as a goal to be reached. A complex scene is represented as a composite goal, and a simple scene is represented as an atomic goal. Validation of our approach is given by discussion, analysis and an illustration of some experimental results.