1. SceneDriver: The development and evaluation of an interactive narrative system for children.

2. Project The project was supported by EPSRC and DTI Open University –Annika Wolff –Paul Mulholland –Zdenek Zdrahal Peppers Ghost Production Company Edinburgh Virtual Environment Centre

3. Introduction Animated Television series are expensive to produce Need to produce extra merchandise Computer games based on the television series are a popular option. Some games based on childrens television series have viewing galleries Peppers Ghost who produced Tiny planets have used this approach

4. Introduction to Tiny Planets Tiny Planets Bing and Bong The White Sofa Six Tiny Planets

5. Introduction The aim of this project was to develop an interactive narrative system called SceneDriver. SceneDriver extends the viewing gallery approach by using narrative principles to enable children to create novel stories whilst using Tiny Planet Content. A further aim was to develop a suitably intuitive interface for use by children.

6. Potential Approaches Content CannedGenerated ChildPassive Active TV Shows SceneDriver Dynamically generated TV Future …..

7. Related Work Interactive Narrative systems fall into two categories –The first use narrative principles to organise and present a collection of resources in a coherent way Murtaughs Automatist storytelling system dynamically orders keyword annotated clips Rocchi and Zancanaros work used directorial techniques for presenting of narratively structured material.

8. Related Work –The second the systems create a dramatic experience with a protagonist and plot structure. Mateas and Sterns interactive drama uses pre authored story fragments in conjunction with autonomous animated characters and allows interaction during the course of the story Hayes-Roth et al., devised a model of interactive narrative called directed improvisation. Gorbet. Orth and Ishi developed a tangible interface for interacting with narrative.

9. TinyPlanet Analysis We devised a plot description both on this analysis and also on narrative theory. It is consistent with existing with structuralist theories of narrative that have been used to interpret written stories. The analysis suggested that each episode could be viewed from different levels. – plot level –directorial level

10. Plot Level Theme Introduction Partial Success Failure Resolution Attempt Conflict Introduction Post-completion event

11. Directorial Level The directorial level is the level at which events occur to provide dramatic effect or entertainment value

12. SceneDriver: Playing The Game A child constructs a narrative by playing a form of dominos. The left-hand side has the characters who were in the previous clip. The right hand side specifies the characters who will appear in the next scene.

13. SceneDriver: Playing The Game This interface enables the child to manipulate the narrative, A scene supervisor module ensures the animation adheres to the principles narrative. It also ensures coherent transitions from one scene to another by the use of transitional scenes. There are two distinct options –Complete Explicit –Rewrite

14. SceneDriver: Complete Explicit In a complete explicit, the left hand side of the domino has the characters who were present in the previous clip. The right hand side then determines which characters are present in the next scene.

15. Complete Explicit Version

16. SceneDriver: Rewrite In the rewrite rule game the left hand side and the right hand side have a different meaning to that of the complete explicit game. In the rewrite rule which ever characters are depicted in the left hand side of the tile are to be removed and then replaced in the next scene with the characters in the right hand side of the tile.

17. Rewrite Version

18. Study 1 Aims To investigate whether children can use the domino interface to direct a narrative. To investigate children understanding of the interactivity narrative. To investigate how much the children enjoy the interactive narrative.

19. Forty children (20 girls and 20 boys), twenty to each condition. Aged 7-8 years in Year 3 Two Conditions –Complete Explicit –Rewrite Understanding measured by recall. Enjoyment of the game was measured using the sticky ladder measure and a smiley- face scale. Study 1: Method

20. Self Report Measures Sticky Ladder

21. Self Report Measures Smiley Faces

22. Errors and Help Number of Errors made Verbal help provided by the experimenter Physical help provided by the experimenter Verbal prompting by experimenter Clicking tile before the end of the clip Thinking which tile to click before the end of the clip

23. Observational Measures Laughing Clapping Talking about the characters Talking about clips Making sounds from clip Recall task Commenting on the television series Commenting on the game being played

24. Study 1: Results Interactive Narrative Systems RewriteComplete MSDM smiley4.600.684.400.68 sticky5.601.675.351.35

25. Study 1: Results No significant difference between the two conditions in terms of – Smiley Face Scale and Sticky Ladder –Observational measures. –Recall measure Children in the Rewrite condition received more verbal help They also received significantly more prompting

26. Relationships between the Measures -Verbal expressions of enjoyment (the relationship between laughing, talking about the characters, talking about the clips, making sounds, the recall task, commenting on the series and commenting on the game) -Non-verbal relationships (clapping was found to have a strong relationship with smiling) -Errors and help - strong relationship between prompting and verbal assistance.

27. Study 1: Summary No significant differences were found between the two conditions regarding enjoyment No significant differences were found between the two conditions regarding understanding However, regarding the usability – the help and errors – significant differences were found regarding verbal assistance and prompting.

28. Study 2: Aims Study 1 looked at the different games in terms of how much the children enjoy playing the games and understanding. The measure of understanding was too crude we therefore decided to explore that further with a more sensitive measure Study 2 investigated childrens undertsanding and enjoyment of an interactive narrative system

29. Study 2: Method Forty Eight children (24 girls and 24 boys), 16 children in each condition. Aged 7-8 years in Year 3 Three conditions –Complete Explicit with Narrative –Complete Explicit without Narrative –Domino game Enjoyment of the game was measured using the sticky ladder measure.

30. Structured Recall Task What can you remember Memory probes –What did these characters do –What happened next –Identity Parade. Which of these characters were in the video.

31. Study 2: Results We have only just completed this study so the results are still being analysed. –There was no difference between the conditions in terms of the number of characters CORRECTLY identified in the identity parade –There was a difference between the conditions in terms of the number of characters INCORRECTLY identified in the identity parade.

32. Discussion The aims of the studies where –To investigate how much the children enjoy the interactive narrative. –To investigate children understanding of the interactivity narrative. –To investigate whether children can use the domino interface to direct a narrative.

33. Project The project was supported by ESPRC and DTI Open University –Annika Wolff –Paul Mulholland –Zdenek Zdrahal Peppers Ghost Production Company Edinburgh Virtual Environment Centre University of Bath –Anna Reeves –Nicole Pieper Staff and children at Old field Park Junior School