1. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIO FROM ABSTRACTION TO REALITY: Integrating Drama Management into a Playable Game Experience Anne Sullivan, Sherol Chen and Michael Mateas Anne Sullivan University of California, Santa Cruz anne@soe.ucsc.edu http://soe.ucsc.edu/~anne/

2. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ Introduction  DODM  Application of DODM to real-time game  Initial user studies

3. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ Game Story Dilemma  Player agency vs.  Authorial intent Apologies to Capcom Entertainment, Inc © 1991 AgencyIntent

4. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM  Declarative Optimization-based Drama Manager  Bates (proposed 1992)  Weyhrauch (developed 1997)  Search-based  Expectimax

5. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Theory  Stand-In Designer  Player agency  Plot points  Authorial intent  DM actions  Evaluation features

6. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Theory Pick DM move with highest projected evaluation

7. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Practice EMPath

8. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Practice EMPath

9. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Plot Points Plot points DM actions Evaluation features …

10. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Plot Points – Theory  Player choice  Important events in game  Author chosen  Player activated  Examples: Killed monkey king Found information about prisoner

11. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Plot Points – Example Kill monkey king Leave monkey king Player choice Monkey King defeated plot point

12. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Plot Points – Reality  Plot points move  Spatial reasoning  What constitutes a plot point?  Encounter monkey king  Kill monkey king

13. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – DM Actions Plot points DM actions Evaluation features …

14. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – DM Actions – Theory  DM choices  Author control  Changes the game  Causer, Hint, Denier/Enabler  Examples: Lock door to boss room Drop note after next enemy dies

15. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – DM Actions – Example Deny Monkey King defeated plot point DM choice temp_deny_monkey_king_defeated DM action

16. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – DM Actions – Reality  Non-static hint probabilities  Hints move, calculated at runtime  Example: info from enemy  Non-trivial refiners  DM actions during real-time play  Player location matters  Example: deny_candle after monkey_king_defeated

17. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Evaluation Features Plot points DM actions Evaluation features …

18. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Evaluation Features – Theory  Abstraction of author goals  Multiple goals  Examples: Thought Flow Manipulation  Used to evaluate story quality

19. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Evaluation Features – Example Plot Point: info_jail subplot = jail DM Action: info_guard_next_room hints = info_guard subplot = jail Drama Manager (DM) wants to maintain Thought Flow

20. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Evaluation Features – Reality  Story Density  Non-instantaneous travel  Wandering – good and bad  Room transition based metric  1 – 4 rooms between plot points

21. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Story Density

22. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Story Density Plot Point

23. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Story Density Plot Point This is bad

24. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Story Density Plot point

25. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Story Density Plot point Also bad

26. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Player Models Plot points DM actions Evaluation features Weighted by probability of plot point occurrence …

27. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Player Models – Theory  Calculate probabilities of plot points  Uniform distribution  Each plot point as likely to happen

28. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ DODM – Player Models – Reality  Plot points  Map-based distribution  World Knowledge  Random walks  Unpredictable players Plot Point Player Plot Point

29. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ World Knowledge User Model Accuracy

30. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ User Tests  Preliminary Tests  Drama Management On  11 users  Drama Management Off  10 users  Follow-up Interview

31. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ User Tests Did the game make sense?

32. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ User Tests

33. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ Conclusions  Drama Management works  Preliminary user tests promising  Successful integration with game  Framework changes  Interesting future work  Scalability  Authorship tools

34. EXPRESSIVE INTELLIGENCE STUDIOUC SANTA CRUZ Thank You  Questions?