Interactive Storytelling

Storyworld and Storybuilder

DDJ: Let's talk about the system. Maybe we could start by defining some of the key terminology. Like storyworld?

CC: A storyworld is a data structure that contains implicit within it zillions of possible stories. When a player interacts with the storyworld, he generates one story.

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Figure 1: Actor editor.

DDJ: And storybuilder?

CC: A storyworld is created by someone we call a storybuilder, who is an artist who uses our development environment, which is called "SWAT," to build storyworlds.

DDJ: SWAT is an acronym for...

CC: "Storyworld Authoring Tool." There are three programs. A storybuilder uses SWAT to create a storyworld. The second technology is the [Storytron] Engine, the third technology is Storyteller, which is the consumer program. Both Storyteller and SWAT access the Engine, Storyteller to play it, and SWAT to run Rehearsal, our testing feature.

DDJ: And Diekto?

CC: Diekto is the language.

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Figure 2: Verb editor.