A Survey on Story Generation Techniques for Authoring Computational Narratives Paper by Ben Kybartas and Rafael Bidarra Presentation by Chris Martens CSC 791: Generative Methods Monday, October 24, 2016 1
Purpose of this paper 3 Define common goals of a research community Review progress on those goals Classify progress along different axes Identify gaps for future work
Plot Automation 14 Manual Structure Template Constrained Automated Computer is present at a mostly invisible level Attempts to minimize author involvement as much as possible
Case-Based Reasoning 28 Engage/Reflect Cycle Reflection uses a corpus of previous stories to evaluate and revise the current story on the basis of novelty. MEXICA
37 Generating space on the fly Virtual Storyteller: Late commitment Inspired by improvisational theater Example: Character want to fight each other? Spawn some weapons Similarly, Li and Riedl: Gadget generation
39 Universe Generating backstories for characters with family tree simulation Temporal coherence: if plot requires two characters to fall in love, their birthdates must be within a reasonable range of one another
Plot Automation 44 Template Computer provides plot template with events in order, but instantiation with existents is left to the human author. e.g. Propp grammars
Plot Automation 45 Constrained Author provides initial state or other narrative constraints; computer gives complete plot populated with existents. e.g. GME, Mexica, Prom Week
Space Automation 47 Modification Author provides a starting point, but the computer can modify it, e.g. to suit the plot structure. e.g.: initial state revision; late commitment
Space Automation 48 Simulation New spatial content is generated by simulating interactions between hand-authored existents, resulting in an initial state for story. e.g.: Universe’s family tree generation