Novella 2.0: A Hypertextual Architecture for Interactive Narrative in Games

Abstract

The hypertext community has a history of research in Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN), including experimental works and systems to support authoring. Arguably the most prevalent contemporary form of IDN is within the world of computer games where a mixture of large-scale commercial works and smaller indie experimental pieces continue to develop new forms of interactive storytelling. We can explore these pieces through the lens of hypertextual theory and support them with hypertextual architectures, but there are unique challenges within modern game-based storytelling that these frameworks sometimes struggle to capture on a content level, leaving us in some cases with insufficient models and vocabulary. In this paper, we build upon previous work by presenting a discussion on techniques of modeling video game narrative. This is followed by thorough presentation and demonstration of our game-centric theoretical model of interactive narrative, Novella 2.0, which builds upon our previous contributions. This model is then positioned within a novel architecture for the authoring, interchange, integration, and simulation of video game narrative. We present alongside the architecture four key innovations towards supporting game narrative. We include support for Discoverable Narrative and other game narrative content alongside structural features in a deference of responsibility to game engines and our own approach to mixing calligraphic and sculptural hypertext structure.