Adventure Author: An Authoring Tool
for 3D Virtual Reality Story
Construction
Judy Robertson
eMotion Lab
Glasgow Caledonian
University
Judith Good
Ideas Lab
University of Sussex
Robertson & Good - AIED 2005
Story making
• Stories are a natural part of children’s
collaborative play;
• Although children don’t lose their imaginations
as they get older, opportunities for story
making become fewer and more formal;
• Story making becomes story writing, which
excludes children who have difficulties with
text;
• How can we put enjoyment back into story
making for older children?
• One approach is to broaden the range of
media in which children can create stories.
Judith Good - AIED 2005
Stories and Game Creation
• Technology now allows children to create their
own games:
–
–
–
–
build areas;
create characters;
develop plots (and explore branching plots);
write dialogue.
• Thus, game creation has potential in an
educational context for developing story
making skills;
• Adventure Author scaffolds the creation of
stories in a 3D VR world.
Judith Good - AIED 2005
Adventure Author Development
1. Interviews with teachers, children and
game designers to identify requirements
of authoring tool (Good & Robertson, 2004)
2. Extensive field work to identify strengths
and weaknesses of existing game
authoring tools (Robertson & Good, 2004)
3. Low tech prototyping of interactive story
representations (Goolnik, Robertson & Good, submitted;
Good & Robertson, 2003);
4. High tech prototyping of interactive story
representations
5. Expert evaluation of prototype (Robertson &
Good, 2005)
Judith Good - AIED 2005
Adventure Author story
structure
Judith Good - AIED 2005
Adventure Author Demo
Judith Good - AIED 2005
Learning Affordances of AA
• Motivation-inducing learning curve: entire area
can be created with minimal effort, complexity
arises in later stages (e.g. highlighting something
in an area);
• Situated learning: children (readily) assume
persona of game designer;
• Action-based feedback: children can observe
others interact with their game; verbal feedback
can augment this, but not strictly necessary;
• Organic reflection-revision cycle: children reflect
on and revise games as a result of feedback
(above);
• Organic collaboration: results from natural
interactions, does not need to be designed into the
environment or associated tasks;
Judith Good - AIED 2005
Future Work
• Representation of story at different
levels of granularity;
• Dialogue as narration in addition to
text (representational issue);
• Visual language for specifying
story events;
• Educational scaffolding for the
processes of design and reflection.
Judith Good - AIED 2005
Thank you
[email protected]
[email protected]
Judith Good - AIED 2005