Alex: A collaborative and interactive storyteller

• Main Authors: Huang, Dolleen Lour C., Peralta, Bruce Elmer L., Roxas, Rancelli Jane F., Yap, Sashmir A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11772
• Institution: De La Salle University

Alex is an interactive and collaborative storyteller who accompanies the user as he/she travels through a story adventure. Along the way, the user will be presented with a task that he needs to accomplish in order to finish the story adventure. During the adventure, the user can interact with the different character and objects in the world. Interaction with the NPCs can be in the form of engaging the user in a conversation or an activity (e.g., play). For the objects, the story would provide a narrative text describing the object that has been selected. For the NPCs, option would be presented to the user whether he wants to talks to the character or do something with the NPC (e.g. play). Throughout the adventure, the users input is based on the option he would choose. Since the system is emergent, every option chosen by the user would affect the outcome of the story. While the use progresses with the adventure, he is guided by Alex the virtual peer. Every option that the user chooses will be commented by Alex. For now, Alex is capable of taking on two roles, namely facilitator and critic. If the user makes a bad decision, Alex would take on the role of a critic and critic on the users choice. Together with Alex the virtual peer, the user is able to do collaborative storytelling. The system was developed using the MonoGame Game Engine and was tested on 34 students whose ages range from 6-8. The test results revel that the 2D environment provided was user-friendly for their age group but they were not able to grasp that the system was telling a story. Instead, they thought that it was more of an adventure game. It was noted that the dialogues provided by the system were understandable, but to some, they thought that the sentence were too long.