The Future of Interactive Storytelling

The future of storytelling in games is going to involve players in new ways through different types of interfaces and different ways to engage with the game.

New formats and technologies will enable new delivery methods; for example, gamers might stream games through their televisions.

The player experience, and particularly how it relates to narrative presentation and player involvement, will need to be built from the ground up to account for these evolutions in the medium.

Mass Effect 3’s inclusion of voice commands, supported by the Xbox 360 Kinect, provide a glimpse of future interactive storytelling.

When players converse with AI-controlled characters, they are able to actually speak with them and focus more on the conversation, without needing to rely on a traditional controller to select the next piece of dialogue.

It feels more natural and can help players become more invested in the characters and the world. The act of actually speaking to a character does more to stimulate a player’s mind.

In the future, people may look back at the traditional control methods and say to themselves “That was the old way.”

—In conversation with Casey Hudson