This is the top page of what will eventually be a large hyper-document specifying in detail the operation of the fourth generation technology for interactive storytelling. (The first system was the original Siboot game in 1986, the second was the Erasmatron in 1999, and the third was the Storytron system in 2010.)
The long term goal is to built a community capable of building an entire open source technology for interactive storytelling. I will write essays explaining the underlying technology and place them in this hyperdocument. Members of the community will comment on a bulletin board that I have not yet identified. We will also have regular weekly meetings to discuss each essay in turn. I will revise the design essays in response to comments. With the passage of time, this hyper-document will grow in detail. Eventually it will reach a point where it is detailed enough to provide the basis for code to be written. Thus, this hyperdocument will be layered, with the highest level goals at the top, followed by strategies, implementation issues, and increasingly detailed specifications; at the bottom will be programming specifications.
This process will take a long time; I do not anticipate a working system for a number of years. Different components of the technology will proceed at different rates, so we will probably begin coding on some components of the system before others
The seven major components of the technology are as follows:
Storytelling Engine
Development Environment
The Storyworld Activator used by players
Physical Law Versus Dramatic Law
There will also be branches concerned with general organizational and housekeeping issues (e.g., preferred programming language, division of responsibilities, Crawford’s cognitive deficiencies, etc), storytelling theory, interfacing of the seven components, and wild and crazy ideas.
The entire process will take years. I have begun working on the hyper-document, but I expect that it will be very large and will take at least a year to work out. The community will grow slowly, and people will gravitate towards the particular technology (of seven) that most interests them. Eventually we’ll have one group for each of those technologies. I hope that at least one group will be able to start coding before 2021.