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Snake Story: Exploring Game Mechanics for Mixed-Initiative Co-creative Storytelling Games

Daijin Yang, Erica Kleinman, Giovanni Maria Troiano, Elina Tochilnikova, Casper Harteveld

TL;DR

Snake Story is a variation of the classic Snake game featuring a human-AI co-writing element and analysis of both think-aloud and interview data revealed that players’ strategies and experiences were affected by their perception of Snake Story as either a collaborative tool, a traditional game, or a combination of both.

Abstract

Mixed-initiative co-creative storytelling games have existed for some time as a way to merge storytelling with play. However, modern mixed-initiative co-creative storytelling games predominantly prioritize story creation over gameplay mechanics, which might not resonate with all players. As such, there is untapped potential for creating mixed-initiative games with more complex mechanics in which players can engage with both co-creation and gameplay goals. To explore the potential of more prominent gameplay in mixed-initiative co-creative storytelling games, we created Snake Story, a variation of the classic Snake game featuring a human-AI co-writing element. To explore how players interact with the mixed-initiative game, we conducted a qualitative playtest with 11 participants. Analysis of both think-aloud and interview data revealed that players' strategies and experiences were affected by their perception of Snake Story as either a collaborative tool, a traditional game, or a combination of both. Based on these findings, we present design considerations for future development in mixed-initiative co-creative gaming.

Snake Story: Exploring Game Mechanics for Mixed-Initiative Co-creative Storytelling Games

TL;DR

Snake Story is a variation of the classic Snake game featuring a human-AI co-writing element and analysis of both think-aloud and interview data revealed that players’ strategies and experiences were affected by their perception of Snake Story as either a collaborative tool, a traditional game, or a combination of both.

Abstract

Mixed-initiative co-creative storytelling games have existed for some time as a way to merge storytelling with play. However, modern mixed-initiative co-creative storytelling games predominantly prioritize story creation over gameplay mechanics, which might not resonate with all players. As such, there is untapped potential for creating mixed-initiative games with more complex mechanics in which players can engage with both co-creation and gameplay goals. To explore the potential of more prominent gameplay in mixed-initiative co-creative storytelling games, we created Snake Story, a variation of the classic Snake game featuring a human-AI co-writing element. To explore how players interact with the mixed-initiative game, we conducted a qualitative playtest with 11 participants. Analysis of both think-aloud and interview data revealed that players' strategies and experiences were affected by their perception of Snake Story as either a collaborative tool, a traditional game, or a combination of both. Based on these findings, we present design considerations for future development in mixed-initiative co-creative gaming.
Paper Structure (18 sections, 3 figures, 3 tables)

This paper contains 18 sections, 3 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Ruled-AI-Based Mixed-Initiative Co-Creative Storytelling Games
  4. Language-Model-Based Mixed-Initiative Co-Creative Storytelling Games
  5. Snake Story
  6. User Study
  7. Results
  8. Game Log Results
  9. Qualitative Results
  10. Self Evaluation of the Co-writing
  11. Play and Creation Strategies
  12. Role Perception and Player Experiences
  13. Discussion
  14. Designing for Writers
  15. Designing for Players
  16. ...and 3 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Snake Story Scenes.
  • Figure 2: Snake Story Gameplay Flow. Snake Story is round-based. At the start of each round, candies labeled with the numbers 1 and 2, and occasionally 3 under special conditions, will appear on the map. Each candy is associated with a unique text segment generated by GPT-3. The game will then momentarily pause, allowing players time to read these segments. Subsequently, players will move the snake to hit the chosen candy, thereby incorporating its corresponding text segment into their unfolding story.
  • Figure 3: Statistics on Players' Text and Candy Selections. In the candy selection bar, colors correspond to the types of candies detailed in Table \ref{['T:candy']}. The purple segment indicates the count of selected texts linked to the number 2 candies within the text selection bar. The pink segment denotes the count of selected texts associated with number 1 candies. Lastly, the gray segment shows how often players wrote their own text.