This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment, TIDSE 2006, held in Darmstadt, Germany in December 2006. It contains 37 papers that cover a broad spectrum, from conceptual ideas, theories, and technological questions, to best practice examples in the different storytelling application domains, with a focus on entertainment and games.

Interactive Digital Storytelling has evolved as a prospering research topic banding together formerly disjointed disciplines stemming from the arts and humanities as well as computer science. It’s tied up with the notion of storytelling as an effective means for the communication of knowledge and social values since the existence of humankind. It also builds a bridge between current academic trends investigating and formalizing computer games, and developments towards the experience-based design of human-media interaction in general. In Darmstadt, a first national workshop on Digital Storytelling was organized by ZGDV e.V. in 2000, which at that time gave an impression about the breadth of this new research field for computer graphics (DISTEL 2000). An international follow-up was planned: the 1st International Conference on Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment (TIDSE 2003). Taking place in March 2003, it showed a more focussed range of research specifically on concepts and first pro- types for automated storytelling and autonomous characters, including modelling of emotions and the user experience. At TIDSE 2004, an established and still-growing community of researchers ga- ered together to exchange results and visions. This confirms the construction of a series of European conferences on the topic – together with the International Conf- ence on Virtual Storytelling, ICVS (conducted in 2001 and 2003 in France) – which will be further cultivated.

Digital Storytelling shows you how to create immersive, interactive narratives across a multitude of platforms, devices, and media. From age-old storytelling techniques to cutting-edge development processes, this book covers creating stories for all forms of New Media, including transmedia storytelling, video games, mobile apps, and second screen experiences. The way a story is told, a message is delivered, or a narrative is navigated has changed dramatically over the last few years. Stories are told through video games, interactive books, and social media. Stories are told on all sorts of different platforms and through all sorts of different devices. They’re immersive, letting the user interact with the story and letting the user enter the story and shape it themselves. This book features case studies that cover a great spectrum of platforms and different story genres. It also shows you how to plan processes for developing interactive narratives for all forms of entertainment and non-fiction purposes: education, training, information and promotion. Digital Storytelling features interviews with some of the industry’s biggest names, showing you how they build and tell their stories.

Equally useful for seasoned professionals and those new to the field, Carolyn Handler Miller covers effective techniques for creating compelling narratives for a wide variety of digital media. Written in a clear, non-technical style, it offers insights into the process of content creation by someone with long experience in the field. Whether you're a writer, producer, director, project manager, or designer, 'Digital Storytelling' gives you all you need to develop a successful interactive project.

The book is concerned with narrative in digital media that changes according to user input—Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN). It provides a broad overview of current issues and future directions in this multi-disciplinary field that includes humanities-based and computational perspectives. It assembles the voices of leading researchers and practitioners like Janet Murray, Marie-Laure Ryan, Scott Rettberg and Martin Rieser. In three sections, it covers history, theoretical perspectives and varieties of practice including narrative game design, with a special focus on changes in the power relationship between audience and author enabled by interactivity. After discussing the historical development of diverse forms, the book presents theoretical standpoints including a semiotic perspective, a proposal for a specific theoretical framework and an inquiry into the role of artificial intelligence. Finally, it analyses varieties of current practice from digital poetry to location-based applications, artistic experiments and expanded remakes of older narrative game titles.

The 1st International Conference on Virtual Storytelling took place on September 27–28, 2001, in Avignon (France) in the prestigious Popes’ Palace. Despite the tragic events of September 11 that led to some last-minute cancellations, nearly 100 people from 14 different countries attended the 4 invited lectures given by international experts, the 13 scientific talks and the 6 scientific demonstrations. Virtual Storytelling 2003 was held on November 20–21, 2003, in Toulouse (France) in the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum “Les Abattoirs.” One hundred people from 17 different countries attended the conference composed of 3 invited lectures, 16 scientific talks and 11 posters/demonstrations. Since autumn 2003, there has been strong collaboration between the two major virtual/digital storytelling conference series in Europe: Virtual Storytelling and TIDSE (Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment). Thus the conference chairs of TIDSE and Virtual Storytelling decided to establish a 2 year turnover for both conferences and to join the respective organizers in the committees. For the third edition of Virtual Storytelling, the Organization Committee chose to extend the conference to 3 days so that more research work and applications could be be presented, to renew the Scientific and Application Board, to open the conference to new research or artistic communities, and to call for the submission of full papers and no longer only abstracts so as to make a higher-level selection.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment, TIDSE 2006, held in Darmstadt, Germany in December 2006. It contains 37 papers that cover a broad spectrum, from conceptual ideas, theories, and technological questions, to best practice examples in the different storytelling application domains, with a focus on entertainment and games.