An integrated and iterative research direction for interactive digital narrative

Abstract

This paper outlines a roadmap for interactive narrative research that integrates disparate parts while focusing on identifying and experimentally verifying IDN design conventions and on developing a pedagogy to further the development of a professional discipline of IDN creators. This effort connects several key areas, in which the authors have worked before and which are now brought together. These include a specific theory, an approach towards interactive narrative design and its evaluation, an expanded understanding of the manifestations constituting the field, the pedagogy of educating creators of IDN artifacts and a perspective on the cultural significance of these creative expressions as tools to represent complexity.