Digital improvisational theatre: Party Quirks

Abstract

This paper describes the creation of a digital improvisational theatre game, called Party Quirks, that allows a human user to improvise a scene with synthetic actors according to the rules of the real-world version of the game. The AI actor behaviors are based on our study of communication strategies between real-life actors on stage and the fuzzy concepts that they employ to define and portray characters. Development of content for the system involved the creation of a novel system for animation authoring, design for efficient data reuse, and a work flow centered on parallel data entry and rapid iteration. A subsequent user test of the current system is presented as an initial evaluation of the user-centered experience in participating in a virtual Party Quirks game. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.