Blending GenAI and Crafted Narratives: Designing Impactful Interactive Stories for Games Beyond Entertainment

This session explores how merging GenAI with crafted storytelling is revolutionizing interactive narratives design across games, training simulations, and educational experiences by creating adaptive, responsive narratives that serve learning objectives while maintaining player engagement.

Moving beyond conventional approaches, designers can harness LLMs as creative partners, balancing dynamic, player-responsive scenarios with intentional, human-authored frameworks. Participants will examine the collaborative interplay between GenAI, designers, and players, uncovering how LLMs facilitate real-time storytelling, manipulate narrative, and enhance player agency without compromising story coherence.

The focal point of this session will be an in-depth examination of how an experimental GenAI Drama Manager interprets and expands upon scenarios created by Narrative Designers, Subject Matter Experts, or Educational Specialists. We will demonstrate the GenAI's capacity to adapt the narrative in response to player choices, illustrating how designers can construct narratives that remain coherent while offering boundless possibilities for exploration and reinterpretation by the GenAI.

Our "Listen, Think, Speak" framework will be demonstrated live:

1. Listen: The system monitors player actions, learning progress, and narrative variables through structured data inputs, tracking both story progression and educational milestones.
2. Think: Using carefully crafted prompts, the AI analyzes current game state, player history, and learning objectives to make informed narrative decisions that advance both story and educational goals.
3. Speak: The system delivers contextually appropriate responses that maintain narrative coherence while adapting to individual learning styles and choices.

The session includes:

• Live demonstration of the AI Drama Manager responding to unexpected player choices in a training scenario
• Technical walkthrough showing how designers set up narrative frameworks that accommodate both educational content and player freedom
• Case studies from serious games applications, including corporate training, cultural education, and social impact gaming
• Practical guidance on prompt engineering for educational contexts and managing AI unpredictability in learning environments

We'll address key challenges including maintaining educational efficacy while preserving player autonomy, ensuring content accuracy in AI-generated responses, and designing assessment mechanisms within dynamic narratives. Technical considerations cover API integration, data security for institutional clients, and content moderation strategies.

This presentation offers actionable insights for serious game developers, educators, and institutions seeking to harness AI's potential for creating more engaging, personalized learning experiences through interactive storytelling.