Puppitor and Tracks in Snow
Abstract
Puppitor
Puppitor is a theatrically-inspired computational model of expression through physicality. The library contains a mapping connecting actions with an expression of emotional affect as well as a game interface designed to give human and AI controlled players control of a character's physicality during a scene. Its core features revolve around mapping buttons to different designer authorable actions and the creation of character specific rules governing how performing each action changes a character's currently expressed emotional state. This emotional state and set of actions can then be used to alter the character's gestures, facial expressions, color palette, background music, and other in-game elements. There are both Python and C# versions of the library available on GitHub.
Tracks in Snow visual novel
Puppitor is also the technology underlying the Tracks in Snow visual novel which emphasizes performing characters to change the interpretation of a scene over choosing specific beats in a plot. Both Puppitor and Tracks in Snow embody the philosophy of interpretive theatricality, which focuses on the ability of performance to change and reinterpret stories.
People
Publications
Expressive response curves: Testing Expressive Game Feel With A*
Junius N., Carstensdottir E.. Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment. 2023 October;26:284–294. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1609/aiide.v19i1.27524
Playing With The Strings: Designing Puppitor As An Acting Interface For Digital Games
Junius N., Mateas M., Wardrip-Fruin N., Carstensdottir E.. Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment. 2022 October;24:250–257. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1609/aiide.v18i1.21970
Communal Ritual Play: Repetition and Interpretation of Game Narratives Across Communities
Larsen B., Junius N., Carstensdottir E.. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. 2023 October;31:472–488.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_29
Constructing a Catbox: Story Volume Poetics in Umineko no Naku Koro ni
Karth I., Junius N., Kreminski M.. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. 2022 December;4:455–470.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_29
There Is No Escape: Theatricality in Hades
Junius N., Kreminski M., Mateas M.. International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. 2021 August;21:1–8.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3472538.3472561
Towards Expressive Input for Character Dialogue in Digital Games
Junius N., Mateas M., Wardrip-Fruin N.. International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. 2019 August;26:1-11.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3337722.3337726