Creation of an interface and authoring system for creating stories that allow interactors to explore scenarios with multiple variables in order to get a fuller understanding of a complex situation. The Timeline authoring systems allows developers to create stories as a series of dramatic beats that vary according to up to three sets of variables. The Timeline interface supports interactors in juxtaposing moments in the story under different conditions. The interface is an extension of a strategy for presenting a 2001 DM Master’s Thesis by Sarah Cooper.
The implementation of Cooper’s original story in the Timeline system is here.
GaTech students have developed several stories using the Timeline authoring system as part of PeNLab’s project studio:
Docufiction
Shuyu Jade Gao’s A Long Journey
Michelle Ramirez’s Northbound
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Colin Stricklin’s Now, or Forever
Sanjeev Nayak’s An Unexpected Guest
Rachel Donley’s Shifting Timelines
Luowen Qiao’s Love Through the Millennium
Comic Realism
Ines Acosta’s Just Another Manic Monday
