Abstract

Many interactive storytelling tools and plugins for game engines like "Fungus" are based on graphs. An important type of complex graphs are the statecharts extended and modernized by David Harel. Therefore, the topic investigated in this thesis is the extent to which statecharts can be used as environment for representing dynamic stories in games. At the beginning, we summarize the most important statechart feature definitions and introduce some new features that are useful for story representation. Thereupon, it is determined, which storytelling elements can be represented by which statechart features. With the help of example statecharts and a paper-prototype representing example game scenarios, it can be demonstrated that this mapping makes it possible to successfully use statecharts as environment for representing dynamic storytelling in games. Thereby, the disadvantages, like the fast-arising complexity due to many dependencies between parallel components, the lack of a uniform syntax and the ambiguous semantic, are dominated by the advantages. Example benefits would be the structured overview and the visualization of the hierarchical or parallel structure that reveals logic gaps in the story as soon as they are created. Additional advantages also lie in the factor that interactive elements and the interaction of the story with game-mechanics and with the game itself can be implemented very well by statecharts using actions, activities, or trigger events. Furthermore, the existing statechart-feature-canon can be directly used in large parts to represent storytelling elements and can also be easily extended by further features, like the extended history entrance or the feeder states compound.

Statechart of the Paper-Prototype

Thesis

Final Presentation - Slides