ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the origins of the Emergent Narrative (EN) concept and discusses its iterative evolution over the last decade. The EN concept aims to investigate the implications of an interactive user within the context of a narrative environment. The EN approach was first conceptualised at the turn of the century in the wake of booming interest in Interactive Storytelling (IS) from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) research community. The chapter explores the current ongoing developments: specifically Distributed Drama Management (DDM), Relevant Context Modelling (RCM) and Intelligent Narrative Feedback (INF) for authoring EN. Agent characters in the distributed drama management make decisions based on their contextual availability to maintain character coherence, but also in relation to a predetermined emotional trajectory initially set by an author. The chapter represents a technical quest towards developing agent characters with a level of emotional and narrative intelligence that could act, in an interactive setting, for the benefit of both the story and the player experience.
