Interactive digital narratives (IDNs) create alternate realities using both fictional and non-fiction material. The interactive aspect of IDN turns audiences into participants and enables the exploration of alternative perspectives and actions within a single artifact. Such multifaceted representations make IDN a vehicle for representing complex issues, a crucial capability at a time when the limits of traditional narrative media to adequately represent complex issues such as climate change become apparent. Conversely, properly evaluated, generalized knowledge about how exactly IDNs engage and influence us and what this means for the design of such works is still scant and thus this topic needs scholarly attention. In this overview paper, we discuss the potential of IDN, but also the difficulties of realizing this potential in terms of design and of verifying the effectiveness through empirical research methods. The potential of IDN as dynamic, participatory, and encyclopedic artifacts can be clearly expressed, yet the same cannot be said when it comes to the design and especially the evaluation of intended prosocial effects, the topic this paper is focused on. We start by identifying the problem of IDN design resulting from a combination of the lack of generalized knowledge and formal professional training. Then, we discuss the challenge of measuring the effectiveness of IDN design for prosocial effects and report on several case studies. In this context, we discuss methodological issues and advocate for best practices. Finally, we consider future steps in addressing the continuing challenge of evaluating IDNs.

This paper presents a pedagogical activity with 120 students from two higher education institutions, one in the Global South and the other in the Global North. The objective was to incorporate decolonial thinking into analysing IDN artifacts through cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration. To achieve this, students were randomly divided into 20 groups comprising individuals from both countries and were assigned to work together across different time zones and geography. Students were prepared with an introduction to decolonial thinking and interactive digital narratives (IDNs). For the cross-cultural analysis, students used a methodology that merges the SPP model, the transformation aspect of IDN user experience, and the decoding position to reflect on how the artifacts perpetuate coloniality. Our results indicate that cross-cultural dialogue enabled students to counter colonial norms of universalism and Eurocentrism in IDNs through collaboration and interaction across the globe.

Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) literacy and authoring skills are being gained too late along a typical student’s educational journey and only by a niche subset of learners while such skills are crucial to consume modern day media communications reporting on complex phenomena from multiple perspectives. This paper acknowledges the impact of technology on teaching and learning methods as well as the current status of digital media in education and uses them to explain how IDN can be used to teach K-12 subjects with the aim of helping students attain IDN literacy skills. It also suggests ways to expand IDN literacy by adding authoring skills. The paper connects these overarching goals with current initiatives in establishing IDN literacy and authoring skills in the K-12 curriculum and presents short-, medium- and long-term objectives towards the above two aims.

Narrative has been central to psychoanalysis from its inception. What has been explored less is the relationship between psychotherapy and interactive narrative. In particular, narrative therapy is a wellestablished practice in psychotherapy which shares central concerns with interactive narrative research and practice. In this paper, we explore the foundational role of narrative in psychotherapy and consider its interactive aspect. Then, we identify the overlap between interactive narratives and narrative therapy, and identify interactive narrative works which use this potential for therapeutic purposes. We also describe a concrete implementation, the board game Mind Stories, and introduce the concept of interactive narrative therapy.

This remarkably clearly written and timely critical evaluation of core issues in the study and application of interactive digital narrative (IDN) untangles the range of theories and arguments that have developed around IDN over the past three decades.

Looking back over the past 30 years of theorizing around interactivity, storytelling, and the digital across the fields of game design/game studies, media studies, and narratology, as well as interactive documentary and other emerging forms, this text offers important and insightful correctives to common misunderstandings that pervade the field. This book also changes the perspective on IDN by introducing a comprehensive conceptual framework influenced by cybernetics and cognitive narratology, addressing limitations of perspectives originally developed for legacy media forms. Applying its framework, the book analyzes successful works and lays out concrete design advice, providing instructors, students, and practitioners with a more precise and specific understanding of IDN.

This will be essential reading for courses in interactive narrative, interactive storytelling, and game writing, as well as digital media more generally.

In this paper, we discuss how theories can fail us in analysis and design of interactive digital narrative (IDN) works. We demonstrate a range of theoretical failures using the milestone IDN work Façade. To this end, we demonstrate the effect of different theoretical lenses, treating Façade as an interactive drama, as a game, as a work of hypertext fiction, and as general IDN work. We identify different types of theory failures with regards to analysis, creation and audience reception: miscatogorization, blind transfer, bogus theory, semantic creep, analytical blur, out of date, lack of problematization, fallacy of universality, analysis-productive mistakes, inappropriate conventions, out of context, over-pragmatization, and setting the wrong expectations for audiences. Finally we propose a way to prevent theoretical failures and call for more work in this respective area.

Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) provides expressive opportunities that can be applied to many serious and non-fiction topics. Such applications, in particular, but also fictional IDN, have an ethicalEthics (ethical) dimension, an aspect in need of increased attention as IDN matures and is more widely deployed. In this chapter, we identify aspects of IDN ethicsEthics (ethical) with a particular concern for IDN authoring, taking into account earlier efforts in related areas, such as more generalized perspectivesPerspective on ethicsEthics (ethical) in computer sciences and considerations pertaining to video games. We use IDN for cultural heritage as a frame for discussing ethical aspects in IDN, since this application area is particularly prone to issues in this regard. Furthermore, we put a focus on VRVirtual Reality (VR), as a topic that most fully divorces audiences from the outside world during the IDN experience and thus poses particular ethicalEthics (ethical) challenges for authoring. Throughout the discussion, we identify questions that an IDN ethics framework needs to address. Then, we introduce such a framework with 12 rulesRules and briefly discuss their application. The IDN ethics framework is meant to be as a first edition, to be further developed by the community.

What happens when scholars approach novel phenomena such as Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN)? How can we be certain that theoretical frameworks, analytical approaches, and vocabulary are adequate,which means that they are able to fully describe the specific characteristics of the novel phenomena? The same goes for approaches in the practice - how can we be sure that the chosen design methods enable the use of the full expressive potential of a novel phenomena? Furthermore, we ask how we can critique and improve categories and approaches? We reflect on how theory and analytical approaches have been produced so far, identify issues with the current practice, consider alternatives and propose a number of measures to improve the situation. Amongst them are increased efforts on the meta-level in terms of theoretical development and reflective works which concern themselves with the further development of the field, iterative approaches towards theory and method, a more critical approach in education, multi-method analysis, and dynamic representations.

In this overview paper, we consider interactive digital narratives (IDN) as a means to represent and enable understanding of complex topics both at the public level (e.g. global warming, the COVID-19 pandemic, migration, or e-mobility) and at the personal level (trauma and other mental health issues, interpersonal relationships). We discuss scholarly, artistic, and non-fiction approaches to complexity, point out limitations of traditional media to represent complex issues, and describe the foundational advantages of IDN in this regard, using the SPP model as a conceptual lens. Then, we describe the problem space of IDN for complexity, and what aspects need further work in order to more fully realise the potential of IDN to represent complex topic in education and public communication. 

The digital representation of our past has long been an important tool in the interpretation of cultural heritage in museums. The recent rise in the use of Augmented Reality (AR) has seen various approaches to adding dynamic information to existent artefacts. The challenge is even greater when uncertainty further complexifies the represented history. This paper presents a critical analysis of an AR installation in the Sacra Infermeria museum in Valletta, Malta. After a description of the AR configuration of the installation, we present a thematic analysis carried out from a multidisciplinary focus group of 11 researchers in the field of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN), from three perspectives: the technological implementation of the AR experience, the historical accuracy, gamification and the influence of social media-centred design, and the representation of the complexity arising from the uncertainty of history. In the light of the results of the multidisciplinary focus group, we provide a list of recommendations and heuristics at the end of the article. 

This paper discusses the application of decolonial thinking to Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) with the goal of creating a decolonial framework. We provide motivation for this endeavor, and report on a workshop we conducted called Time for Repositioning, aiming to start a decolonizing process in the EU COST Action INDCOR (Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations). Then, we analyze several exemplar IDN works which embody decolonial thinking. Finally, we offer some concrete steps for scholars to decolonialize their work which also provide the foundation of our ongoing work towards a more developed decolonial framework.

In recent years, games with a focus on narrative have been a growing area. However, so far, interactive narrative aspects have not been the focus of video game education (with the noted exception of a small number of programs in game writing), which indicates that many narrative designers are self-trained. The insular status means that many designers use private vocabulary and conceptualizations that are not directly transferable. This state of affairs is an obstacle to productive discourse and has negative consequences for the further development of the professional field.By starting an educational program, we aim to address this problem using the opportunity to also include perspectives outside of games. We report on the first iteration of a minor in interactive narrative design, and reflect on lessons learned, while considering future trajectories for this and similar programs.

In this overview paper, we consider interactive digital narratives (IDN) as a means to represent and enable understanding of complex topics both at the public level (e.g. global warming, the COVID-19 pandemic, migration, or e-mobility) and at the personal level (trauma and other mental health issues, interpersonal relationships). We discuss scholarly approaches to complexity, limitations of traditional media to represent complex issues, and describe the potential of IDN in this regard and what aspects need further work in research and beyond, which serve as the starting point for the EU COST action INDCOR.

This article discusses the state of AR, which is nearing its ubiquity moment, and is a breakthrough technology whose availability is taken for granted. On this backdrop, the author considers the problem of representing complex situations with AR and proposes the addition of interactive digital narratives as a solution, explaining the specific advantages of such an approach. In order to show the application of this approach, the article uses the example of a complex historical situation-that of the Free City of Danzig in the first half of the 20th century. The article applies this example in a multi-step design process during the pre-production phase in order to select a fitting type of AR Interactive Digital Narrative for a given project.

As IDNs are used to represent complex phenomena, we are bound to assess the ethical dimension of these representations in order to help IDN mature as a practice and a discipline. In this paper, we consider ethical aspects arising from applications of IDN in VR for Cultural Heritage experiences. Using a discussion of ethical aspects of cultural heritage and virtual reality as a foundation, and considering a range of IDN VR cultural heritage experiences, we derive a set of ethical questions for IDN design in general and for cultural heritage specifically as the basis for the development of standard ethics guidelines and help start a conversation on the topic in the community.

In this paper, we react to developments that frame research in interactive digital narrative (IDN) as a field of study and potential future academic discipline. We take stock of the current situation, identify issues with perception and point out achievements. On that basis we identify five critical challenges, areas in need of attention in order to move the research field forward. In particular we discuss the dependency on legacy analytical frameworks (Groundhog Day), the lack of a shared vocabulary (Babylonian Confusion), the missing institutional memory of the field (Amnesia), the absence of established benchmarks (No Yardstick) and the overproduction of uncoordinated and quickly abandoned tools (Sisyphus). For each challenge area, we propose ways to address these challenges and enable increased collaboration in the field. Our paper has the aim to both provide orientation for newcomers to the field of IDN and to offer a basis for a discussion of future shared work.

In this vision paper, we posit ‘game system building’ as a paradigm for game design. Inspired by earlier perspectives on cybernetic art and generative art we consider the creation of dynamic game systems as an artistic practice where the consideration of complex and often unpredictable behavior and effects are as foundational as the individual elements (rules, graphics, characters, UI etc.). The perspective of ‘game system building’ has important implications for the education of designers and games scholars. In this paper, we introduce the paradigm and its lineage and propose an educational approach that reflects ‘game system building’.