Designing Embodied Dialogue Systems: A Way of Thinking about Character Conversation in Video Games

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: This thesis argues for a new way of thinking about designing engaging dialogue systems for video games. The proposed approach – called designing “embodied dialogue” systems – stands in contrast to and goes beyond designing traditional “descriptive” dialogue systems to create an intrinsically engaging moment-to-moment dialogue experience. On this basis, this work proposes three design principles for creating embodied dialogue systems, namely, such systems should be (1) expressive, (2) autonomy-inspiring, and (3) true to the underlying game genre. These principles are put into motion in a proof of concept game prototype called Embodied Dialogue; the ways in which the design approach shaped the game design are discussed in detail. This tangible instantiation of the proposed approach was qualitatively evaluated by play-testers as a way of assessing its initial effectiveness. Furthermore, the game itself serves as a critical exploration of embodied dialogue elements including strongly-timed audiovisual sonification of dialogue, audiovisual inner speech, and an expressive personality system. Overall, this thesis argues that designing embodied dialogue systems (and the various game elements that can be derived from using this approach) is a compelling way of thinking for creating more engaging video game dialogue systems.

Type of resource	text
Date created	June 2020

Author	Weyns, Stephen
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Symbolic Systems Program
Primary advisor	Wang, Ge
Advisor	Bennett, Chris

Subject	RPG
Subject	Game Design
Subject	Sonification
Subject	Embodied Dialogue
Subject	Dialogue System
Subject	Symbolic Systems Program
Subject	School of Humanities and Sciences
Subject	Symbolic Systems
Subject	SYMSYS
Genre	Thesis

Related item	Title Thesis Project Page
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/xt576qs7722

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Weyns, Stephen and Wang, Ge and Bennett, Chris. (2020). Designing Embodied Dialogue Systems: A Way of Thinking about Character Conversation in Video Games. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/xt576qs7722

Undergraduate Honors Theses, Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford University

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