Once upon a time, all storytelling was interac- tive. The audience and the teller engaged in a conversation. "Tell us about when Odysseus beat the Cyclops," someone might shout from the back of the room, and the bard would subtly shape the tale to accommodate listeners' murmurs of outrage or approval.
Today such interactions take place in a digital realm where users select their own narrative paths by grabbing data from a CD-ROM or online server. It's storytelling the way it used to be - before print drove it all linear.
Until recently, however, interactive fiction writers and designers have been stuck in the Dark Ages. For years, they've been seeking a flexible tool that can simplify the complex task of creating nonlinear narratives. They've wanted to flowchart stories to be different every time, using parallel, webbed, or branching story lines. They've needed a convenient way to hide and show branching subsections, and to insert text directly into each scene. With StoryVision, the tool is finally here.
StoryVision is a flowcharting program that sits on top of any word processor, making it easy to script each story node as you go along. StoryVision can create narrative flowcharts that loop back on themselves, allowing characters to revisit scenes. It has a browse tool that lets you trace a winding path through complex plot lines to ensure they make sense. You can print flowcharts to follow the narrative, reading it aloud. And you can enter specific instructions to the programmers, such as "This branch is not likely, but possible," on the lines that connect flowcharted scenes.
StoryVision is a neat piece of work - simple, elegant, and direct. Its creators in Santa Monica, California, didn't reinvent the wheel, but they did make it nice and round.
StoryVision for Mac and PC: US$199. StoryVision: +1 (310) 392 5090, fax +1 (310) 392 7550, e-mail StoryVisn@aol.com.
STREET CRED
My Creation! It's ... Alive!Post-Pop Life
(En)Visioning Interactive Stories
