The 2011 Game of the Week Podcast 6: IMPROVISO featuring GAMBIT US Technical Director Andrew Grant and Product Owner Jeff Orkin

What is the Game of the Week? This is the Game of the Week.

Improviso is a multiplayer game which pairs players anonymously online to dramatize a story together -- a story about an encounter with an alien. Our research question is two-fold, with a short- and long-term goal. In the short term, Improviso explores how the user interface and framing of a game can lead ordinary players to engage in dramatic improv, even if they have no prior experience acting or storytelling. The longer term goal is to train an AI system with data collected from thousands of people telling stories together with the same characters, sets, and props. Once trained, this AI system will be able to play the role of one or more characters that can converse and interact with other AI- or human-controlled characters. This project builds on AI research developed for The Restaurant Game project, and will demonstrate that the system generalizes to new scenarios. Improviso is a collaboration between GAMBIT and the MIT Media Lab.

PLAY IMPROVISO ONLINE FOR FREE

Beginning January 31st, 2011...On the Monday of each week, a new video exploring the origins and processes of developing each project will be posted. GAMBIT Audio Director Abe Stein will post a blog each following day of the week, featuring concept art, design documents, and analysis of the highlighted game will be offered for your viewing pleasure!

Video Produced by Generoso Fierro, Edited by Garrett Beazley, Intro Music by Abe Stein, Background music by Sher Iqbal