Toward the Design of Interactive Storytelling Games That Teach Computational Thinking
Eric Shadrach Miller • Arts and Technology, School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology
The Thesis
Interactive storytelling games are an emerging genre that requires greater research, especially when they are made to teach subjects like computational thinking. The most promising avenue for development using neural networks will require an understanding of designing procedures at a level that few writers or game designers could train for.
The most likely software architecture for new interactive storytelling games are neural networks and these are not explainable in the same manner that traditional sequential logic-based programs. This leads to challenges in design for educational games and makes informal learning the first likely area for creating them.
This dissertation proposes that to deal with these challenges, game design research needs to incorporate new methodologies that utilize science fiction for speculative design.
What the Research Revealed
Core findings that predicted the AI revolution in interactive storytelling.
Pattern-Based Over Sequential
Neural networks enable 'pattern-based' architectures that can handle the complexity of human interaction, unlike fragile decision trees.
Speculative Design Methodology
Using science fiction as a design tool to envision and prototype systems before the technology fully exists.
Computational Thinking Through Play
Interactive storytelling games can teach computational thinking by forcing players to model the internal state of AI agents.
Long-Term Player Identity
These games may span decades and significantly influence player identity formation, requiring careful ethical design.
Chapter Overview
A journey from literature review to speculative design methodology.
Literature Survey
Interactive storytelling, game studies, play studies, computational thinking, and science fiction criticism.
Operational Definition
Defining interactive storytelling games and arguing that these experiences are indeed games.
Teaching Computational Thinking
How emerging interactive storytelling games are uniquely positioned to teach computational thinking.
Core Features & Affordances
Exploring the features of interactive storytelling games that enable teaching computational thinking.
Sequential vs Pattern-Based
Analyzing examples and testing sequential logic vs neural network architectures.
Science Fiction Methodologies
Making the case for formally including science fiction in game design research.
Research Keywords
The Dissertation Predicted Axon
In 2021, I argued that neural networks would revolutionize interactive storytelling. By 2025, I was building exactly that at Axon — pattern-based human simulators for law enforcement training.
How to Cite
Miller, Eric Shadrach. (2021). Toward the Design of Interactive Storytelling Games That Teach Computational Thinking [Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Dallas]. UTD Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
https://hdl.handle.net/10735.1/9332