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New Commercial Interactive Drama Project Underway at Procedural Arts...

The Party is a new commercial interactive drama project in development by artificial intelligence researchers and developers Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas of Procedural Arts. The project was announced today in a new feature-length article in The Atlantic Monthly (November 2006) that profiles Stern, Mateas and their work.



This is the first profile of videogame developers in the history of the prestigious Atlantic. The article, Sex, Lies, and Video Games, was written by Atlantic correspondent and Brookings Institution guest scholar Jonathan Rauch. Of Stern and Mateas's critically-acclaimed interactive drama prototype Façade, Rauch writes:



What if a computer program combined the action and graphics of a video game with the emotional power of great art The result could revolutionize interactive entertainment 's8212; and even change the meaning of 'splay's It is what Stern and Mateas resolved they would bring to video games.



The article goes on describe the concept for The Party:



The Party will be a darkly comic social melodrama, along the lines of Desperate Housewives. In the prototype scripts, you find yourself cohosting a dinner party with your wife (or husband, if you play as a woman), who begs you to keep the conversation and liquor flowing smoothly. As guests arrive, the party fills with characters who have various designs on you and on each other. Your ex-girlfriend may try to break up your marriage; her angry husband may deck you; your neighbor may be snooping and your boss fishing for excuses to fire you.



You can try to keep everyone happy, or you can hurl insults, or seduce your best friend's8217;s wife, or announce that you's8217;re gay, or refuse to admit guests At every stage, however, the other characters 's8212; and behind them the drama manager 's8212; are conniving to draw you in. Madcap complications ensue The designers invert the conventions of Video-Game Land, where shooting people is easy but talking to them is hard: in The Party, violence will be rare and dramatically meaningful, ricocheting through the game, as in life, with unforeseen consequences. Sex, likewise, will be dramatic rather than pornographic. It may disrupt a marriage or get someone killed. The sex will not be X-rated, but it will be realistic.



Procedural Arts is actively seeking partners and investors for The Party, using an independent project-based funding model. The Party is targeted towards mainstream, teenage and adult personal computer users, including women and casual gamers. For more information on the project, write to info -at- proceduralarts -dot- com.



About Procedural Arts

Procedural Arts LLC is focused on creating highly interactive, emotional, personality-rich characters and stories. Their authoring system, the Procedural Arts Behavior Library, available for licensing for entertainment, training, and marketing applications, includes technologies for lifelike character behavior, robust natural language understanding, conversation management, and drama management. Co-founders Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern combine the best of academic Artificial Intelligence research applied to characters and stories with a decade of industry experience creating award-winning interactive entertainment products selling millions worldwide. To learn more about Procedural Arts, and to freely download the interactive drama Façade (available for Windows and Macintosh), visit www.proceduralarts.com.



Contact:

info -at- proceduralarts -dot- com

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