A Very Brief History of Interactive Storytelling

Before the “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” novels became popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and long before Netflix started to invite users to participate in their episodes, interactive forms of entertainment could be seen and explored through a variety of different platforms. From theater to sporting events, viewers have been invited to participate in the performance.

Everything Old Is New Again

While booing the villain in a pantomime or chanting along with the crowd at a soccer match can be seen as interactive, they in no way affect the journey or the outcome of the proposed narrative. Literary platforms have spent decades–if not longer–experimenting with multiple endings and experiences.

In 1963, Julio Cortazar’s novel Hopscotch invited readers to explore the chapters in multiple sequences. This was followed by the burst of children’s gamebooks which allowed kids the opportunity to make choices and affect the plot in a variety of different ways.

What Fate Will You Choose

Interactive storytelling was also lifted from the pages and injected into computational systems. In the mid sixties we were introduced to Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA–named after George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.

Developed in the MIT computer lab, the program was able to simulate human conversation and engage with users. ELIZA was able to provide an illusion of understanding and was one of the first chatbots to attempt Alan Turing’s Turing Test.

From gamebooks to computers, the next phase in interactive storytelling was video games. Colossal Cave Adventure–developed by Will Crowther in 1975–was a text based adventure game and one of the first to feature a complete story.

In the game, the player moves through the narrative by completing a series of simple text commands. These commands allow the user to explore a cave rumoured to be filled with treasure. It is considered one of the gaming industry’s most influential titles and directly inspired the adventure game genre.

Call My Agency

Fast forward to 2019 and Netflix introduces Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. It’s not the company’s first interactive episode, as Puss-in-Boots: Trapped in an Epic Tale was released last year, but it was their first production for an adult demographic. While Netflix refuses to release statistics on their programs, Bandersnatch received a considerable amount of media coverage and fueled discussions all over social media.

Netflix has successfully ushered in interactive storytelling on their platform, but what can be seen as an impressive accomplishment is their ability to introduce the interactive experience to those viewers who traditionally seek out passive experiences.

The future of interactive storytelling will continue to evolve. With new technologies we are able to experiment and push the limits of narratives and how people experience them. Books, video games, and interactive television are only the beginning and we can only imagine what the future will hold.

Editor’s note:
In the meantime, if you are interested in getting started with interactive storytelling, check out one of the classic manuals written by one of the original leaders in the digital paradigm – Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling (2nd Edition). It has recently been updated to a 2nd edition which is an exciting and important development to the original text.*

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