Charisma.ai
How does it work?
1In the story editor, bring your characters to life by giving them personalities, emotions, and memories
2Using the simple drag and drop method of connecting nodes, map out your story and the possible user responses
3Audiences then talk to the characters, either through voice or text creating a personalised story experience
What is Charisma.ai?
Charisma.ai is an interactive storytelling platform that powers a different way of constructing stories, with free text entry for users to ask the questions they want, and interfaces for writers to set up characters for the audience to talk to, and ways of affecting how they respond.
Stories can be told purely through text, but also using voice control, animations, and video.
Top tips to get you ready
Take the time creating your characters – they are the centre of your story!
Test your story as much as possible as you go – it will help you find sections that don’t work, and times where players ask questions you didn't expect
Include APIs to enhance your story with real-time information – for example, local weather
Don’t forget to check on the story analytics – all conversations are tracked, so you can write more of the storylines that players are enjoying, and fine-tune the ones they aren't
Have a go at the ‘Tour of Charisma.ai’ project – it’s a great way to get to grips with the tool’s functionalities and is really handy if you need a refresh as you go
What did we learn using Charisma.ai?
We want to continue exploring the possibilities and challenges of interactive storytelling and putting the control of the story in the hands of the audience. With Charisma.ai specifically, we want to see if it’s functionalities appeal to the audience more – do people engage in the same way because of the memory function? Is there an element of surprise of having things you’ve said repeated back to you?
Our trials using a number of interactive video platforms in 2014 gave us great insights into engaging our audiences through making them part of the story. Therefore, we wanted to test other interactive and immersive technology, such as Charisma.ai, that allow us to test other storytelling techniques e.g. using gaze or voice with augmented reality and creative audio tools. We're also interested in examining the possibilities of integrating Charisma.ai with a platform like Unity, and uses of 3D puppetry.
We're currently testing Charisma.ai and similar tools with both drama and factual teams.
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