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Using narrative to communicate ideas is very common and storytelling is a powerful tool in digital creativity. These stories don't have to be linear and passive however: you can create stories in which the audience can interact, whether through choices or gamified elements.
By interactive, we mean making something that someone else can interact with. In other words, they don't passively take in the content, but they have to do something to interact with it. A bit like clicking the heading below to find out more.
In everyday life, many things are interactive - you do things to them to control them. A light switch, for example, is interactive.
However, we're thinking specifically about media that is interactive, especially things you might create digitally. Video games are an obvious example, from simple games you might play in a web browser or an app to complex games with almost infinite possibilities.
Games aren't the only example, however. Websites are interactive, as users can choose their own path through them. You can even create slide presentations and spreadsheets that are interactive. And almost everything you might use on a digital device tends to be interactive in some way.
Interactive stories are also very common in some areas. You might be aware of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books or films like Netflix's Bandersnatch, as narratives that have user interaction. As you consume the story, you make decisions, and there are multiple ways the plot could go. Digital technology opens up more ways of creating these kinds of stories, using different kinds of tools.
Making things interactive can help you find new ways to communicate your argument or story, or give people different routes through your material. Interactivity can:
An interactive story is a narrative or piece of fiction where the audience (reader, watcher, player) plays an active part by interacting with what is happening. Often, this means that the audience can influence choices, by choosing one of multiple options, and this can change the story.
Interactive stories can be a range of formats. Originally, these were often physical books and the choices were representing by telling the reader to turn to a specific page if they wanted to make a certain choice. With digital technologies, the options have become more varied. Interactive stories can be like webpages, where you read text and then click on links to make choices, or they can have other kinds of media like video or audio content for you to engage with before clicking on a choice.
Interactive stories and games share many similarities and interactive stories can be seen as a type of game. Many games feature complex stories that the player can influence. There's no strict divide between what is an interactive story and what is a game (though plenty of games aren't really interactive stories - like Tetris, for example). You can use game development tools like game engines to create interactive stories, especially if you want them to have game-like 2D or 3D graphics.
In terms of these guides, if you're looking to create something that has a narrative that can go down different paths thanks to user input, then this page on interactive stories will probably help you. We have also a guide on games that you might find useful if you want to have more user input than just clicking on choices:
Making an interactive story requires careful planning. Your narrative isn't a simple linear one, in which events happen in a sequence, but instead you might have multiple stories that could happen, or different routes for the audience to take through the story. This means that you will need to plan out these different stories or paths before you can create anything.
Here are some of our tips for planning and creating interactive stories:
One of the most common issues when trying to create an interactive story is having your narrative branch off too many times, and then those branches have many choices, and then before you know it, you have hundreds of different plotlines that you need to write and then create in your chosen digital tool.
To avoid this, keep your narrative simple, with only a few different paths through the story. You can give the illusion of a more complex story by having a few choices at the start, but then some paths reconverge (they come back together again) so there's only a few possible outcomes by the end. See the second story plan below for an example of this.
You might be tempted to open up a digital tool and start trying to make your interactive story once you've had an idea. However, you should try to plan out the overall story as well as the choices offered before you start making your interactive story in the a digital tool. This will allow you to keep track of your narrative and not get stuck focused on one branch only to realise it won't work with the rest of your story.
You might want to plan on paper or using a whiteboarding tool. If you're going to make an interactive story that requires more complex elements, you can even plan using an text interactive story tool like Twine, as this will help you build up the structure without having to create things like 3D assets or video immediately.
Your interactive story might be fiction, non-fiction, or a combination of the two (e.g. scenarios based on real data, but which are fictionalised). If your story is going to be non-fiction, so it is based on a real life story or data, you will need to carefully plan how that works in terms of choices. It can be easier to make your story inspired by that real life information and have some made-up elements.
Not all stories suit being interactive. In fact, many don't. However, there are also lots of kinds of stories that work well with interactivity, especially if you want the audience to relate to the material or under the pressure of choices made.
When planning and creating an interactive story, you may find that you have to change your story to suit the choices or different paths, or even decide to tell a different story, or not make it interactive. Adapting your plan can be important, as it allows you to tell your story most effectively.
As with anything you create, you cannot make an interactive story without familiarity with the format. It is useful to know the kinds of styles, mechanics, and choices that you might find in popular interactive stories, whether that is in written books, games, or other forms of interactive media.
If you find interactive stories that you like, you can also search online for interviews with or information from the creator(s), which can give an insight into the process they took to create the story. For example, there are articles online about Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the 2018 interactive film that is part of the anthology series Black Mirror, which discuss the fact that the creators used the interactive story app Twine to create the original script and plan for the film. This gives useful insight into how difficult it can be to plan a non-linear story with multiple options without using tools designed for that.
Because Twine is widely used to create interactive stories, searching on video game sites for games made using Twine can help you find examples of interactive stories to try. There's even lots of free games out there made with Twine.
You can create an interactive story very simply, for example by using slides or individual web pages, or you can use a specific tool like Twine or a game engine (you can use general game engines or specific ones for visual novels or narrative games). When planning which tool to use for an interactive story, you'll need to think about:
You may find that choosing the digital tool is a balance between your technical skills and the capabilities of the tool. You may have to compromise your idea for your interactive story if you don't have the time to use a complex tool, so try and be realistic with what you can achieve.
Twine is a tool for creating interactive, non-linear stories and text-based games that work by getting the user to choose the path they want to follow through your structure.
Twine creates an HTML file containing your story/game, making it easy to then publish your story on the internet for others to try.
It is also a good tool for planning out interactive narratives, even if you don't want to publish a text-based game version. The Netflix interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was plotted out using Twine.
Although Twine is designed for making games and interactive narratives, you might also find it useful for organising information in different ways, making more of a mind map structure rather than something linear. Try using it to make notes or organise your thoughts!
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