The age of interactive storytelling is about to begin – are you ready? Voices, the top voice over marketplace, has a new guide that explores how AI, AR, and VR are changing the narrative landscape, and how to stay ahead of the curve.
Do you remember the excitement the first time you picked up a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book as a kid?
If Voices is right, they're the #1 marketplace for narrators and vocal talent, then we're about to get that excitement back, times one thousand. They just released a new guide to AI storytelling, exploring how these new technologies in natural language generation, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR), will change everything. You can check out the full guide at https://www.voices.com/blog/ai-interactive-storytelling/#key-elements-of-interactive-stories
The use of AI in storytelling has already changed the way stories can be created, enjoyed, and interacted with, and it's only getting started.
By adding new elements that were not possible with traditional techniques, your stories can take on whole new dimensions unique to each individual, and you don't even need to manage them. The new guide from the Voices marketplace explores how these trends are evolving, and how AI can add depth and interactivity to narratives, while still keeping you in control.
If you haven't heard of Voices, it's an online resource for finding new vocal talent for storytelling, marketing, and multimedia projects. That's not what this guide is about though, it focuses on advanced techniques that combine AI, AR, and VR to tell your stories in a way that simply wasn't possible before.
Instead of a story being stagnant, always the same, no matter who reads it or how many times, every time can be something new, unique, and exciting.
Imagine that your stories can be customized for each individual viewer, based on their own feedback.
When a child is reading about the dungeon scene and it's too scary, the AI can add a fairy godmother to rescue the hero. Or when a romantic interest is about to unfold, maybe your reader will choose to avoid it, because they think a relationship with another character would be better.
The point is - whatever the reader, viewer, or experiencer wants from the story, is what they can get. It's like having a narrator, animator, and visual effects artist sitting right there, creating the story in response to their desires.
Never again will someone quit a story halfway through because it's not their style - they just give a bit of feedback, and the story improves itself. It can change in real time and provide each individual with a unique experience, not shared by anyone else.
You might be thinking, "this type of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story has been available for many years," but Voices explains that only recently have these interactive stories allowed for a nearly unlimited range of options, with multimedia included in every choice.
In the old books, which were great, you could pick between 2 or 3 options - but could you write your own and have the book create a story that fits? With AI you can.
Using the current generation of AI technology, storytellers can build multiple pathways viewers can choose, with narrations and visuals generated on the spot, as needed, or they can leave it open-ended. Whatever they choose to do though, there will be a lot more options, a lot more interactivity, and the multimedia to go with it.
These stories don't need to be limited to just words, they can include animations and CGI, or they can go for the full experience using Virtual or Augmented Reality.
When your viewers can not only see the story but interact with it and change it, they'll feel immersed and invested in a way they never have before.
The full guide from Voices has way more info than my brief introduction - so if this is an area that interests you, definitely check it out. It dives deep into lots of crucial areas I've barely skimmed here, like how to make it all work, what the ethical considerations are, and where we're trending for the future.
A blurb I stole from the full report explains, “Virtual reality, combined with advances in AI technology, is transforming interactive storytelling into an art form where vivid characters come to life and stories dynamically adjust based on interactions.“
Right now, we're just unlocking the ground floor of this new technology, and the first few creatives that build something amazing with it will be in the showroom for the entire world.
The real question at this point is, how can your story fit into an AI narrative, and which suits it better, virtual, or augmented reality?
The best place to look for answers is in the full, detailed guide from Voices. Check it out at https://www.voices.com/blog/ai-interactive-storytelling/#key-elements-of-interactive-stories
