Cotillion
Emily Short and Richard Evans– Little Text People
Cotillion Project• Interactive comedy of
manners• Set in the world of
Austen
Gameplay• Model social practices• Allow players to experiment with appropriate
and inappropriate behavior• Sims-like freedom within a narrative structure
Interaction Features• Real-time• Multiplayer• PC / NPC Agnostic
Conversation Model• Challenges:– Anyone can speak at any time– Any character can be an NPC– Character knowledge and attitude can change– Content generation needs to be manageable
Information Structure• Beliefs and Questions• Emotional Responses• Membership Categorization• Turn-taking
Beliefs• Propositions about the world• Discovered through conversation or world
model
• Default way of saying a particular belief• Character-specific overrides• Can include standard responses for if the
listener accepts or rejects the statement
Questions• Template for information the character wants
to have• Can only be asked if another character present
has a belief that fits the template
• Generated by conversation and contact with the world model
• Aid to conversation continuity and transitions between topics
Emotional Responses• Beliefs are also tagged with emotional effects– Expressing a negative belief about someone could lead
to them feeling insulted– Mentioning that you’re very rich could lead to
someone…• envying you• thinking you’re bragging• deciding you’d be a good marriage prospect
Emotional Reaction Library• Large library of possible reactions• Layers of specificity– “being a host reacting to someone insulting the wine
you served”– “responding to someone insulting your friend in your
presence”– “responding to someone being unpleasant”
Fine-Grained CharacterizationMiss Bates• Talks constantly• Likes to talk about her niece
Mr Collins• Likes to give advice• Name-dropper, always
mentioning rich patroness
Fine-Grained CharacterizationMiss Bates• Talks constantly
– Positively score spoken beliefs
• Likes to talk about her niece– Positively score beliefs on the
topic of her niece
Mr Collins• Likes to give advice
– Positively score beliefs that are tagged as “correcting”
• Name-dropper– Positively score actions that
result in characters having questions about his patroness
Interface of Information & Emotion• Informational content tied to narrative context• Emotional content tied to relationship
between characters• Emotional content generates dramatic payoffs
Smalltalk
Smalltalk
Smalltalk
Other types of scene…
Other types of scene…
Other types of scene…
Other types of scene…
Other types of scene…
Harvey Sacks on Conversation• Membership Categorization Devices• Turn-Taking• Tying structure• Pre-sequences• Preferred sequences
Membership Categorization Devices• A character is playing many roles at once
Many roles at once: Mr Darcy
• A member of the gentry• A friend of Bingley• A brother to Georgiana• A participant at the ball
Membership Categorization Devices• A character is playing many roles at once• For each role, we can ask: is he good at
performing that role?
Is he good at performing these roles?
• A member of the gentry: noble• A friend of Bingley: loyal• A brother to Georgiana: kind• A participant at the ball: aloof
Choosing How to Evaluate• Miss Bates’ sycophantic remark…– Polite– Low-breeding– (Ignore)
• Individual personality determines autonomous choice
Multiple Roles• Breeding• Constitution• Propriety• Accomplishments• Spouse• Intelligence• Politeness• Attraction• Sensibility• …
Compare with Other Games
Role Evaluation• Agents can remember justifications for their
role evaluations• Agents can communicate role evaluations to
others• Role evaluations can affect subsequent
autonomous behavior
Communicating Role Evaluations
Turn-Taking• If the last utterance has selected a next-
speaker, that speaker should speak next• Otherwise, the floor is open
Planning with Conditional Effects
Planning• In most planning systems, the agent’s
estimation of the consequences of the action is much simpler than the actual consequences of the action
44
Going to the Toilet• Execution: – route into bathroom– if nobody else around
• play animation• satisfy Bladder motive
• Planning: – satisfy Bladder motive
45
Going to the Toilet
Problems• It is error-prone• It misses conditional-effects
47
Planning with Conditional Effects• Our planner uses the actual future world state
– not an approximation• We return to the previous world-state by
UNDOing the postconditions• We can do this because we are working in a
custom DSL which supports UNDO
48
Conditional-Effects Planning
Planning with Conditional Effects
Planning with Conditional Effects
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