Skald: An Affordance-Based User Interface For Interactive Fiction

Abstract

Interactive fiction (IF) is a long-lived text-based computer game genre. A small community of game authors are still producing independent IF games, and IF can be used for a number of serious applications, including education and AI research. This work explores the defining features of IF as a form, as well as its shortcomings in terms of user interface (UI) affordances. It then provides Skald, an alternative menu-driven UI for IF. An empirical evaluation shows that Skald offers a number of advantages over the traditional IF interface. It eliminates user input errors, is rated as easier to use, and encourages players to explore the virtual game world to a greater degree. However, the study also reveals that Skald does not significantly increase users' feelings of worldlevel user agency and that a sizable minority of players still prefer the traditional UI overall.