Towards Creating a Body of Evidence-based Interactive Digital Narrative Design Knowledge: Approaches and Challenges

In the context of this paper we take design knowledge as the methods applied by the creators (for example game designers in the case of games) of interactive experiences in contrast to for example the design of authoring tools or the design of game engines and similar computational systems. Such knowledge about rule-based game design is widespread as evidenced by numerous book publications and many university-level programs of study. In contrast, there is considerable less academic or professional knowledge on the design of interactive narratives -- for example, book publications focused on this topic number in the single digits and in academic programs the topic only exists on the margins. This paper proposes the use of empirical research methods as means to address this situation and examines specific challenges. On this foundation, we introduce a research effort to gather transferable interactive narrative design knowledge and report on a first user study. Finally, we provide guidelines and discuss future research.