THESPIAN: An Architecture for Interactive Pedagogical Drama

Interactive drama is increasingly being used as a pedagogical tool in a wide variety of computer-based learning environments. However, the effort required to build interactive dramas is quite significant. We built Thespian, an architecture that supports faster development of IPDs, open-ended interaction, encoding of pedagogical goals and quantitative metrics for evaluating those goals. Thespian uses autonomous agents to control each character and assumes that the starting point for the design process is a set of standard scripts. A “fitting” algorithm facilitates the design process by automatically adjusting the goals of the agents so that the agents perform their roles according to the scripts. This also ensures the agents will behave true to their character’s motivations even when the interactive drama deviates from the scripts. In this paper, we discuss this basic approach in detail and illustrate its application to the Tactical Language Training System.