Creative Amplification Toolkit
Overview
These toolkits are intended for aspiring writers and makers. They assume some level of technical understanding and a grasp of the fundamentals of writing in general and for interactive formats in particular, but are primarily aimed at writers with limited or no coding knowledge. The approaches outlined in these guides are by no means exhaustive or prescriptive and are instead intended as a starting point for those wanting to embark on an exploration of writing tools and technologies.
What is Creativity Amplification?
In short, using technology to extend writers’ capabilities. Creativity Amplification is always:
- Exploratory
- Experimental
- Playful
- Open-ended
It’s Creativity Amplification if it:
- Makes use of emerging technologies.
- Permits new forms of creative expression.
- Allows existing forms of creative expression to develop more easily/faster/with greater complexity etc.
- Focuses on applying existing skills and knowledge.
- Does not require extensive coding skills or specialist hardware.
Quickstart Guide
A simplified version of the experimentation processes used throughout the 4 tools in this toolkit.
Step 1.
Choose the Creativity Amplifier (CA) you are most interested in (for example: AI, text generation etc).
Step 2.
Look at some examples of existing narratives or games that use that CA in various ways.
And/Or
Look at some examples of relevant writing tools or techniques, (e.g: Charisma AI, Twine, Text Generators) Choose the one most suited to your needs, or which interests you most.
Step 3.
Review your chosen example narrative or tool. In the case of a tool, this may mean working through a tutorial or two, or creating something very simple (such as an adaptation of a fairy tale). Consider likes, dislikes, what worked well, what could be improved.
Writing for AI
The main focus of this toolkit is on conversational narrative games, although some techniques and tools could be equally applicable to other formats. Writers who do not work or intend to work within games but are nevertheless interested in AI technologies may find the the toolkit Writing with AI more useful.
Writing with AI
This toolkit is intended for writers who have never worked with AI but are curious as to how it might be applied to their work or benefit their writing. The guide assumes no previous knowledge of AI or coding.
Writing for Interactive Film & TV
This toolkit is intended for writers who have never worked in interactive film and/or TV but are curious as to how they might be able to expand their skills to prepare for working in this emerging medium. The guide assumes no previous knowledge of coding or interactive film and TV, although it does assume a basic understanding of scriptwriting. It attempts to be low code rather than no code and therefore assumes a basic understanding of the interactive fiction (IF) authoring tool Twine, and basic video editing too. Toolkit users who have never written a script before may find it useful to read a more general book on scriptwriting or some articles with key tips before beginning. Users of this toolkit may also want to familiarise themselves with Twine and a video editing programme such as VSCD or Filmora prior to commencing.
Writing with Text Generators
Intended for writers who have never worked with text generators but are curious as to how they might be applied to their work or benefit their writing. The guide assumes no previous knowledge of text generation or coding. However, it attempts to be low code rather than no code and assumes a basic understanding of common interactive fiction (IF) authoring tools such as Bitsy, Twine (Harlowe) and Ink. Users of this toolkit may want to familiarise themselves with at least one of these tools prior to commencing.
The approaches outlined in this guide are by no means exhaustive or prescriptive and are instead intended as a starting point for those wanting to embark on an exploration of some of the potential applications of text generation in relation to creative writing and/or interactive narrative.
Background
This work arises out of InGAME’s ongoing ‘Narrative and Play’ research theme. The underlying principle of this research is the concept of ‘Creativity Amplification’, which builds on Vernor Vinge’s (1993) definition of ‘Intelligence Amplification’. This is the idea that rather than solely striving to create machines which are intelligent, we may also use technology to amplify our own intelligence. In applying this idea to writers and creativity, this research strand considers not how to make technologies creative in and of themselves, but instead how to extend and enhance individuals’ creativity through the use of appropriate processes and technologies.
Background Research
The research in these toolkits also resulted in the academic papers “Euphonia: Reflecting on the Design of an AI-Powered Narrative Game” (Clark et al 2020), “Towards Creativity Amplification” (Clark 2021), “Mechanical Oracles: Writing for Talking Machines” (Clark 2021). Please see the Bibliography for full reference information.
Resources
Case Studies
A collection of case studies to give examples of how the tools can be used.