Latest news with #chooseyourownadventure
The Verge
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Hidden Door is an AI storytelling game that actually makes sense
Years before ChatGPT jump-started the generative AI wave, OpenAI technology powered a game called AI Dungeon 2 that essentially let you improvise an open-ended, anything-goes story with an AI narrator. Hidden Door, a new platform that's now in early access, also lets you cowrite a choose-your-own-adventure-style story with AI. But this narrator won't let you do whatever you want — in fact, that's a lot of the appeal. Hidden Door is designed to let you play in worlds that include the public domain settings of the Wizard of Oz and Pride and Prejudice as well as The Crow, which Hidden Door has licensed. You create a character, fill in a few details about their backstory, and write in notable traits. The system gives you an opening scenario, and you respond, similar to a tabletop player with a game master. For some decisions, a behind-the-scenes dice roll will decide whether you succeed or fail; either way, the story proceeds from there. I was given access ahead of Wednesday's announcement, and for one story, I chose a variation of Pride and Prejudice called 'Courtship and Crimson,' which means there are vampires. I told Hidden Door that I was a vampire hunter that's driven by 'an uncompromising sense of duty and a thirst for vengeance,' and the game threw me into a social event where I immediately spotted what I thought was a vampire. There were some prepopulated options, but I wrote my own — to immediately attack the potential enemy with a weapon — and the game let me do so. (It turns out the 'vampire' was an illusion!) While playing, you'll collect cards with things like characters and locations that you can look back on as a refresher for key parts of your story. The narrator also has a deck of cards with plot points you can occasionally pick from to guide where you want the story to go. Where Hidden Door differs from a general-purpose chatbot is that it will create in-universe limits on what you write. With ChatGPT, for example, I asked it to create its own version of Pride and Prejudice and vampires. Then, I wrote that I had a magical, unbeatable bow with silver arrows. ChatGPT let me generate it without any hesitation and let me use it to quickly defeat every vampire on Earth and eventually the galaxy. It's not precisely 'unrealistic' (since vampires aren't real), but it short-circuited any kind of challenge or satisfying narrative. With Hidden Door, when I tried to pull a similar trick, the game stopped me and gently encouraged me to try and strike up a conversation to gather information instead. Sometimes it felt like Hidden Door was simply limiting my options, though. In a Wizard of Oz instance, I tried to make the 'daring,' 'danger addict' reporter that I was playing get in an apparently hypnotized porter's face, sending repeated instructions to throw a punch or grab them. The game gave me a 'you failed' message. It might have been pure (and unusual) bad luck on dice rolls. But even when things go well, I feel like I can sense the strings pulling the stories in a specific direction instead of letting me spend too long with random characters. It would be one thing if this resulted in a genuinely great narrative, but the storytelling can feel disjointed. So far in my testing, each story feels like a series of sometimes entertaining beats guided firmly by the AI narrator behind the scenes. In one scene in my vampire story, an orchestra conductor continued feeding me information to set up a mysterious plot thread — even as I had my character pay basically no attention to him and instead focus on stabbing and killing a vampire version Lady Catherine. In a live tabletop game, there's also the added camaraderie of bullshitting with your friends; going back and forth with an AI just isn't the same. The game has some rough edges. The narrator's thinking can take a long time, often many seconds, and while waiting for something to happen, I would often get distracted and click away from the tab. A few times in my vampire story, the game also seemingly copied and pasted an extensive description of my sibling into the text, including an errant misplaced period. Still, a focus on familiar narrative worlds could make Hidden Door a compelling way for some people to interact with an AI storyteller. Unlike rolling your own story with a chatbot from a big AI company, Hidden Door doesn't let you just break all the rules to instantly win, so you have to work within the logic of each story as you're playing (even if that logic involves vampires or the magical world of Oz). And the platform's usage of public domain and licensed works means (theoretically) that the stories you're playing through aren't violating any sort of copyright infringement. Hidden Door says, 'Most authors we work with are deeply involved in the creation process.' The best thing that I can say about Hidden Door? Even though I have my problems with that vampire hunter story, I'm intrigued about what happens next. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Jay Peters Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Report
Geek Dad
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
‘Choose Your Own Evolution:' A Book Review
Now and then, a book comes along based on a premise so simple, yet so obviously genius, you can only wonder why you've never seen it before. So it is with Choose Your Own Evolution . Written by Jules Howard and illustrated by Gordy Wright, this book takes you from being a Dickinsonia, 570 million years ago, right up to… well… right up to wherever you want to go. In this book, YOU will choose your very own evolutionary pathway. This is a multiple-pathway adventure book with a difference. We're not slaying heroes here, and you don't have to roll any dice. Instead, after choosing one of several prompts, you will turn to different pages to discover new creatures. Each step through the book will take you forward in time to a new, more evolved organism. The book, while aimed at children, does not talk down to its reader. We start as a Dickinsonia, one of the Earth's first and simplest animals, and one, I must confess, I had never heard of. The entry for the Dicksonia tells you a little about the environment it (you) lived in and its (your) traits and features. It then outlines a situation you, as the Dickinsonian, find yourself in. You'll need to adapt, but what are you going to do? You're given 3 options to escape the danger. Try sea legs, slime, or show some backbone? Each option has a different page number. You pick one, and off you go to become either a Yicaris, a Helcionellid, or a Haikouichthys. Rinse and repeat, learning about different creatures, until you get to the end of your journey. (This feels like a good time to point out that the back of the book has a comprehensive glossary and a handy pronunciation guide!) How do these evolutionary journeys end? There are essentially two ways. You either become extinct (oh no!) or you become a survivor (yay!). There are significantly more survivors than extinctions, and you can become all manner of things, from an arachnid to a woodlouse. If you pick the right 9 choices, you might even end up a human, though my wife considers Emperor Penguin the ultimate victory! (My choice would be the Peacock Butterfly.) At the front of the book, before the multi-pathway fun begins, there is a handy guide to evolution, what it is, and how the theory was developed. At the back of the book, as well as the glossary and pronunciation guide, there is, perhaps best of all, a picture of the evolutionary tree used in the book. Very handy if you want to explore the links between the animals, or want to work your way backwards from human to Dickinsonia. It's a small thing, but the inclusion of this map makes the book all the better. It's hard to convey just how much I love this book. My boys are growing older now (19, 16, and 13) but I've found all of them nosing through it when I left it out on the table. There is something irresistible about the animals explored, and the temptation to see if you can end up as a T-Rex. (Which, worryingly, despite wanting to be a penguin, is where my wife ended up.) The book is suitable for children aged 8 or 9 upwards, younger with some help. The illustrations complement the text perfectly, and the text, with its conversational style, is highly informative but never overwhelming. I've been looking at these types of books for over a decade now, reviewing them for GeekDad but also using them with my children and in their school. This one, I think, is the best of the lot. A success story of publishing evolution, perhaps? Choose Your Own Evolution fires the imagination by challenging readers to forge different evolutionary pathways. As they read about the consequences of their decisions, they learn about the creatures they've become. The information transfer is effortless. The book offers engaging access to the science of natural selection and provides a great way for readers to immerse themselves in the processes of evolutionary biology. If you would like to pick up a copy of Choose Your Own Evolution, you can do so here in the UK. I was unable to find a US retailer for the book, but hopefully a US edition will be available soon. If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here. I received a copy of this book in order to write this review. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
The Sun
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Win a copy of Can You Solve The Murder? by Antony Johnston in this week's Fabulous book competition
IF you love a murder mystery and grew up reading choose-your-own-adventure novels, then grab a copy of this brilliant book. Step into a detective's shoes when you arrive at Elysium wellness retreat to find the body of a local businessman – and a host of suspects and motives! 1 10 lucky Fabulous readers will win a copy of this new novel in this week's book competition. To win a copy, enter using the form below by 11:59pm on June 14, 2025. For full terms and conditions, click here.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why the groundbreaking ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' is disappearing from Netflix
It's the end of the road for choose-your-own-adventure programming at Netflix, and there's no rewinding to pick another path. On May 12, the streamer will remove Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (2020). Both of these interactive TV specials empowered viewers to choose different paths to essentially create their own narrative. More from GoldDerby 'A fever dream': Jamie Lloyd and Tom Francis describe their radical new take on 'Sunset Boulevard' Sam Reid, Mark Johnson, and the 'Interview With the Vampire' team sink their teeth into FYC season How the casting director for 'Adolescence' discovered Owen Cooper for the emotional lead role of Jamie: 'The search was far and wide' In November 2024, a Netflix rep told The Verge that it was removing all of its choose-your-own-adventure projects, which at that time numbered 24 unique titles. As of Friday, only Bandersnatch and Kimmy vs. the Reverend remain on the company's "interactive specials" page, but not for long. "The technology served its purpose, but is now limiting as we focus on technological efforts in other areas," Netflix spokesperson Chrissy Kelleher said last year. In 2019, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch won a pair of Emmy Awards — for Best TV Movie and Best Creative Achievement in Interactive Media Within a Scripted Program. The plot followed a young programmer, Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead), who was adapting a fantasy book into a video game in 1984, with the help of gaming expert Colin Ritman (Will Poulter). Poulter returned to Black Mirror this year as the same character in the "Plaything" episode. Bandersnatch included more than five hours of material, although the average time for a user to make it through the entire story was about 90 minutes. Because there were 150 minutes of unique footage divided into 250 segments, there were more than 1 trillion possible paths that viewers could take. It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend served as the wrap-up movie to the 2015-19 comedy series created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. The interactive telefilm included multiple paths and alternate endings, and it received two Emmy nominations, for Best TV Movie and Best Limited/Movie Supporting Actor for Tituss Burgess. Star Ellie Kemper returned as Kimmy Schmidt, a former mole woman who's now a bestselling author, as she plans her wedding to Prince Frederick (Daniel Radcliffe) and uncovers a secret bunker started by the Rev. Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm). Fey previously called it "a great way to officially complete the series." It was written by Fey, Carlock, Meredith Scardino, and Sam Means, and directed by Claire Scanlon. At the same time that Netflix is halting its efforts with this particular choose-your-own-adventure format, the streamer is ramping up its games portfolio. The TV homepage was even recently redesigned to feature games that can be played on-screen by using your cell phone as the controller. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'I've never been on a show that got this kind of recognition': Katherine LaNasa on 'The Pitt's' success and Dana's 'existential crisis' How Charlie Cox characterizes Matt Murdock through action scenes in 'Daredevil: Born Again' 'Agatha All Along' star Joe Locke on learning from Kathryn Hahn, musical theater goals, and the 'Heartstopper' movie with Kit Connor Click here to read the full article.
