The Jack Principles
I saw Harry Gottlieb speak recently. He’s the guy who made “You Don’t Know Jack”, which is among the more natural and fluid interactive games I’ve played. Harry’s big thing these days is what he calls an “Interactive Conversation Interface”, which strives to use conversation as a natural mode for interaction for a computer agent communicating to a person. The conversation agents he creates, like the one in YDKJ, are amazingly natural to interact with. To do this, he focuses on the subtleties of conversation, stuff like pacing and creating/maintaining the illusion of awareness. Harry calls the principles behind what makes his agents so believable “The Jack Principles”.
Most of us obviously aren’t doing much with speech these days, but it’s worth seeing how he’s integrated learning from the film and TV industry into creating engaging experiences. The sensitivities and overall approach could definitely be applied to other media and forms of interaction.
Here’s a short version of The Jack Principles. However, if you have the time, I’d recommend the longer version. Yeah, there’s a tiny form to get the PDF, but it’s worth it; Harry is quite a funny and engaging writer.