Abstract. Authoring is still considered a bottleneck in successful Interactive Storytelling and Drama. The claim for intuitive authoring tools is high, especially for tools that allow storytellers and artists to define dynamic content that can be run with an AI-based story engine. We explored two concrete authoring processes in depth, using various Interactive Storytelling prototypes, and have provided feedback from the practical steps. The result is a presentation of general issues in authoring Interactive Storytelling, rather than of particular problems with a specific system that could be overcome by 'simply' designing the right interface. Priorities for future developments are also outlined.

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This paper describes a research and development project for a novel technology, making the conveyance of cultural heritage during a historic sightseeing tour a unique experience. The cornerstones of this system are mobile augmented reality, including a hybrid tracking approach, intelligent queries to pose complex questions about geographical and historical knowledge, as well as a story engine to interactively run a digital story. This system involves the user in a thrilling story while exploring the history and the attractions of the city.When walking through historic, cultural places, you sometimes feel as if the spirits of the past were distinctly present in the ruins and could tell many lively stories about a building or a place -if only you could see and communicate with them. Yet all that is really required is the proper "magic equipment" designed for a pedestrian to wear. This paper describes a research and development project for a novel technology that makes the conveyance of cultural heritage during a historic sightseeing tour a unique experience. This project is called 'GEIST' and the attractiveness of the means will surely increase -compared to traditional guided tours -the target group of persons interested in historical knowledge.In the future, the technology presented here will redeem the age-long nostalgia to meet the spirits of the past at their very field of activity in the form of moving figures, gliding in space directly in the real scenery of a ruin or landscape, visible through semi-permeable glasses. Embedded in a historically well-founded story or a learning game, players can release a restless ghost by delving into the concerns of that time and helping him bring his story to a (hopefully) fruitful conclusion. To do this, you have to go to the actual locality of the story, because only there can you meet more ghosts who will either help with further information or make the story more fascinating. The ghosts of specific locales perceive the presence of a player and can also show him the former appearance of the location.This technology is tested using an attractive model: Heidelberg with "olde town" and castle. Especially in this scenery, spirits of quite different epochs are being evoked: bellicose neighbors from Palatinate and France fighting for property and power and lovesick romanticists and poets suffering the heartaches and turmoil of the Thirty Years' War.The techniques combined in the project GEIST 1 are augmented reality (AR) developed by Fraunhofer-IGD in Darmstadt, digital storytelling as a competence of ZGDV in Darmstadt, and intelligent data query made available by EML in Heidelberg. 1 The term 'Geist' means 'ghost' in English.