# All Stories Are One Story: Emotional Arc Guided Procedural Game Level Generation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02132 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.02132/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 19 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [AI Chains: Transparent and Controllable Human-AI Interaction by Chaining Large Language Model Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.01691/) (2021)
- [The emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.07772/) (2016)
- [Level Generation Through Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05817/) (2023)
- [Narrative Planning: Balancing Plot and Character](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1401.3841/) (2014)
- [Story Realization: Expanding Plot Events into Sentences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.03480/) (2019)
- [GENEVA: GENErating and Visualizing branching narratives using LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.09213/) (2023)
- [Story Designer: Towards a Mixed-Initiative Tool to Create Narrative Structures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.09294/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Narrative-to-Scene Generation: An LLM-Driven Pipeline for 2D Game Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04481/) (2025)
- [High-quality generation of dynamic game content via small language models: A proof of concept](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.23206/) (2026)
- [SENSE: State-aware Emotion Navigation Storytelling Engine](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.07666/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The emotional arc is a universal narrative structure underlying stories across cultures and media -- an idea central to structuralist narratology, often encapsulated in the phrase "all stories are one story." We present a framework for procedural game narrative generation that incorporates emotional arcs as a structural backbone for both story progression and gameplay dynamics. Leveraging established narratological theories and large-scale empirical analyses, we focus on two core emotional patterns -- Rise and Fall -- to guide the generation of branching story graphs. Each story node is automatically populated with characters, items, and gameplay-relevant attributes (e.g., health, attack), with difficulty adjusted according to the emotional trajectory. Implemented in a prototype action role-playing game (ARPG), our system demonstrates how emotional arcs can be operationalized using large language models (LLMs) and adaptive entity generation. Evaluation through player ratings, interviews, and sentiment analysis shows that emotional arc integration significantly enhances engagement, narrative coherence, and emotional impact. These results highlight the potential of emotionally structured procedural generation for advancing interactive storytelling for games.