# Elsewise: Authoring Open-ended Interactive Narrative with Possibility Space Visualization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15295 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.15295/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 16 of its 71 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Dec 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 16 of 16)

- [Art or Artifice? Large Language Models and the False Promise of Creativity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14556/) (2023)
- [Luminate: Structured Generation and Exploration of Design Space with Large Language Models for Human-AI Co-Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12953/) (2023)
- [Narrative Planning: Balancing Plot and Character](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1401.3841/) (2014)
- [Experimental Narratives: A Comparison of Human Crowdsourced Storytelling and AI Storytelling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12902/) (2023)
- [Patchview: LLM-Powered Worldbuilding with Generative Dust and Magnet Visualization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.04112/) (2024)
- [StoryVerse: Towards Co-authoring Dynamic Plot with LLM-based Character Simulation via Narrative Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.13042/) (2024)
- [Authors' Values and Attitudes Towards AI-bridged Scalable Personalization of Creative Language Arts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00439/) (2024)
- [DreamGarden: A Designer Assistant for Growing Games from a Single Prompt](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01791/) (2024)
- [Visual Story-Writing: Writing by Manipulating Visual Representations of Stories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07486/) (2024)
- [WhatELSE: Shaping Narrative Spaces at Configurable Level of Abstraction for AI-bridged Interactive Storytelling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.18641/) (2025)
- [Drama Llama: An LLM-Powered Storylets Framework for Authorable Responsiveness in Interactive Narrative](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09099/) (2025)
- [Can AI Prompt Humans? Multimodal Agents Prompt Players' Game Actions and Show Consequences to Raise Sustainability Awareness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08486/) (2024)
- [Understanding Screenwriters' Practices, Attitudes, and Future Expectations in Human-AI Co-Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.16153/) (2025)
- [ImprovMate: Multimodal AI Assistant for Improv Actor Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23180/) (2025)
- [Tension Space Analysis for Emergent Narrative](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.10808/) (2020)
- [Botender: Supporting Communities in Collaboratively Designing AI Agents through Case-Based Provocations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25492/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Interactive narrative (IN) authors craft spaces of divergent narrative possibilities for players to explore, with the player's input determining which narrative possibilities they actually experience. Generative AI can enable new forms of IN by improvisationally expanding on pre-authored content in response to open-ended player input. However, this extrapolation risks widening the gap between author-envisioned and player-experienced stories, potentially limiting the strength of plot progression and the communication of the author's narrative intent. To bridge the gap, we introduce Elsewise: an authoring tool for LLM-based INs that implements a novel Bundled Storyline concept to enhance author's perception and understanding of the narrative possibility space, allowing authors to explore similarities and differences between possible playthroughs of their IN in terms of open-ended, user-configurable narrative dimensions. A user study (n=12) shows that our approach improves author anticipation of player-experienced narrative, leading to more effective control and exploration of the narrative possibility spaces.