Alexa … take me to a galaxy far, far away.
Fans of interactive adventure games could soon have more venues to explore, with the Amazon Echo’s virtual voice assistant Alexa playing the role of the guide.
A post on Amazon Developer Blog said developers can design interactive games for the Amazon Echo with a front-end tool that builds an option-based story over a number of steps. Players interact with the game through the choices offered by Alexa, most of which involve choosing the right door to enter or taking a certain action.
Of course, this style of game play will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played Dungeons and Dragons. The difference is that you don’t need other people to play … which can be a bonus.
The tool has built-in source code that makes interactive game development quick and easy to implement, with the intention to provide what Amazon refers to as a “companion experience.” Players ask Alexa to launch the game in the usual way by using the wake word and are then presented with options to proceed through the game.
Developers will need to have an Amazon Web Services account to start a project. The tool is run on Node.js and can be accessed with a standard browser. The code required for game play is relatively simple and follows a number of pre-set steps detailed in a sample project provided by Amazon.
Game Play Based On Audio Decision-Making
One of the problems that Alexa can encounter is that she does not fully understand the question asked.
An interactive game is not the same as asking for the latest weather update or ordering an Uber, which means that developers need to make sure that instructions and “sample utterances” are clear and concise. With that in mind, Amazon has published a handy guide with a wealth of information for developers to follow that can be accessed here.
Opening the tool brings up the pre-loaded sample project. Developers use a series of nodes to navigate players through the game. Once a script for the game is written—using the decision-tree template—the experience is translated into code that is hosted on AWS.
The tool was written in Node.js by an Amazon engineer and is available as a Github project here. Developers who want to get started quickly can use the “Trivia” or “Decision Tree” skill templates that are already available in the Alexa Skills Kit, said Amazon.
See also: Why Alexa Will Be The Voice That Rules The Home
“These templates makes it easy for developers or non-developers to create a skill similar to “European Vacation Recommender” or “Astronomy Trivia,” said Alexa senior product manager Robert Jamison. “The templates leverage AWS Lambda and the Alexa Skills Kit while providing the business logic, use cases, error handling and help functions for your skill. You just need to come up with a decision tree-based idea or trivia game, plug in your questions and edit the sample provided (we walk you through how it’s done).”
Why Alexa Is Perfect For InteractiveGames
The new “skill” (skills are the equivalent of apps for the Echo) was inspired by a game called “The Wayne Investigation.”
The app was originally developed by the Alexa team with Warner Bros. as part of the promotion for the recent “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” movie. Launched on March 1, the audio-only game was a mild success. The premise is for players to investigate the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents in Gotham City. The script replicated a standard gaming map with directions and actions in every room and lasted between five and 10 minutes with players making up to 37 decisions.
According to a blog post, the game was the first to combine Alexa’s voice-recognition skills with studio-produced assets—music and sound effects, for example. The Wayne Investigation had an engagement rate that was seven times more than all the other Alexa skills combined and remains in the top 5% of all skills nearly six months after release.
Around 20% of all top skills on the Amazon Echo are games, Amazon said.
The vast majority of these games are trivia-based, but Amazon wants developers to build more engaging or complex game experiences through the Alexa Skills Kit. Developers who want to create an interactive app can find details here, with the added bonus that all games published will receive an Alexa developer t-shirt.
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