With the rapid advancement of technology, interactivity has been increasingly implemented into narratives. A story can not only deliver messages from the creator but also involve audience participation. However, there is an essential conflict between interactivity and storytelling. Audience usually tend to focus on the “game playing” in interactive storytelling works, and is easy to ignore the stories in the narrative. Therefore, only with a well-designed interaction mechanism can viewers receive complete information from the work and acquire a unique experience.

This study focuses on the relationship between interactivity and narrative to help create an interactive augmented reality (AR) device. To begin with, the paper discusses the definition and development of interactive storytelling, and explores the similarities and differences between interactive storytelling and traditional narrative. The features, narrative genres, and types of interaction are reviewed as well. Moreover, three cases of interactive narrative were analyzed to understand how they were designed and what techniques were used. The study also examines the background and different display types of AR experiences.

Despite the conflict between interactivity and narrative that remains, the “sense of agency” can make the viewer experience psychological satisfaction through participation in the narrative. Based on the observations and discussions, an AR interactive animation project was designed and developed as a proof of concept.