Cybertexte, prose annotatrice et cadavre exquis dans le jeu narratif interactif: Le héros dont vous êtes le livre de Yakkafo
Cybertext, annotator prose and exquisite corpse in the narrative interactive game: Le héros dont vous êtes le livre by Yakkafo

Summary/Abstract: Disrupting the spindles of linear prose, Pomelo, the winner of the 2023 Francophone Interactive Fiction Competition, Le héros dont vous êtes le livre by Yakkafo, is an interactive narrative game created using the artificial intelligence tools Twine and Moiki. This work allows the reader-player to shape the outcome of the story by providing a skeletal text interspersed with dialogue prompts and hypertext annotations. A prolific author of interactive fiction, Yakkafo distinguishes himself in Le héros dont vous êtes le livre through an unprecedented narrative design, where the reader-player transforms into a reflective text – a Narcissus marveling at the reflection of their own words. With the mere touch of the text, the reader-player plunges, hesitantly yet inevitably, into the heart of the story, interacting and filling in the textual framework with their own vocabulary. From a “cybertext” perspective, Espen Aarseth’s ergodic and ludological approach aligns seamlessly with the interactivity of Yakkafo’s narrative. The article is designed to explore the ergodic and ludological meanderings in the interactive fiction of Yakkafo. While primarily focusing on Le héros dont vous êtes le livre, this article also extends its scope to a range of Francophone interactive narratives available on the digital platform “fiction-interactive.fr, L’imaginaire, le meilleur des moteurs de jeu”, enriching our research and serving as an inexhaustible argumentum. The result is a narration enlivened by hypertexts and prompts – a constellation of playful compositions crafted by multiple hands, an astonishing exquisite corpse.

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