FIERO: Empowering Creative Writing Through Collaborative Game Play

2026-07-13

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenges of collaborative creativity, which are often hindered by divergent perspectives and fragmented ideation, compounded by the inability of existing online tools to replicate the rich social dynamics of face-to-face interaction. To bridge this gap, we propose FIERO—a hybrid collaborative system that integrates physical cards with a web-based interface, uniquely combining generative AI–driven contextual augmentation with tangible-digital interaction. Designed to preserve user autonomy while supporting collective decision-making and narrative coherence, FIERO incorporates a multi-user online architecture with consistency-preserving algorithms. In a controlled study (N=60), FIERO significantly enhanced creative fluency, novelty, and intuitive inspiration compared to purely digital co-writing, while also yielding stories with markedly improved plot coherence.

Abstract

Creativity often flourishes in collaboration, such as when designers brainstorm a new app together, or storytellers collectively build a world with elements of each person's narrative. However, collaborative storytelling can have challenges for its participants, such as when they disagree about the plot proposed, or when different ideas become fragmented when voiced individually. While current tools for creative collaboration focus on synchronous online text sharing, they often neglect the social dynamics of in-person collaboration critical to creative synergy. To address this, we created FIERO, a multiplayer web-based card game. Physical cards provide tangible scaffolding and social interaction, while the digital interface generates contextual visuals, facilitate group decisions, ensure narrative coherence, and synthesize different idea contributions using generative AI. Compared against online collaborative writing alone, the game significantly enhanced intuitive stimulation, idea fluency, and novelty generation, and also improved the content of the stories produced, leading to greater plot coherence (N=60). The cards provided creative structure and social engagement, while the interface provided contextualized augmentation without affecting player agency. This work shows how collaborative play can be utilized to foster creative support.

Problem

• collaborative storytelling
• creative writing
• social dynamics
• idea fragmentation
• narrative coherence

Innovation

• generative AI
• collaborative storytelling
• tangible interaction
• creative support
• hybrid physical-digital interface