Orchid-Creator: An Authoring Tool Supporting LLM-Driven Interactive Narrative Creation

Large language models (LLMs) are reshaping interactive digital narratives (IDNs). However, creating complex interactive narratives while preserving narrative consistency remains challenging. We present Orchid‑Creator (Orchid), an LLM-based authoring tool that represents IDNs as story graphs with a card‑based interface for scene definition and conditional transitions. We evaluated Orchid in two studies: a usability study with eight authors, and a comparative study with 20 participants (authors, developers, and players) that compared Orchid to Twine and AI Dungeon. Authors reported that Orchid’s features met their needs (card‑based interface: 4.0/5; story graph: 4.38/5; variable setup: 4.5/5). Structuring narratives with Orchid was easier (M = 6.0/7, p <.01) and produced better‑structured stories (M = 5.3/7, p <.05) than the alternatives, balancing author control (M = 5.5/7) with outcome diversity (M = 5/7, p <.01) and maintaining comparable usability. Finally, a case study with an artist demonstrates Orchid’s utility for interactive art.