Controlling multiple digital characters in an interactive audio experience

A system for presenting an interactive audio experience to a user by controlling engagement of multiple digital characters with the user during a simulated group conversation that mimics a real-life group interaction, comprising:

• a. a scripting editor for developing dialog for each digital character to speak in a simulated scene of a storytelling script, the storytelling script including one or more blocks of script, wherein each block of script specifies which digital character is speaking;
• b. a controller to instruct an underlying smart speaker platform's Natural Language Processor on:
• how to process the storytelling script, how to interpret and process the user's statements and responses to questions, when and how a digital character's dialog from the storytelling script should be spoken, and when to open the mic for user input;
• c. a speech output converter for converting text from the storytelling script to speech;
• d. a dialog type, where each block of script is marked to indicate to the controller the dialog type from a predetermined list of dialog types;
• and
• d. a database for storing the storytelling script and answers to questions posed from the digital character to the user.