You can go on adventures with unexpected twists and turns including going for a bush walk, stalking lions, helping archaeologists with a dig, making paint, creating rock art, doing some smelting, and getting chased by a rhino.

At every interaction, pick a path with each ending linked to two other places in the skill. It doesn’t end until you want it to. Over 100 blocks and 66 different intents.

Vasili’s post says:

“Deliver useful and educational content through your skill.”

The skill includes:

Multiple short entry phrases (each time different) that tell of the history of the region.

Teaches paint making techniques over 100,000 years old.

Let’s you play with a bloomery to make marbles or iron ore.

Join an archeology dig and confirm ancient human trade patterns.

— Wow, that’s incredible… What inspired you to create it?

After reading your blog post, “What I Learned From 5000 Reviews of Top 5 Alexa Skills,” I started experimenting with storylines.

I was merely trying to get higher per session utterances because that shows that someone is using it.

— How did you come up with the concept?

I made a colossal test skill in the old UI that got too big, and I couldn’t finish it. Challenged myself to use what I learned and created with what my adventure research returned. Research returned a Safari in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

Implementation

— How you built it, what were the first steps?

Many missteps before finding a pattern I liked.

Lot’s of diagrams on paper. Lot’s of testing in Storyline. Lot’s of dead ends.

— Was it hard to create such a long interactive story?

My African Safari Alexa Skill has over an hour of content, commitment mattered. The hardest part is keeping it simple.

Y at ever interaction = rice on the chessboard problem. I have up to 10 squares or steps. I ended up with 26 endings.

Here’s how it looks in Storyline: