Electronically supported interactive narrativity is so young and relatively unexplored, that experimental work like the Vala's Runecast hypermovie, produced under Studio research conditions (without insistent commercial pressure), is necessary to help build a bridge between traditional linear movie origination and production, and hypermovie/other interactive narrative in the digital en-vironment. This paper summarises how practice-based research identifies and formulates the functions of art, aesthetics and design in the processes of content-creation, production and delivery, as well as in the participative, creative enjoyment of digital interactive hypermovie. The example of Vala's Runecast suggests that both the production and the experience of interactors (users) con-stitute parts of a participatory design process for collab-orative dramatic narrativity; and that in content-led research the highest aesthetic standards must be observed in proof of concept prototyping for the results to be viable.
