Hate how that last episode of your favorite show ended? Well, what if you could go back in and have it end just how YOU want? This concept might soon move out of the realm of science fiction and into your living room. Online video game developer Kuma Games, in conjunction with the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab, has developed a storytelling device that merges instantaneous personalization with computer-generated filmmaking. The end result, a TV show created to the viewer’s specifications, including actors, sets and props that are customized depending on factors such as a particular viewer’s age, sex and location.

At November’s AFI DigiFest 2007 in Los Angeles, Kuma Games unveiled PG and R-rated versions of Leaving the Game, an animated short film about a sultry former assassin named Amber who attempts to land a more mundane job to pay the bills. Unlike typical machinima (short films created with pre-existing video game engines) Leaving the Game utilizes Kuma Games’ own rendering engine, allowing the company to use special camera angles and swap out content like digital billboards, cars, cell phones and chunks of dialogue. The company’s ultimate goal is to bring this technology to a PC or console platform and into the hands of the masses. It would be dynamic television that would change every time you watch it, tailored to the tastes of the individual.