The present disclosure includes systems and techniques relating to simulating dialog in electronic games. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: receiving a player interruption signal during presentation of a speech by a machine-controlled character in an electronic game, modifying a state of the machine-controlled character based on a time of the received player interruption relative to a length of the speech, and generating an action of the machine-controlled character based on the modified state. Modifying the state of the machine-controlled character can include adjusting an attitude variable of the machine-controlled character based on the time of the received player interruption, selecting a location in a dialog tree for the machine-controlled character based on the time of the received player interruption, or both.