Virtual Reality Narratives

In recent years numerous innovative and affective virtual reality (VR) works combining documentary-based or fictional storytelling with game mechanics, live theatre and other elements, have appeared at festivals or on online distribution platforms. These interdisciplinary works have much to tell us about the future of VR storytelling but have yet to receive sustained analysis. This book aims to correct that. The monograph delves into recent evolutions in VR storytelling, focusing on entertainment-based works created or launched since 2020. It features 8 chapters that delve into VR formats with various levels of interactivity, from 360-degree videos to open world VR games. Through an analysis of case studies, the chapters showcase the increasing diversity and sophistication of recent narrative-based projects. Moving past the initial hype associated with the latest wave of VR, the book aims to explore the specificity of a story delivered in this medium considering narrative structures and approaches to narration. Dooley argues that VR, as an interactive medium that places the user inside a story world in a visible or invisible virtual body, offers narratives that incorporate the user’s body as a storytelling tool. This fosters user-centred stories that unfold in three-dimensional space. Adopting phenomenological and formal analysis methodologies, the monograph examines case studies through their approaches to narrative, style, and interactive devices. Key concepts that are explored include agency, direct address, environmental and spatial storytelling, embodiment and presence. By providing a much-needed analysis of works through a variety of theoretical lenses, the book illustrates how recent VR storytelling fosters powerfully transformative experiences.