The Operational Model of Narrative Affordances in VR-based Interactive Narratives

This study proposes a narrative affordance operating model to explain how users’ actions in VRbased interactive narratives become part of the story experience. Building on the scholarly development of affordance theory and the meaning-making layers of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN), it establishes an analytic perspective that reflects VR’s spatiality, embodiment, and multisensory perception. Grounded in Michael Mateas’s interactive drama theory, the model conceptualizes a cyclical process—narrative cues→ multimodal perception→ narrative interpretation→ recognition of narrative affordances → action—in which narrative structure and user agency co-constitute each other. The model is applied to key scenes from the interactive VR animations Bonfire and Babayaga, showing how narrative cues, interpreted through memory recall and emotional engagement, are transformed into meaningful action possibilities and realized as interaction. The study offers a design and interpretive framework for strengthening narrative presence in VR interactive narratives, and suggests future validation through user studies and the development of a designer-oriented checklist.