A Design-Oriented Framework for Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) in Virtual Reality (Focus on Branching Narrative and Agency)

Finding a design-oriented framework for interactive digital narrative (IDN) in virtual reality (VR) focusing on branching narrative and agency is the main goal of this research. Incorporating a practice-based research methodology, this study analyzed three virtual reality projects focusing on agency and three products from different media (print, movie, VR experience) focusing on branching narratives. The extracted framework comprises six sections: the interactor, actions, decisions, feedback and acknowledgment, VR features, and Accessibility. This design-oriented framework is applied to a narrative with a fundamental choices branch at the first scene, which makes the interactor's experience different. As explained in the design-oriented framework, all of the branches in this narrative are not determinative for the storylines, and sometimes they just play a vital role in the branching experiences.