ConnectVR: A Trigger-Action Interface for Creating Agent-based Interactive VR Stories

The demand for interactive narratives is growing with increasing popularity of VR and video gaming. This presents an opportunity to create interactive storytelling experiences that allow players to engage with a narrative from a first person perspective, both, immersively in VR and in 3D on a computer. However, for artists and storytellers without programming experience, authoring such experiences is a particularly complex task as it involves coding a series of story events (character animation, movements, time control, dialogues, etc.) to be connected and triggered by a variety of player behaviors. In this work, we present ConnectVR, a trigger-action interface to enable non-technical creators design agent-based narrative experiences. Our no-code authoring method specifically focuses on the design of narratives driven by a series of cause-effect relationships triggered by the player's actions. We asked 15 participants to use ConnectVR in a preliminary workshop study as well as two artists to extensively use our system to create VR narrative projects in a three-week in-depth study. Our findings shed light on the creative opportunities facilitated by ConnectVR's trigger-action approach, particularly its capability to establish chained behavioral effects between virtual characters and objects. The results of both studies underscore the positive feedback from participants regarding our system's capacity to not only support creativity but also to simplify the creation of interactive narrative experiences. Results indicate compatibility with non-technical narrative creator's workflows, showcasing its potential to enhance the overall creative process in the realm of VR narrative design.