Representing uncertain history through Interactive Digital Narratives offers interactors the opportunity to challenge the grand narrative through engagements with the historical record. A gap in the literature exists in the evaluation of IDNs’ ability to teach interactors how to navigate historical uncertainty, while a demand for diegetic procedural knowledge learning exists. We propose an evaluation framework that helps determine the effectiveness of an IDN to deliver knowledge in the context of historical uncertainty and seek to evaluate not only the acquisition of declarative knowledge but also procedural knowledge learning needed to handle such conflicting perspectives. This evaluation framework is supported by a VR IDN implementation of a prehistoric complex, presenting alternative interpretations based on published research upon which the interactor is invited to answer questions about the historical site. Validation through cultural heritage experts supports the IDN’s ability to empower interactors to question the grand narrative and take an active role in the interpretation of the site.

Where do generative AI (GenAI) tools stand in 2025 when it comes to the design of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs)? In 2024, we introduced a first effort in benchmarking GenAI tools for IDN design [14]. This paper updates the findings for the current generation of previously evaluated tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot), and also adds several open source entries such as DeepSeek, Llama, Mistral, and Qwen. We introduce two key additions to the GenAI4IDN benchmarking framework: methods to benchmark iterative prompting and the effects of contextualized prompting. Furthermore, we introduce and apply a method for AI-assisted evaluation, facilitating rapid evaluation of large amounts of IDN design artifacts with a level of quality similar to human raters.

How can generative AI (GenAI) be integrated in educational practices? This paper describes an approach combining problem-based learning with the creation of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs) using GenAI, applied during a training school for which the concrete task was to represent Malta’s complex Neolithic history. After introducing the topic, the concept of IDN, and GenAI tools, the educational journey continued by interweaving contextual information such as site visits with iterative design steps facilitating trainees to create their own IDN projects. This approach was applied during a five-day course, resulting in four IDNs incorporating the specific perspectives of the respective teams. The paper describes the pedagogical approach as well as the different ways the trainee teams found to address the limitations and challenges of current GenAI tools.

This paper reports on a diverse corpus of 42 syllabi focused on teaching Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN) or that teach IDN applications in different fields such as education, cultural heritage, and journalism. The collected syllabi represent nearly every continent and four languages, with English as the common language. The syllabi are divided into four sections: survey, humanities, design and technology, and social sciences, according to their focus. This study investigates IDN instruction's objectives, course structure, course materials, and assignments. We use comparative analysis to discover similarities and unique strengths in teaching approaches that reflect the diverse cultural and institutional contexts influencing IDN pedagogy. This early overview offers insight into the pedagogical tactics implemented in IDN studies and serves to concretize the field's approach to training practitioners and academics.

Where do generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT or Claude stand when it comes to the design of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs)? Can they be used to create an IDN from scratch? Or complete typical tasks in narrative design? To answer these questions we first develop a benchmarking framework in collaboration with a group of experts before applying it to create and evaluate the output of GenAI tools. We describe the development of the benchmarking framework, discuss results and consider limitations. The results show that while GenAI tools can be a great asset in IDN design, they are not yet able to replace a human narrative designer. The strength of the current generation of GenAI tools lays in delivering output that can be used for ideation and training, and in some occasions also for production in the hands of an experienced designer. Finally, we consider ethical aspects and future developments.

Providing enough information to allow the VR player to self-identify is an important factor in their immersion into a virtual world. The sensory information being provided to the player’s eyes and ears through the headset must support the suspension of disbelief and telepresence into the virtual world. Given sound’s easily realized potential for diegetic ambiguity and its influence on presence as immersion, the aim of this paper is to explore the role of disembodied voice in VR interactive narratives and its effect on presence through self-identification. We start by analyzing the shift of focalization in the film Saving Private Ryan, the trans-diegetic narration in the game StarCraft II, and the address of the player in the game Call of Duty. We then contribute with close readings of two VR productions, The Last Goodbye and The Book of Distance, in terms of the use of second-person voice and interactivity as well as an analysis of the resulting levels of self-identification. A further contribution is a Twine interactive narrative that demonstrates some of the key concepts discussed in the paper. We conclude that future empirical work should explore the impact of second-person voice and interaction on the resultant self-identification and immersion.

Citizens everywhere have the right to be well-informed. Yet, with the high complexity of many contemporary issues, such as global warming and migration, our means of information need to mutually adapt. Narrative has always been at the core of information exchange - regardless of whether our ancestors sat around a fire and exchanged stories, or whether we read an article in a newspaper, or watched a TV news broadcast. Yet, the narrative formats of the newspaper article, the news broadcast, the documentary, and the textbook are severely limited when it comes to representing highly complex topics which may include several competing - and sometimes equally valid - perspectives. Such complexity contributes to a high level of uncertainty due to a multitude of factors affecting an outcome. Fortunately, with Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN), there is a novel media format which can address these challenges. IDNs can present several different perspectives in the same work, and give audiences the ability to explore them at will through decision-making. After experiencing the consequences of their decisions, the audience can replay to revisit and change these decisions in order to consider their alternatives. IDN works enable deep personalization and the inclusion of live data. These capabilities make IDN a 21st century democratic medium, empowering citizens through the understanding of complex issues. In this white paper, we discuss the challenge of representing complexity, describe the advantages offered by IDNs, and point out opportunities and strategies for deployment.

Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) literacy and authoring skills are being gained too late along a typical student’s educational journey and only by a niche subset of learners while such skills are crucial to consume modern day media communications reporting on complex phenomena from multiple perspectives. This paper acknowledges the impact of technology on teaching and learning methods as well as the current status of digital media in education and uses them to explain how IDN can be used to teach K-12 subjects with the aim of helping students attain IDN literacy skills. It also suggests ways to expand IDN literacy by adding authoring skills. The paper connects these overarching goals with current initiatives in establishing IDN literacy and authoring skills in the K-12 curriculum and presents short-, medium- and long-term objectives towards the above two aims.

While a strength of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN) is its support for multiperspectivity, this also poses a substantial challenge to its evaluation. Moreover, evaluation has to assess the system's ability to represent a complex reality as well as the user's understanding of that complex reality as a result of the experience of interacting with the system. This is needed to measure an IDN's efficiency and effectiveness in representing the chosen complex phenomenon. We here present some empirical methods employed by INDCOR members in their research including UX toolkits and scales. Particularly, we consider the impact of IDN on transformative learning and its evaluation through self-reporting and other alternatives.

Uncertain cultural heritage presents a dilemma in its narrative representation. History seeks to push a grand narrative, at the expense of less convenient narratives. Critical historiographic approaches favor the consideration of multiple narratives as they focus on the mediation of history rather than arriving at a single truth. Virtual Reality Interactive Narratives, such as The Book of Distance , exemplify how uncertainty can be represented through re-enactment. In this late breaking work, we provide a close reading of The Book of Distance through the lens of critical historiography and suggest improvements for future similar experiences.

Uncertain cultural heritage presents a dilemma in its narrative representation. History seeks to push a grand narrative, at the expense of less convenient narratives. Critical historiographic approaches favor the consideration of multiple narratives as they focus on the mediation of history rather than arriving at a single truth. Virtual Reality Interactive Narratives, such as The Book of Distance, exemplify how uncertainty can be represented through re-enactment. In this late breaking work, we provide a close reading of The Book of Distance through the lens of critical historiography and suggest improvements for future similar experiences.

One’s digital identity on the Metaverse is critical enough to warrant EU regulation. Suggesting Interactive Digital Narratives as having a role to play in the Metaverse, we focus on the identity of the Virtual Reality interactor in such virtual spaces, and the potential impact this may have on the self-identity of the interactor. Building upon the notions of identity and the interactor’s construction of their narrative identity, we revisit identification in the context of VR Interactive Narratives (VRINs) and explore authenticity and character similarity as its dimensions. We interpret the construction of a narrative identity in VR as a vehicle for identity shift between the interactor’s self-identity and identification with the character. Based on the theoretical framework, we present a conceptual model for identity shift in VRINs which we then apply to a number of case studies to exemplify its utility and provide some guidelines for VRIN authors in how to use this model.

Scriptwriting for Virtual Reality Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN) derives insights from writing for linear or cinematic Virtual Reality (VR). However, due to the lack of agency in linear VR, insights from the scholarship that might improve the writing process are limited. Therefore, this paper suggests a new research agenda to explore scriptwriting for VR IDN. The paper establishes insights and challenges writers for VR IDN may encounter while composing. These challenges include scripting the body, movement as action, environmental storytelling, and guiding the interactors’ gaze. A research agenda is proposed that categorizes these compositional insights and challenges within different levels of the System-Process-Product model.

In this overview paper, we consider interactive digital narratives (IDN) as a means to represent and enable understanding of complex topics both at the public level (e.g. global warming, the COVID-19 pandemic, migration, or e-mobility) and at the personal level (trauma and other mental health issues, interpersonal relationships). We discuss scholarly, artistic, and non-fiction approaches to complexity, point out limitations of traditional media to represent complex issues, and describe the foundational advantages of IDN in this regard, using the SPP model as a conceptual lens. Then, we describe the problem space of IDN for complexity, and what aspects need further work in order to more fully realise the potential of IDN to represent complex topic in education and public communication.

Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) provides expressive opportunities that can be applied to many serious and non-fiction topics. Such applications, in particular, but also fictional IDN, have an ethicalEthics (ethical) dimension, an aspect in need of increased attention as IDN matures and is more widely deployed. In this chapter, we identify aspects of IDN ethicsEthics (ethical) with a particular concern for IDN authoring, taking into account earlier efforts in related areas, such as more generalized perspectivesPerspective on ethicsEthics (ethical) in computer sciences and considerations pertaining to video games. We use IDN for cultural heritage as a frame for discussing ethical aspects in IDN, since this application area is particularly prone to issues in this regard. Furthermore, we put a focus on VRVirtual Reality (VR), as a topic that most fully divorces audiences from the outside world during the IDN experience and thus poses particular ethicalEthics (ethical) challenges for authoring. Throughout the discussion, we identify questions that an IDN ethics framework needs to address. Then, we introduce such a framework with 12 rulesRules and briefly discuss their application. The IDN ethics framework is meant to be as a first edition, to be further developed by the community.

The digital representation of our past has long been an important tool in the interpretation of cultural heritage in museums. The recent rise in the use of Augmented Reality (AR) has seen various approaches to adding dynamic information to existent artefacts. The challenge is even greater when uncertainty further complexifies the represented history. This paper presents a critical analysis of an AR installation in the Sacra Infermeria museum in Valletta, Malta. After a description of the AR configuration of the installation, we present a thematic analysis carried out from a multidisciplinary focus group of 11 researchers in the field of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN), from three perspectives: the technological implementation of the AR experience, the historical accuracy, gamification and the influence of social media-centred design, and the representation of the complexity arising from the uncertainty of history. In the light of the results of the multidisciplinary focus group, we provide a list of recommendations and heuristics at the end of the article.

The use of immersive virtual reality for learning is a growing opportunity that has so far suffered from limited application in the classroom, particularly with students in the 11 to 12 year bracket. Due to more concern being shown toward usability rather educational goals, mixed feelings exist about the technology’s ability to teach. Meanwhile, historical games usually have fun as the main or sole objective, which may cause problems by diminishing the value of the depicted cultural heritage and supersede the intended learning outcomes of the experience. This research aims to contribute toward this gap by working closely with teachers in developing an immersive virtual reality learning experience to teach prehistoric intangible cultural heritage to history students aged 11 to 12 years. The research question of this study is how to go about designing an immersive learning experience for secondary school teachers to teach 11 to 12 year old students about prehistoric cultural heritage on which very little documented evidence is available. To this end, the Re-Live History project was built upon a virtual reality navigation experience of a Maltese Neolithic hypogeum, adding a representation of intangible cultural heritage in the form of human behavior. A content requirement study from heritage experts’ perspective was carried out, followed by a similar study from the history teachers’ perspective. These provided which learning outcomes can be potentially addressed by the immersive learning experience, what form of intangible cultural heritage can be represented, and what success criteria were to be used for its evaluation. A prototype of the experience was then developed and reviewed by the heritage experts and subsequently developed into the experience evaluated by teachers and heads of department. Evaluation was carried out in terms of authenticity relative to the historic site, ease of navigation, impact in terms of achievable learning outcomes, and utility in the classroom. This ensured that educational objectives were given priority and should help teachers embrace and adopt the technology in the classroom. Future work should pilot the use of the IVR in the classroom and provide further empirical evidence to its ability to help such students achieve the learning outcomes expected by the syllabus.

The Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni is a 6000-year-old Neolithic burial place whose microclimate is threatened by the presence of thousands of visitors all year round. Beyond digital preservation and accessibility, this project aims to provide a highly accessible experience to the virtual tourist or academic. This short paper reports on progress in faithful illumination and acoustics together with navigation aids supported by a real motion platform towards a mixed reality immersive experience. Lightweight variations such as a 360˚ VR film and a 360˚ still-based gaze-driven navigation mobile app further make such precious cultural heritage available to the wider public and serve as a basis for future enhancements towards a more immersive virtual cultural heritage experience.