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.

翻译：随着VR和视频游戏的日益普及，对交互式叙事的需求不断增长。这为创造交互式叙事体验提供了契机，使玩家能够以第一人称视角沉浸式地在VR中或通过计算机3D环境参与叙事。然而，对于缺乏编程经验的艺术家和故事创作者而言，创作此类体验尤为复杂，因为这需要编写一系列故事事件（角色动画、移动、时间控制、对话等），并将其与多种玩家行为相连接并触发。本研究提出ConnectVR，一种触发器-动作界面，旨在帮助非技术背景的创作者设计基于智能体的叙事体验。我们的无代码创作方法特别关注由玩家行为触发的一系列因果关系驱动的叙事设计。我们邀请15名参与者在初步工作坊研究中使用ConnectVR，并邀请两位艺术家在为期三周的深度研究中广泛使用我们的系统创建VR叙事项目。研究发现揭示了ConnectVR触发器-动作方法所带来的创作机遇，特别是其在虚拟角色与对象之间建立链式行为效应的能力。两项研究的结果均表明参与者对该系统的积极反馈，认为其不仅能支持创意表达，还能简化交互式叙事体验的创作过程。结果显示该系统与非技术叙事创作者的工作流程具有兼容性，展现了其在VR叙事设计领域提升整体创作流程的潜力。