Exploring Game Narrative Design for Emotional Healing in VR Spaces

Zhongping Hu and Kyungran Choi

GBP Proceedings Series, 2025, vol. 13, 139-146

Abstract: Virtual Reality (VR) extends beyond a mere technological platform, emerging as a multidimensional space where narratives unfold and complex emotional experiences are elicited. This study investigates the potential of VR game narratives to facilitate emotional healing, proposing an analytical framework of "space-narrative-healing" that interlinks immersive spatial design, narrative structure, and therapeutic outcomes. Employing a qualitative methodology, the research involves the iterative design of a VR narrative prototype, supplemented by in-depth user interviews and observational analysis, to examine how VR spaces transmit narratives through immersive presence, interactivity, and symbolic engagement, and how these processes contribute to emotional regulation and meaning-making. Findings reveal that VR environments operate as dynamic "psychological stages," where spatial and symbolic elements-such as virtual landscapes, narrative-driven artifacts, and interactive mechanisms-mediate emotional experiences. Within this stage, users actively engage in role-play, symbolic tasks, and decision-making, enabling emotional catharsis, reflection, and reconstruction of personal narratives. Notably, the study highlights that the efficacy of emotional healing in VR is contingent not merely on sensory immersion, but on the synergistic integration of narrative logic, spatial affordances, and user agency. This research underscores the distinctive value of VR narrative healing, emphasizing how spatiality and narrativity co-construct affective experiences. The study contributes to multiple disciplines by offering theoretical insights for game narrative design, practical guidelines for digital art therapy interventions, and design principles for immersive media that prioritize psychological engagement and emotional well-being. Furthermore, the framework proposed here provides a foundation for future empirical research on narrative-driven VR experiences, expanding the potential of VR as a tool for emotional support and mental health innovation.

Keywords: virtual reality; game narrative; emotional healing; immersive space; user experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:axf:gbppsa:v:13:y:2025:i::p:139-146

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