My Journey into Immersive Storytelling and Emotion in VR

Day 1 – Starting the VR Scene Director

Today feels like a real beginning. I’ve finally started work on my competition project, VR Scene Director – a tool I’ve been thinking about for weeks but only just began shaping for real.

The idea grew out of a simple question: why do some VR experiences feel natural and others don't? In

a lot of virtual worlds the viewer’s position feels slightly wrong – either too far away, too close, or placed in a strange angle that breaks immersion. I kept noticing how a single camera move or lighting change could completely shift the feeling of a space. That’s when I realised: the camera is the heartbeat of presence.

So the aim of VR Scene Director is to help creators plan those emotional choices. You feed in a short scene description or story idea, and the generator suggests where the viewer might stand, what type of lighting could enhance the emotion, and which tone the scene naturally leans toward. I want the feedback to be understandable, not technical – phrases like “slightly above eye level for tension” instead of “forward 120° arc.”

Today’s work was mostly foundation – getting the Chrome extension running, checking that inputs and outputs display correctly, and refining the look so it feels clean and clear. I’m also thinking ahead to how I’ll demo it: probably with a small Unity scene, maybe the “Jack-in-the-Box” test I sketched earlier, to show how suspense builds through camera distance and motion.

There’s still a long way to go, but this first build already makes the idea feel tangible. My goal is simple: a tool that helps VR creators not just build environments, but understand how each viewpoint shapes emotion.

“Immersion starts with where you stand.”

Early test of the VR Scene Director interface – the first working version.