Dispatches from GDC 2017: VR creators use film techniques to make immersive games

The co-founders of Steel Wool Studios detail how they used storytelling elements from film to make their virtual reality content more immersive.

People cry at movies — heck, I had myself a good cry the other night with a feature on Hulu. But it's not actually the film that elicits the emotional reaction, it's the story. From the beginning to the end, the point of a worthy narrative is to get us emotionally invested in the outcome of the characters we're watching or reading about. Their actions inspire us, shake us to our core, and sometimes cause us so much grief we need a minute to let it out before moving on to the next thing. That emotional investment is why we sometimes bond to merely mediocre films, or it might inspired us to line up at midnight for the next book in a longstanding series. We're aching for more of the story and that's what Andrew Dayton and Jason Topolski, co-founders of Steel Wool Studios, insist we need more of from virtual reality.

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