VR and AR based games, and interactive stories more broadly, are becoming more common and, with the increasing availability of VR and AR technology, are becoming easier to make. (Unity, one of the most popular gaming engines, offers free access to students and individuals for educational use.) The incorporation of games and the creation of them are also becoming more common in scholarly work and in the classroom where they promote multimodal learning patterns and offer a deeper understanding of subject matter.
VR based games involve fully computer-generated worlds. An example is Rome Reborn, which can be viewed on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Closer to home, BC English professor Joseph Nugent and his team created “Joycestick,” an adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses into an immersive, 3D virtual reality computer game developed in Unity. Users don a VR eyepiece and headphones and, with gaming devices, navigate and explore various scenes from the book.
AR based games involve applying a computer-generated layer onto the real world. Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite mobile games are two.
