1238: A VR Journey Back in Time to Feudal Iceland

The exhibition revolves around the most famous part of the Icelandic Sagas –The Sturlung Era (1220 – 1264); the bloodiest and most violent era in Icelandic history. Sturlunga recreated with interactive technology brings to life, in a fasci­nating vision, Iceland’s most dramatic clash of family clans and the fatal civil war that ended Iceland’s independence. There you can take part and experience one of Iceland’s most fearful battle; The battle of Örlygsstaðir first hand. That battle shaped Icelandic history and was the beginning of the end of Iceland’s independence.

I will be discussing the challenges of imagining, writing and directing a 10 minute long, story driven room scale real time rendered VR experience. How do we tell a story when the audience has full freedom of movement while allowing them to interact with the world of the story? The goal was for a person experiencing VR for the first time to feel comfortable and to be led through a narrative, without any training or tutorials of how to navigate or experience the world. To be immersed and entertained.