'I Packed My Bag and in It i Put...': A Taxonomy of Inventory Systems for Virtual Reality Games

Abstract

On a journey, a backpack is a perfect place to store and organize the necessary provisions and tools. Similarly, carrying and managing items is a central part of most digital games, providing significant prospects for the player experience. Even though VR games are gradually becoming more mature, most of them still avoid this essential feature. Some of the reasons for this deficit are the additional requirements and challenges that VR imposes on developers to achieve a compelling user experience. We structure the ample design space of VR inventories by analyzing popular VR games and developing a structural taxonomy. We combine our insights with feedback from game developers to identify the essential building blocks and design choices. Finally, we propose meaningful design implications and demonstrate the practical use of our work in action.