Dread Pulse
A VR horror game built for research on adaptive, behaviour-driven game experiences.
Virtual-reality horror games offer unique opportunities for emotional immersion, but most still rely on static difficulty and pre-set jumpscares — overlooking dynamic player behaviour as a cue for adaptive experiences. This study explores the relationship between in-game behaviours — head rotation, controller gripping, vocal reactions — and the emotional states of players experiencing fear in VR. Dread Pulse was built on Meta Quest 3 to simulate horror scenarios while collecting detailed behavioural data.
Gameplay sessions were analysed alongside self-assessed fear levels. Logistic-regression analysis showed that a small set of behavioural features (step-back, controller gripping, head rotation) can effectively predict high-fear states (AUC = 0.81) — offering valuable insight for future behaviour-driven dynamic experience-adjustment systems in immersive games.
