Storytelling in Gamiﬁed Rhythmic Training

Matev

z Pesek

, Zala Pregelj, Klara

Znider

and Matija Marolt

Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Keywords:

Gamiﬁed Rhythmic Training, Storytelling, Virtual Reality.

Abstract:

As virtual reality becomes more accessible, new applications, including those focused on music, are becoming

more widespread. In addition, gamiﬁcation and storytelling elements have already shown positive effects on

learning. In this study, we observe the effects of storytelling on the user experience and the development of

rhythmic skills in the VR game Steady the Drums! Players use the headset’s controllers to perform rhythmic

patterns and command troops in a medieval setting. Two versions of the game — one with and one without

narration — were developed to compare participants’ performance. Improvement in rhythmic skills was mea-

sured using the Tapping-PROMS test, while user experience was assessed using questionnaires. The results

showed that skills improved overall, with the non-narrated version achieving slightly higher success rates.

However, the narrated version received better hedonic ratings, suggesting that while narrative elements may

somewhat hinder immediate skill growth, they could increase long-term motivation and encourage continued

play.

1 INTRODUCTION

Computer games, originally intended for entertain-

ment, have already been in use for educational pur-

poses for decades (Caitlin Cole and Mackenzie,

2024). By providing an engaging and unconventional

learning environment, they often provide additional

motivation and contribute to better learning outcomes.

In exploring methods to increase learner motivation

researchers often turn to educational computer games

(Laine and Lindberg, 2020). Additionally, with the

development of virtual reality (VR) technology, the

educational games and applications increasingly take

advantage of VR capabilities (Oyelere et al., 2020). In

the context of music education, VR can offer unique,

interactive learning experiences, such as virtual musi-

cal instruments, rhythm training and immersive music

theory lessons, making complex concepts more inter-

esting for music students and amateur musicians.

Another approach to enhancing the appeal of the

game and maintaining player interest, not only in ed-

ucational games, was the integration of a narrative

framework (Ryan, 2001). While much of the research

on the impact of storytelling has focused on chil-

dren, some studies suggest that adults — particularly

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9101-0471

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7641-8472

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0619-8789

younger generations — also value narrative elements

in games (Bormann and Greitemeyer, 2015). How-

ever, existing studies have primarily examined PC

games, leaving the role of storytelling in VR games

largely unexplored. As VR offers a more immer-

sive and interactive experience than traditional gam-

ing platforms, the impact of storytelling in this con-

text could be signiﬁcantly different.

Our study examines the effects of storytelling in

a VR game aimed at improving musical skills, with a

particular focus on young adult participants. It exam-

ines how the inclusion of a narrative affects the user

experience and skill outcomes. To investigate this,

we extended the VR game Steady the Drums! (Pesek

et al., 2024), which aims to develop rhythmic skills,

with narratives and studied their effects on players.

The paper is structured as follows: Chapter 2 gives

an overview of existing studies and solutions related

to music-oriented virtual reality applications and sto-

rytelling game elements. Chapter 3 presents the orig-

inal version of the game together with the imple-

mented improvements. Chapter 4 describes the ex-

perimental setup, while chapter 5 presents the results.

Finally, chapter 6 concludes with an overview of the

study and key ﬁndings.

Pesek, M., Pregelj, Z., Žniderši

c, K. and Marolt, M.

Storytelling in Gamiﬁed Rhythmic Training.

DOI: 10.5220/0013489200003932

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2025) - Volume 1, pages 641-649

ISBN: 978-989-758-746-7; ISSN: 2184-5026

641

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer simulation in which

users are immersed in a 3D environment and can in-

teract with digital objects and scenarios (Shen and

Shirmohammadi, 2008; Pozzebon, 2002). By inte-

grating visual, auditory and haptic elements, VR cre-

ates a strong sense of physical presence that increases

engagement and interactivity (Kim et al., 2017). Orig-

inally used in specialized ﬁelds, VR still plays a cru-

cial role in military training by providing realistic,

safe scenarios for soldiers (Soni and Kaur, 2023), in

healthcare by enabling tailored therapies for condi-

tions such as anxiety and phobias and supporting re-

habilitation after injuries (Freitas et al., 2021; Wang

et al., 2023). Today, VR is mainly used in the en-

tertainment industry, e.g. in games, ﬁlms and the-

ater, but it is also increasingly being used in educa-

tion as it enables simulations and interactive learn-

ing experiences that go beyond traditional methods

(Petersen et al., 2022). Medical students, for exam-

ple, can study anatomy without the need for physical

specimens (Madrigal et al., 2016) and language stu-

dents can immerse themselves in a foreign environ-

ment, which helps them to learn the language faster

and better (Kaplan-Rakowski and Wojdynski, 2018).

Studies show that VR improves learning outcomes by

helping students understand complex concepts in con-

trolled environments (Mazhar and Rifaee, 2023). The

effectiveness of VR as an educational tool has also

been explored in a comprehensive literature review

(Hamilton et al., 2020). In addition, educational video

games (EVGs) have gained popularity in schools due

to their high intrinsic motivation, meaningful learn-

ing contexts, immediate feedback and interactive ele-

ments (Padilla-Zea et al., 2014).

Several VR and traditional music-related games

and applications have proven to be important tools

for improving musical skills. VR musical instruments

and augmented reality (AR) applications have been

shown to offer signiﬁcant potential for improving mu-

sical skills that are often repetitive and demanding

(Seraﬁn et al., 2017). In addition, rhythm video

games such as Rhythm Heaven have been shown to be

effective in improving the rhythmic skills and mem-

ory of elementary school music students, suggesting

that rhythm-based games are valuable complemen-

tary tools. For example, Beat Saber, a popular VR

rhythm game, challenges players to slice blocks to

the beat of the music, which promotes ﬁtness, motor

skills and reﬂexes (Nair et al., 2023). Also in Osu!,

a rhythm game played on a computer, players must

click, turn, and move objects to the beat of the music,

with varying levels of difﬁculty encouraging skill de-

velopment. The game’s community-created polygons

determine the timing and position of clicks, offering

players a gradual improvement of their skills. Gui-

tar Hero, another rhythm game, uses a guitar-shaped

controller to simulate playing the guitar with color-

coded notes and offers multiple difﬁculty levels that

increase in speed and complexity. Many modern VR

games, such as Beat Saber, use similar techniques

to visualize rhythm. The VR app Teach Me Drums

aims to improve rhythmic understanding in percus-

sion lessons by synchronizing a 3D video of a teacher

playing an African djembe drum with the user’s drum-

ming. While such applications are innovative, their

effectiveness could be improved with more interac-

tive feedback and immersive learning features (Moth-

Poulsen et al., 2019).

While these rhythm-based games can help de-

velop musical skills, they each have their own limi-

tations. Teach Me Drums focuses on learning, but has

no gamiﬁed elements and no storyline. While Rhythm

Heaven is a gamiﬁed way to practice rhythm, it was

developed for the Nintendo DS and not VR, so it lacks

the immersive elements of virtual reality. The games

vary, with some simulating drumming, while others

simply require tapping to a certain tempo or rhythm.

Osu! and Guitar Hero are also not VR-based, and

Guitar Hero, like Beat Saber, is not about fully recre-

ating rhythm patterns—in both cases, the user must

react to on-screen cues rather than following a given

rhythm pattern. Although Beat Saber is a VR game,

its focus is on movement guidance rather than precise

rhythm training, as players are not explicitly guided

through the rhythm but synchronize their actions with

the soundtrack.

In contrast, Steady the Drums! stands out by com-

bining VR immersion with rhythm training, a gami-

ﬁed structure and a narrative approach. By integrat-

ing these elements, it offers a more engaging training

experience compared to existing commercial and ed-

ucational rhythm-based games.

Storytelling has become an important component

in game development, and research has shown that

it promotes emotional connections, deeper immer-

sion in the game and greater engagement in gameplay

(Ryan, 2001; Zichermann and Cunningham, 2011).

In educational contexts, storytelling is an effective

way to present content in an engaging and memorable

way. Research has shown that storytelling improves

comprehension and knowledge retention while in-

creasing student motivation and engagement (Bruner,

2002). Virtual storytelling as a technology for in-

teractive teaching enhances interaction between users

and electronic systems and enables immersive educa-

tional experiences with virtual teachers (Danilicheva

CSME 2025 - 6th International Special Session on Computer Supported Music Education

642

et al., 2009). For some players, narratives evoke vir-

tual external motivation, where an emotional attach-

ment to the game characters creates a desire to inﬂu-

ence outcomes, leading to deeper engagement (Bopp,

2008). Recent studies comparing storytelling in VR

and traditional games have highlighted the advan-

tage of VR in creating a more personal and emotion-

ally engaging narrative through increased immersion

(Chen, 2024), and in both educational and entertain-

ment games, well-crafted narratives are highly valued

by their users (Grifﬁths, 2019).

3 Steady the Drums!

Steady the Drums! is a VR game that combines im-

mersive gameplay with rhythmic training. Players use

the VR controllers as drumsticks to perform rhyth-

mic patterns and receive both visual and haptic feed-

back on their performance. The game features lev-

els of increasing difﬁculty, in which successfully exe-

cuted patterns build up a combo meter and unlock ad-

ditional options. The background music reﬂects the

medieval theme of the game. Players must synchro-

nize the tempo of their drumming with the music, and

the more accurately they drum, the higher the score

will be.

The plot of the game revolves around rhythmic

patterns that serve as commands for military units de-

fending a medieval city against attacking enemies. As

the difﬁculty level increases with new waves of ene-

mies, players issue commands through various rhyth-

mic patterns. The damage multiplier increases the

attack power of soldiers over time, while the combo

meter makes it possible to create new soldiers. How-

ever, creating new soldiers resets both the combo me-

ter and the damage multiplier, which can be increased

through precise and consistent drumming. Addition-

ally, there are cannonball mini-games that provide

players with opportunities to engage in additional

rhythmic quests and enhance their power to overcome

the enemy. Victory is achieved when the player is able

to command his army effectively through twenty lev-

els by maintaining rhythmic precision. The game fea-

tures rhythmic patterns of varying length and tempo.

These patterns, which include pauses and simultane-

ous drum beats on various types of drums, create com-

plex structures that require coordination and provide

advanced rhythmic exercises.

To improve the user experience, we implemented

a visual tempo indicator to help players maintain the

correct drum tempo, we enabled the option to skip

narration using a controller button and to save game

progress, and included detailed instructions for rhyth-

mic commands and mini-games. Correctly executed

rhythmic patterns are also highlighted in yellow to

provide clear and immediate feedback, and we have

introduced animations to visually enrich the game.

Figure 1: The player’s point of view in the game.

3.1 Storytelling Elements

The game is designed to resemble an animated book,

complete with text, corresponding illustrations and

voice narration. The story describes a battle in the ﬁc-

tional city of Velaris, where the protagonist, the black-

smith’s son, bangs on the drums with hammers. His

task is to replace the absent military drummer Cas-

sian, who has accompanied the king and the rest of

the army to the east, leaving behind only a parch-

ment with the basic troop commands. This parchment

serves as a rhythmic command display for the player

and can be seen on Figure 1. As players level up,

the environment changes and stronger, more power-

ful characters are introduced. An example of a higher

level is shown in Figure 2. The main enemy is a dark

wizard, Amaranth, who wants to conquer Velaris and

use the abundant magic crystals as a source of his

power. Before each milestone level, the player learns

of the background story and motivations of Ama-

ranth’s three most important allies. Before the ﬁnal

level, a dramatic narrative sets the stage for the ulti-

mate battle against Amaranth. To increase player en-

gagement, the player is frequently reminded of their

proximity to victory and that the survival of Velaris

depends on their actions.

For research purposes, we developed two versions

of the game: one that incorporated storytelling ele-

ments with narration and one that did not. The version

Storytelling in Gamiﬁed Rhythmic Training

643

with storytelling included the characters’ backstories

revealed at key milestones, while the other version

featured the same characters but had no backstory.

Figure 2: Gameplay view at a higher level.

3.2 Tools and Technologies

The game was developed using the Unity game en-

gine, a widely used platform for creating high-quality

3D and 2D games. We used the C# programming lan-

guage within Unity, as its support for object-oriented

programming was essential for implementing com-

plex game mechanics. For integration with virtual

reality (VR) devices, we used OpenXR, which en-

sures compatibility with a wide range of VR and AR

devices and eliminates the need for extensive code

customization. To enable a seamless user experience

without interruptions or motion sickness, we imple-

mented several techniques to improve real-time game

performance.

To evaluate the effects of each version of the

game, we implemented tracking logic to record play-

ers’ actions, which were sent to a server in real time

and enabled us to measure their precision when strik-

ing the drums. To prevent potential data loss while

sending it to a server in real time, we also saved the

measurements to local data storage and regularly syn-

chronized it with the server.

4 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Our study focused on the implementation of story-

telling and evaluation of its effects on the user expe-

rience. We concentrated on playability, player per-

formance and the improvement of rhythmic skills.

Participants were randomly divided into two groups,

with one group playing a version that included story-

telling elements and the other playing a version with-

out them. Both groups used VR devices — Meta

Quest 2 and 3 — with the versions evenly distributed

to minimize device-related bias.

We evaluated the attractiveness and effectiveness

of the game based on several criteria. During game-

play, we tracked and analyzed data such as the dura-

tion of playing, the performance of rhythmic patterns,

and the time spent on narrative elements. To assess

the improvement of rhythmic skills, we used a short-

ened version of the PROMS (Proﬁle of Music Percep-

tion Skills) test (Georgi et al., 2023). Each Tapping-

PROMS session included three rhythmic patterns and

three tempo patterns of varying difﬁculty, selected

from the ofﬁcial patterns on https://osf.io/df2gr/. The

sessions were conducted using a Python-based appli-

cation developed for the Tapping-PROMS study. The

results provided data on the number of correctly re-

produced rhythm and tempo items, absolute synchro-

nization of rhythm or tempo, and relative synchro-

nization of rhythm. For analysis of both Tapping-

PROMS test results, we assumed a normal distribu-

tion of the data and used the Levene test to assess

the equality of variances. For homogeneous variances

(p ≥ 0.05), we applied paired t-tests (Ross and Will-

son, 2017) and if the variances were not homoge-

neous, we used the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-

rank test (Randles, 2006). In addition to Tapping-

PROMS tests, we used a short questionnaire to collect

data on the participants’ previous music and gaming

experience and a standardized UEQ questionnaire to

evaluate the user experience with the game.

Our experiment was divided into three phases. At

the ﬁrst in-person meeting, participants completed a

Tapping-PROMS baseline test and a proﬁling ques-

tionnaire. The questionnaire collected basic demo-

graphic information, details about the participants’

musical background and their experience with digital

and VR games. During this session, participants were

also instructed on how to use the device, how to trou-

bleshoot common issues and how to access technical

support.

During the 14-day gameplay period, participants

were instructed to use the device for at least 10 min-

utes per day. Tracking logic was implemented to

record the total playing time, the start and end level

of each session, and the number of rhythmic patterns

successfully executed. Each drum beat was recorded

to allow for more detailed analysis, such as the pro-

portion of beats from correctly executed rhythmic se-

quences in relation to the total number of beats. For

the narrative version, we also tracked engagement

with the story section.

CSME 2025 - 6th International Special Session on Computer Supported Music Education

644

During the second in-person meeting, participants

performed the ﬁnal Tapping-PROMS test and com-

pleted the shorter version of the User Experience

Questionnaire, known as UEQ-S (Schrepp et al.,

2017). The UEQ-S contains eight items that target

two meta-dimensions: pragmatic quality and hedo-

nic quality. Participants rated the attributes on a 5-

point Likert scale, focusing on whether they found the

game as rather obstructive or supportive, complicated

or easy, inefﬁcient or efﬁcient, confusing or clear, bor-

ing or exciting, uninteresting or interesting, conven-

tional or inventive, and usual or leading-edge. In addi-

tion, participants from the group that played the game

with narrative elements were asked to rate parts of the

game related to storytelling, and all participants could

express their general comments and opinions.

5 RESULTS

5.1 Demographics

Of the 30 participants in the study, 18 were women

and 12 were men. Their ages ranged from 17 to 26

years, with an average age of 21.6 years.

Two thirds of the participants stated that they had

not attended music school, however, 20 participants

conﬁrmed that they had participated in music-related

activities. Dancing was the most common activity (re-

ported by nine participants), followed by singing and

playing in a band. Of these 20 participants, most at-

tended courses or received formal training, while a

few were self-taught. In addition, 13 participants re-

ported playing at least one musical instrument, with

piano being the most common, followed by guitar,

ﬂute and violin.

The majority of participants (31 out of 33) had

previous experience with video games, with 10 still

actively playing. Their playing time varied from less

than 3 hours per month to up to 15 hours per month.

Most participants played on gaming consoles such as

the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox, while

others used PCs or smartphones. The most frequently

played genres included action, adventure, simulation,

strategy and sports games.

In contrast, few participants had experience with

VR devices. Seven participants had previously used

headsets such as Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift or Steam

Index, and two had experience with augmented reality

glasses. Of these, one participant stated that they used

a VR headset on a daily basis, while the others had

only tried them out. Four participants stated that they

felt nauseous when using a VR headset.

5.2 Gameplay Tracking

Most participants adhered to the instruction to play

for at least 10 minutes per day. The participants in

the non-narrative group played slightly longer than

the participants in the narrative group, with the non-

narrative version being played on average 10 min-

utes longer. In addition, two participants in the non-

narrative group had a signiﬁcantly longer playing

time than the other participants. In order not to distort

the average results and to avoid inaccurate interpreta-

tion, these outliers were excluded from the analysis.

The demographic data and the information on previ-

ous gaming experience provided in the proﬁling ques-

tionnaire did not appear to inﬂuence the gaming time

results.

In the storytelling version of the game, we also

tracked how often players chose to watch the narrated

parts or skip the story by clicking a designated but-

ton. The stories were only shown at the beginning

and at each milestone level. On the ﬁrst playthrough,

all participants watched the story in full, but skipped it

on subsequent playthroughs. Watching the story takes

about 10 minutes in total and therefore did not consid-

erably increase the total playtime.

We compared player performance by analyzing

the percentage of successful drum hits and the fre-

quency of reaching game levels. Participants achieved

very high success rates in both versions, indicating a

strong ability to follow the rhythm, however the av-

erage success rate was higher in the version without

storytelling elements (72.2%) than in the version with

storytelling elements (67.8%) with the standard de-

viation being the same in both groups (13,7%). The

difference in the test results is not particularly signiﬁ-

cant, but the slightly better performance in the version

without storytelling could indicate a lower perceived

complexity of the game due to fewer interruptions and

cognitive load or a higher level of motivation and con-

centration among players in this group. The results

are shown in Figure 3, where the darker sections of

the bars represent successful drum hits and the lighter

sections show the total number of hits per participant.

The percentage success rate is shown on both sides of

the bars.

A similar number of participants completed the

ﬁnal level in both groups — ﬁve players in the

storytelling version and six players in the non-

storytelling version. The highest number of suc-

cessful playthroughs to the ﬁnal level occurred when

players started with the ﬁrst level. This trend can

be attributed to the cannon feature, which is a great

help when ﬁghting enemies and can only be activated

when playing the game from the beginning.

Storytelling in Gamiﬁed Rhythmic Training

645

Figure 3: Percentage of successful drum hits per participant.

A comparison with the demographic data revealed

that participants who played video games regularly

tended to reach higher levels. These participants were

also more likely to use the option to start with a saved

game state and continue playing from higher levels.

5.3 Rhythmic Test

We observed the improvement in rhythmic skills by

examining the changes in rhythmic and tempo syn-

chronization in the Tapping-PROMS test before and

after playing the game. Before the comparison, we

applied the Levene’s test to assess the equality of vari-

ances. Based on these results, we applied a paired-

samples t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test to com-

pare the results of the Tapping-PROMS test and an-

alyze statistically signiﬁcant differences. Some in-

valid results from improperly conducted tests were

excluded, resulting in a ﬁnal sample size of 26 par-

ticipants.

Absolute asynchrony assesses the accuracy of taps

relative to ideal time intervals. There was an improve-

ment with easier and moderately difﬁcult rhythmic

patterns (p = 0.012 and p = 0.003, respectively), sug-

gesting that participants became more adept at syn-

chronizing their taps with less complex patterns, al-

though they did not make signiﬁcant progress with

more complicated rhythms.

Relative asynchrony, which measures the consis-

tency of taps within the rhythmic pattern, showed im-

provements across all difﬁculty levels, suggesting that

participants became better at maintaining alignment

with the rhythm, even if they did not maintain perfect

tempo synchronization. The greatest progress was ob-

served in the easiest patterns.

We compared the results of the participants from

both test groups. Due to the smaller sample size, the

distribution is adjusted to 11 participants who played

the game version with storytelling elements (marked

with S) and 15 participants who played the version

without these elements (marked with N). This com-

parison of absolute asynchrony (Table 1) and relative

asynchrony (Table 2) test results allowed us to assess

whether the inclusion of narrative elements inﬂuenced

the degree of improvement in rhythmic synchroniza-

tion.

The group that played the non-narrative version

of the game showed greater progress overall. In terms

of absolute asynchrony, they showed the most signif-

icant improvements in easier and moderately difﬁcult

rhythmic patterns (p = 0.022 and p = 0.014, respec-

tively). In addition, they improved in relative asyn-

chrony at low and high levels of difﬁculty, with p <

0.001 and p = 0.026, respectively.

On the other hand, the group that played the ver-

sion of the game with narrative elements also showed

CSME 2025 - 6th International Special Session on Computer Supported Music Education

646

Table 1: Analysis of changes in absolute asynchrony results in the rhythmic PROMS test.

Rhythmic Pattern Difﬁculty

Absolute Asynchrony

T test W test pInitial Test Final Test

µ σ µ σ

Low

N 0.338 0.172 0.183 0.128 2.384 / 0.022*

S 0.505 0.512 0.145 0.093 1.740 / 0.066

Medium

N 1.927 1.183 1.116 0.863 2.489 / 0.014*

S 1.842 1.323 1.291 0.851 1.941 / 0.048*

High

N 2.796 1.689 2.743 1.069 / 30** 0.452

S 4.415 0.826 3.695 1.239 1.791 / 0.056

Note: * indicates statistical signiﬁcance at p < 0.05. **Ranks between 1–11.

Table 2: Analysis of relative asynchrony in the rhythmic PROMS test for both groups.

Rhythmic Pattern Difﬁculty

Relative Asynchrony

T test pInitial Test Final Test

µ σ µ σ

Low

N 0.203 0.065 0.095 0.033 5.926 < 0.001*

S 0.345 0.292 0.089 0.041 2.371 0.028*

Medium

N 1.332 0.967 0.794 0.798 1.715 0.056

S 1.087 1.030 0.976 0.907 0.842 0.216

High

N 1.637 1.190 1.237 1.100 2.198 0.026*

S 3.043 1.062 2.155 1.456 1.908 0.046*

Note: * indicates statistical signiﬁcance at p < 0.05.

progress, albeit less pronounced. In terms of ab-

solute asynchrony, they showed signiﬁcant progress

with moderately difﬁcult rhythms (p = 0.048) and in

terms of relative asynchrony, notable improvements

were observed at low (p = 0.028) and high levels of

difﬁculty (p = 0.046).

5.4 User Experience

The results of the user questionnaire showed differ-

ences in pragmatic and hedonic quality in the evalu-

ation of the two versions of the game. While the rat-

ings for pragmatic qualities such as supportiveness,

easiness, efﬁciency and clarity were on the positive

side in both test groups, they were higher in the group

of participants who played the non-narrative version

of the game. On the other hand, hedonic qualities

scored higher overall in the group that played the

version of the game with narrative elements. This

means that users found the game with narrative ele-

ments more exciting, more interesting, more imagi-

native and leading-edge.

The participants who played the version with

narrative elements conﬁrmed that the story offered

enough content, but found it boring to watch the story

again after the ﬁrst playthrough. Their statement was

also conﬁrmed by the data we collected during game-

play, as most participants only watched the story once

and skipped it on subsequent playthroughs. Although

the narrative elements were appreciated, many par-

ticipants commented that a greater variety of levels

would make the game more interesting and less repet-

itive. The players who experienced the game with

narrative elements rated it higher, indicating a greater

willingness to pay for the game if it were offered as a

paid application.

6 CONCLUSION

In this study, we investigated the effects of integrating

storytelling elements into a music-oriented VR game,

Steady the Drums! Our ﬁndings show that integrating

new technologies into music training not only mod-

ernizes the learning experience, but also provides in-

novative ways to engage and motivate music students

and enthusiasts.

The study combined an improved and upgraded

video game design with storytelling elements and al-

lowed players to improve their rhythmic skills by

playing rhythm patterns with varying levels of difﬁ-

culty. The results of the Tapping PROMS test showed

an overall improvement in rhythm perception and per-

formance skills of the study participants. However,

when we compared the effects of playing with and

without narrative elements, we found that the latter

produced better performance results. While narra-

tive elements added hedonic qualities that increased

Storytelling in Gamiﬁed Rhythmic Training

647

users’ enjoyment and motivation, they seemed to de-

tract somewhat from pragmatic qualities, potentially

distracting players from the core task of skill acqui-

sition. These results could be attributed to increased

cognitive load or interruptions caused by storytelling

elements as well as other inﬂuencing factors. How-

ever, further research would be needed to clarify these

assumptions.

These results suggest that storytelling, while not

directly optimizing short-term skill progress, may

play a critical role in maintaining long-term motiva-

tion and engagement, ultimately supporting continu-

ous improvement. However, these conclusions should

be interpreted with caution due to the limited sample

size of this study.

Future research should examine these effects in

a larger and more diverse population, including

younger audiences who may beneﬁt more from narra-

tive designs and older adults for whom non-narrative

formats may be more effective. Expanding this re-

search will provide deeper insights into the interplay

of storytelling, motivation and skill development in

music training through VR technology.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The results of the research were produced as part of

the research project ”TeachXR - Use of Extended Re-

ality in Education” under contract C4350-24-927003.

The investment is part of the measures of the Slove-

nian Recovery and Resilience Plan, funded by the Re-

covery and Resilience Facility.

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