From Page to Pixels: Reimagining Virginia Woolf’s Orlando as an Interactive Journey of Self-Exploration

This talk presents my ongoing research project: a videogame adaptation of Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s fictional biography, framed not as a walkthrough or a completed artefact but as a thought experiment. Rather than asking how faithfully a videogame can reproduce Woolf’s novel, the talk is guided by a recurring question: Do you think Virginia Woolf would like it? The rationale for this central question draws from Woolf’s own practice as a master of adaptation. In Orlando, she rewrites the life of Vita Sackville-West—her lover and muse—into a mock biography, transforming lived experience into playful literary form. In particular, her ludic manipulation of genre—serious in its implications yet light in its execution—offers a conceptual model for thinking about gameplay itself. Existing adaptations of Orlando are discussed briefly to illustrate different methodological approaches rather than questions of fidelity to the text. The videogame is positioned as a practice-based exploration of player agency and experiential navigation, concluding by deliberately withholding a definitive answer, in keeping with Woolf’s resistance to closure.