The Journal of Interactive Narrative returns on a new technical foundation and a custom-built OJS installation that lets us publish interactive work alongside traditional scholarship. This issue brings together two peer-reviewed articles, new graduate research from the first Futures in Interactive Digital Narratives (FIDN) Student Research Symposium, and an interactive art piece. The articles explore how a newsgame set in familiar Dutch cities can provoke reflection on war and empathy, and how plants in interactive media can act as agents of ecological awareness rather than just props in eco-horror. The FIDN section showcases emerging voices pushing methods, activism, learning, heritage, and urban futures through interactive narrative. The issue also features Being Water, an immersive 360° work that invites readers to encounter water as a living presence. Together, these contributions reflect JIN’s commitment to experimental formats, critical engagement, and a growing global community in interactive digital narrative.

The inaugural issue of the Journal of Interactive Narrative (JIN) represents a revolutionary milestone in academic publishing, fulfilling a vision conceived by Hartmut Koenitz in 2018 to create a journal that embodies the very interactivity it studies. Published by ARDIN in partnership with Carnegie Mellon's ETC Press, this groundbreaking publication moves beyond traditional static PDFs to integrate interactive works, embedded videos, and playable elements directly within scholarly articles. The issue features five diverse articles spanning VR storytelling analysis with embedded Twine narratives (Barbara & Haahr), citizenship education through gaming (Blokland et al.), VR curriculum development (Fisher & Samuels), interactive essaying theory (Dunlop), and a foundational piece on interactive scholarship methodology (Koenitz & Fisher), plus Richard Holeton's featured combinatorial fiction "Figurski at Findhorn on Acid." Led by Editor-in-Chief Koenitz and Managing Editor Fisher, with distinguished advisory board members including Janet Murray and Michael Mateas, JIN establishes new standards for scholarly communication where readers can fluidly transition between theoretical critique and hands-on interaction with the artifacts being analyzed, creating an integrated academic environment that matches the interdisciplinary, experiential nature of interactive narrative research itself.