Two UH-based teams recently took top honors in the VIVERSE Spark 2025 Global Hackathon – a worldwide challenge for university teams passionate about immersive tech, digital storytelling and game design to build within VIVERSE and compete for cash prizes. Their entries were ranked among others submitted by 400 students from 40 universities around the globe.
The Knight Watcher, by digital media undergraduate students Rylee Bettis, Vivian Nguyen, Richard Witek and Christian Garcia, took first place in the Immersive Storytelling category. The team was awarded a First Prize cash award of $5,000.
“We approached this as both an Augmented and Virtual Reality [class] assignment and an opportunity to challenge ourselves creatively,” said Nguyen. “The competition encouraged teams to focus on innovation, storytelling, and how well their experience fit within VIVERSE’s immersive platform. Knowing this helped us shape our project so it would be engaging, atmospheric, and easy for players to understand quickly.”
The team came together by chance: Garcia and Nguyen were first randomly assigned as in-class project partners, as were Bettis and Witek, and it was Garcia’s and Betiss’s previous collaboration experience that brought all four students together for The Knight Watcher.
“None of us expected to win. It took a moment for it to sink in; there was a mix of excitement, surprise, and disbelief because we knew how fast the timeline was and how much we were figuring out along the way. Overall, it felt really rewarding to see that the work our team put in, especially the atmosphere and visual style, connected with the judges in such a big way,” she added.
“Individually, it was important because it showed us what we were capable of when we combined our strengths under pressure. As a team, we all feel like this project came at a really meaningful time for us: most of us are getting close to graduating, so having something like The Knight Watcher to add to our portfolios is genuinely helpful. Even though the hackathon started as a class requirement, it ended up becoming a piece of work we’re proud of, and something that shows what each of us can do.
Betiss’s art direction, Nguyen’s story work, Witek’s 3D modeling and Garcia’s programming came together to make a single atmospheric and cohesive product, and now each team member is taking what they learned with The Knight Watcher into their next steps, whether job applications, other classes, or future creative work.
“The experience definitely helped us grow and gave us something strong to show as we get ready for life after graduation,” Nguyen said.
VIVERSE Head of Growth Andranik Aslanyan reported that this year’s diverse competitors submitted “amazing projects,” and that VIVERSE “definitely plan[s] to hold more going forward.”
“It’s great to see the creativity come alive from these students and to have a place where they can put their projects out there to live forever, and it’s a great way for them to build up their portfolios and build projects that have a true outlet – to get public eyes on these projects outside of the university,” Aslanyan said.
Axolotl Adventure, by digital media undergraduate student Katelyn Shapiro and education graduate student Garrett Ward, was named the honorable mention in the Games category. In this game, the player – an axolotl – must complete a series of quests to help fellow characters. Although the Axoltol Adventure team didn’t receive a cash prize, Shapiro was “very proud that [the] game received recognition.”
“We, especially Katelyn, worked hard to create an engaging and well-structured interactive experience,” Ward said. “Though I believed in our success, I did not anticipate receiving such recognition among a large and highly competitive group of development teams from around the world.”
“As an educational game designer, this event provided a valuable opportunity to practice my craft alongside a like-minded and talented colleague,” he continued. “Katelyn and I are both part of the University of Houston’s AR/VR research lab, CougAR Lab, where we aimed to develop something together for the lab’s development team efforts. The VIVERSE competition was the perfect opportunity to collaborate.”
As a TA for associate professor Tony Liao’s Augmented and Virtual Reality course, Shapiro enjoyed seeing all of the student projects come together while she and Ward worked on their own in parallel.
“I believe the University of Houston is on the verge of becoming a leader in AR, VR, and game development, perhaps establishing Houston as a central hub for these industries. The talent and potential within our city and university are evident in the successes of our passionate students, faculty, and colleagues working in these fields,” said Ward.
Interested in joining an internationally recognized AR/VR lab at the forefront of research and technology? Find more information and get in touch at https://www.uhcougARlab.com/
Interested in working in the game industry and looking to join a game development community to learn through workshops, events, and collaboration with peers? Visit www.cooginteractive.com.