HTC VIVERSE Hits 1 Million Users, Announces Winners of First Global “Spark” Hackathon

University students from over 40 schools worldwide participated in VIVERSE’s first global hackathon, building in-browser video games, storytelling experiences, and social experiences

VIVERSE, the immersive content creation and distribution platform from VR pioneer HTC, has unveiled the winners of its first global “VIVERSE Spark” hackathon for universities. Hundreds of students competed to build games, interactive art pieces, and social experiences for a chance to win cash prizes, gain in-demand career skills, and build their professional portfolios. 

“You don't have to download Roblox or Fortnite to create something of your own. You can just go to VIVERSE and begin that way, which allows for more freedom,” said Vicente Bookman, a student at Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Students from over 40 universities across North America, Europe, and Asia participated in the 2025 VIVERSE Spark Hackathon, building creative projects in a variety of WebXR game engines. The result is an impressive collection of video games and interactive experiences that run in a web browser and across devices like laptops, tablets, and smartphones:

·       Stressed out? Try an immersive experience where you hunt down demons hiding amongst villagers.

·       Burned out? Try a game where you fight back against mundane busywork – with the ultimate payoff.

·       Need a divorce from reality? Try a zen social experience where you become a sentient cloud.

Project submissions spanned multiple fields of study – from the arts to programming – highlighting the massive career opportunities in immersive content creation, a market projected to reach $125 Billion by 2034.

With over 1 Million monthly active users and growing, VIVERSE is fast becoming the preferred platform for people to create, play, and socialize in immersive online worlds.

“Through the challenge, [students] worked with 3-D modelling software, a number of game engines, and created interactive worlds with custom character art, game mechanics. animation and physics, and narrative stories,” said Tony Liao, Founding Director of the CougAR Lab at the University of Houston. “These are exactly the types of prompts we want our students to engage in, so they can not only learn technical skills but to weave all of their talents together to make something meaningful and push themselves to their limits.”

"The accessibility of the VIVERSE platform – click-to-play, no installation, simple to build, and surprisingly powerful – made it possible for us to achieve a true zero-to-one breakthrough. This experience changed the way we think about storytelling and confirmed my goal to work in immersive game design,” said a student from the Royal College of Art.

The 2025 hackathon spanned three categories – Immersive Storytelling, Games, and Social Experiences – with three winning teams and one winning university per category. The list of winners is below, including links to the projects:

Immersive Storytelling

1^{st –} The Knight Watcher, University of Houston

2^{nd –} Day X, Royal College of Art

3^{rd –} Mission Miss, Royal College of Art

Honorable mention: VR-Story & Dream Maker, National University of Kaohsiung

Games

1^{st –} Office Crashout, Academy of Art University

2^{nd –} Ditto, Academy of Art University

3^{rd –} Car Repair Simulator, University of Massachusetts Amherst  

Honorable mention: Axolotl Adventure, University of Houston

Social Experiences

1^st – Nimbus, Royal College of Art

2^nd- Restaurant world, University of Cincinnati

3^rd – OTR 12th and Vine, University of Cincinnati

Honorable mention: Interverse, National University of Kaohsiung

“We're extremely honored to see such amazing, creative works built in VIVERSE, from the next generation of creators,” said Andranik Aslanyan, Head of Growth, HTC VIVERSE. “We built VIVERSE as a springboard for imagination and creativity, to help people learn how to make immersive worlds and build a career out of it. To everyone who participated in this year’s hackathon, we couldn’t be prouder to show off your creations for the world to see.”

For more information about VIVERSE, visit https://www.viverse.com/. For institutions that are interested in participating in future hackathons, please contact us at edu@viverse.com.