Nydia: The Blind Flower Girl is an immersive, educational WebAR experience that lets users explore the tragic story behind the famous marble sculpture at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Created by developer Irina Fawcett and 3D artist Noah Ilbery, the experience uses 8th Wall Studio, VPS, and Gaussian Splat technology to reconstruct the world around Nydia—placing viewers in ancient Pompeii as Mt. Vesuvius erupts.

Anchored to the physical statue via VPS, the scene builds a richly detailed environment using Gaussian Splats, layered audio, and interactive hotspots. The result is a deeply atmospheric experience that blends culture, storytelling, and spatial technology.

We caught up with Irina and Noah to learn how they built it—and what advice they’d give to developers looking to experiment with spatial storytelling.

What if you could stand in the exact spot where a legendary skate trick happened—and watch it unfold in front of you?

That’s the idea behind VIZIONSB, an augmented reality time capsule built with 8th Wall Studio and anchored at Bastille Skatepark in Paris. This VPS-powered experience lets skaters and fans revisit iconic tricks in the places they originally happened, blending archival video, animated 3D avatars, and real-world locations into an interactive, site-specific performance.

Created by artist and developer 0xVIZION, this project doesn’t just celebrate skateboarding culture—it evolves it. Every month, a new trick submitted by local skaters will be turned into an AR filter, adding to the living archive and giving visitors new reasons to return.

We caught up with 0xVIZION to hear how it came together and what’s next.

The Forge the Future Game Jam brought our global developer community together for six inspiring weeks of creativity, collaboration, and innovation. Now it’s time to celebrate the incredible projects that emerged. With support from HTC VIVERSE, this was our biggest prize pool yet, including a unique opportunity to join the VIVERSE Creator Program. 

Throughout the challenge, we hosted a full slate of community programming to support and inspire participants, from our Info + Ideation kickoff session to live workshops, 1:1 tech support hours, and the debut of our powerful new AI Asset Lab tool. Developers arrived with bold ideas, creative mechanics, and meaningful storytelling, creating projects that spanned genres, causes, and continents.

Judged on gameplay depth, creativity, technical execution, and visual polish, today we’re thrilled to unveil the winners of the Forge the Future Game Jam. Let’s dive in!

The Pollution Piano is a location-based AR experience that transforms real-time pollution data into live music. Built in 8th Wall Studio by artist and creative technologist Doddz, it is launching during London Climate Week with a powerful mission: to help people see—and hear—the invisible.

At select outdoor locations in 12 cities worldwide, users can trigger a virtual piano performance that reflects the air quality around them. As conditions change, so does the tone of the music: clear skies generate light and melodic solos, while polluted air brings heavier, more urgent compositions. It’s a poetic mix of data, AI, music, and AR all delivered in the browser.

We caught up with Doddz to learn what inspired the project, how it was built, and how 8th Wall Studio helped turn pollution into performance.

Everything Quiz is a unique 3D browser-based game built in Niantic Studio that transforms the world around you into a quiz. Just point your camera, snap a pic, and get a context-aware multiple-choice question—anything from the objects in your room to the books on your shelf can become a brain teaser. It’s a simple, clever idea made possible with real-time screenshot capture, AI-powered question generation, and smooth UI built entirely in the browser.

We caught up with Ethan to learn how this interactive experience came together, how AI was integrated, and how his team balanced accessibility, technical complexity, and game design to bring this vision to life.

The Address Book is an educational WebAR experience developed in 8th Wall Studio by USC student Jinglin Jingan and Professor Robert Hernandez. Built in collaboration with the ONE Archives at USC Libraries, this immersive project spotlights the first edition of Bob Damron’s Address Book, a 1960s-era travel guide that documented safe and welcoming spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals across the U.S.

Inspired by its real-world counterpart—often called the “Green Book for queer people”—this browser-based experience brings history to your fingertips. Users can flip through a digitized version of the guide using touch and audio-based interactions. As they explore, they’ll uncover original listings from the book’s pages, listen to oral history from ONE Archives director Joseph Hawkins, and engage directly with a piece of LGBTQ+ history that’s long been overlooked.

We caught up with Jinglin to learn how this project came to life using 8th Wall Studio, how it was structured, and how it’s helping bring queer history to wider audiences through interactive storytelling.

We’re officially in the final stretch of the Forge the Future Game Jam, and if you’re building a browser-based game with Niantic Studio, now’s the time to power up your skills. To help developers of all levels make the most of this opportunity, we hosted a series of expert-led webinars throughout May—and the full lineup is now available to stream on-demand.

Whether you’re refining your project or just getting started, these sessions are packed with practical insights and strategic tips to help you build your best game.

Diné YÉIGO (Navajo for “KEEP GOING”) is an interactive Navajo language learning experience built in Niantic Studio by Akilah Martinez, an artist, XR developer, and founder of Glittering World Girl. The experience invites users to explore and pronounce contemporary Navajo words using sound-driven interactions, paired with cultural storytelling and animation.

Designed as a culturally rooted, browser-based AR activation, Diné YÉIGO uses 3D visuals, touch-based audio triggers, and meaningful character design (including a playful coyote guide) to immerse users in Diné bizaad, the Navajo language.

We caught up with Akilah to learn how she brought this project to life using Niantic Studio, what challenges she overcame, and how she’s using AR to break down barriers in Indigenous tech access and language preservation.

The 8th Wall x VIVERSE Game Jamis officially live! From May 12 to June 30, this global challenge invites developers, designers, and students to build innovative, browser-based games using Niantic Studio on 8thWall.com.

Whether you're testing out a new mechanic, prototyping your next indie hit, or looking to level up your game design skills, this is your opportunity to create, compete, and showcase what’s possible with Niantic Studio.

Rhythmz is a retro arcade rhythm shooter created in Niantic Studio, blending the spirit of classic games like Space Invaders with the timing and energy of rhythm games like OSU. With vibrant neon visuals, pulsating beats, and fast-paced action, Rhythmz invites players to blast incoming enemies to the beat of the music in a highly replayable, browser-based experience.

We caught up with developer Emilio Martinez Romero to learn how Rhythmz came to life, what technical tools powered it, and how Niantic Studio made it possible to synchronize music and gameplay in a smooth, cross-platform experience.