The Texas Immersive Institute (TXI), the game development educational program at the University of Texas at Austin, announced that it’s finished a semester-long collaboration with HTC. This pair-up resulted with seven virtual worlds created within HTC Viverse, a first-of-its-kind academic collaboration for HTC.

Five of the Viverse projects sprang from the TXI’s Experimental Storytelling course, taught by Professor Rohitash Ray; and two further advanced projects came from the TXI Lab team, which included Professor Erin Reilly, Program Manager Azalea Laredo, alumni Chris D’avilla, and intern Yu Liu.

GamesBeat spoke with Erin Reilly, TXI’s founding director, about the project and why they chose Viverse as its platform: “We chose VIVERSE because it’s accessible, browser-based, and powerful—giving students an immediate playground to prototype immersive experiences without barriers. It empowers them to focus on storytelling, not just technology, and prepares them for the spatial era of content creation.”

Michael Morran, HTC’s Viverse developer community manager, led a series of workshops at TXI through the semester centered around publishing on PlayCanvas, Viverse Create’s core Engine. Morran added in a statement, “Through this collaboration, we are empowering future designers and creators with the tools and support needed to create immersive 3D virtual experience. We’re proud to showcase their work across the global VIVERSE Worlds platform, providing them exposure to our community of innovative creators.”

Reilly added, “Students aren’t just building virtual spaces—they’re learning to think spatially, collaborate cross-functionally, and design experiences with real-world impact. This collaboration gives them hands-on tools and industry mentorship to prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet.”