High Fidelity received many wonderful submissions for its STEM VR grant challenge and has selected two recipients. They are, in no particular order:
TCaRs — An awesome racing game where you get to interact with JavaScript to customize your car’s handling, create unique power ups and optimize performance through editing the program code with the use of the Blockly API.
Planet Drop — A networked multi-player game that leverages the benefits of social VR through “cooperative asymmetrical gaming”: the virtual environment is shared by the players, but each has specific information related to his or her chosen STEM specialty, provided by individualized HUDs. However, unlike a traditional “information asymmetry” game, like a card game, the goal is not to use unshared information to a player’s advantage to win, but rather to share that information as quickly and effectively as possible to allow the team to solve challenges and advance through a story arc of increasingly impressive accomplishments.
Thank you to all who submitted proposals. We look forward to playing and sharing these games when they are delivered and doing something like this again in the future.