Celebrating XR Excellence: VIVERSE at the 2025 Auggie Awards

The Auggie Awards 2025 marked a major milestone for immersive creators and platforms across the XR industry. This year, the AWE jury recognized VIVERSE Create—our browser-based, no-code XR creator tool—as a finalist for Best Creator & Authoring Tool. It stood alongside some of the most recognized names in immersive creation. Even more exciting, two members of the VIVERSE team earned recognition for their work in immersive storytelling and digital performance, making this year’s AWE USA a moment to celebrate both our platform and our people.

What Are the Auggie Awards? 

Now in their 16th year, the Auggie Awards are the most recognized honors in the XR space. They celebrate innovation and achievement across 19 diverse categories. Presented annually by AWE, the awards highlight a range of accomplishments, including immersive storytelling, enterprise deployment, creator tools, and social impact. 

In contrast to many awards, the Auggies combine public voting and expert jury review. This makes the Auggies a celebration driven by the community while also setting a professional standard of excellence. This year’s ceremony, which took place during AWE USA in June 2025, showcased handmade trophies and marked the highest number of submissions in its 16-year history. This increase highlights the rapid growth and creative diversity within the XR industry. 

VIVERSE Create Named XR Tool Finalist at Auggie Awards 2025 

We’re proud to share that the XR community and panel of judges for AWE 2025 named VIVERSE Create a finalist in the Best Creator & Authoring Tool category. As a result, this recognition supports our mission to empower independent creators, educators, and studios with intuitive, no-code tools designed for building and publishing immersive worlds. 

With its browser-based, no-code toolset, VIVERSE Create empowers creators to build browser-based immersive experiences, enhance them with interactive elements, add 3D content, and publish directly to the web—no downloads required. 

This finalist honor showcases both the platform’s technical capabilities and the creativity of our growing community. With intuitive tools and frictionless publishing, VIVERSE Create opens up new possibilities for developers, storytellers, artists, educators, and worldbuilders across the XR space. 

Key Features That Set VIVERSE Create Apart in XR Development 

VIVERSE Create stands out for its browser-based, open-engine, and no-code approach to immersive world-building. It allows anyone—from indie creators to educators and studios—to prototype, customize, and publish spatial experiences with ease. Key features include: 

• No downloads or installs required – everything runs directly in the browser 

• Multiplayer capabilities – worlds are social and persistent; SDKs

• Drag-and-drop design – intuitive editing without needing a game engine 

• Cross-device publishing – experiences work across any browser on desktop, mobile, laptop, and VR 

• Integration-ready – supports embedded content, 3D assets

• Seamless VIVERSE deployment – upload via CLI or drag & drop to instantly host your work, then share via a public link 

Together, these features lower the barrier to entry while providing powerful tools for iteration, collaboration, and distribution. 

VIVERSE Finalists and XR Creators Spotlighted at AWE USA 2025 

Beyond platform recognition, this year’s Auggie Awards also spotlighted the creative strength within the VIVERSE team itself. Two of our own—James C. Kane and Michael Morran—received recognition for their artistic and technical contributions to the XR space, demonstrating how immersive storytelling can flourish across disciplines, tools, and platforms. 

James C. Kane | In Tirol 

We proudly celebrate James C. Kane, a member of HTC’s VIVERSE team, whose immersive experience In Tirol was a finalist for both Best Art or Film and Best Indie Creator at the 2025 Auggies.  

Using PlayCanvas, James created In Tirol for VIVERSE, presenting a single-player narrative experience set on the grounds of a Viennese manor in 1914. In it, you play as an artist fleeing a storm—both literal and symbolic—as the world slips into chaos. As James describes, it’s a playable experience “[s]et on the outskirts of Salzburg in 1914,” and is “about artists seeking refuge in an increasingly dangerous and surreal world.” 

Notably, this experience blends ambient exploration with atmospheric storytelling. It invites players to navigate and flee the storm. Through Viennese and German expressionist aesthetics and narrative depth, James’s efforts demonstrate how virtual environments can evoke vulnerability, uncertainty, and beauty, all within one immersive package, delivered through your browser. 

James’s recognition reflects not only his creative vision but also the kind of talent driving innovation within the VIVERSE team. His work highlights how immersive storytelling, design, and spatial creativity thrive in a platform built for more than just tools, but creators shaping the future of digital expression. 

Michael Morran | Non-Player Character 

While not a VIVERSE production, we’re equally proud to recognize Michael Morran, our Developer Community Manager and the technical director of the Auggie Award-winning experience Non-Player Character, which took home the honor for Best Art or Film.

Written and performed by Brendan Bradley, with musical direction by Maurice Soque Jr. and 3D design by Ahmad Maqsood, Non-Player Character is an interactive, live musical theater production performed with virtual reality in a hybrid setting. The experience blurs the lines between performer and participant, challenging traditional notions of embodiment, presence, and audience engagement in XR spaces. 

The official 2025 Auggie Awards press release announced the project’s win, recognizing Brendan’s innovative vision and Michael’s pivotal role in bringing it to life, even when coordinating production across the world! Learn more about Non-Player Character at brendanabradley.com/npc. 

A Broader Moment for XR Creators  

The 2025 Auggies weren’t just a celebration of past achievements. They also reflected the evolution of the XR industry and signaled where XR is heading next. Immersive media is no longer niche. It’s now a mature, accessible, creator-driven medium attracting artists, engineers, performers, educators, and entrepreneurs. 

This year’s finalists demonstrated the expanding diversity of spatial storytelling and interactive design. For example, from In Tirol‘s surreal, atmospheric narrative to Non-Player Character‘s hybrid theater format, the boundaries of what’s possible in XR continue to stretch. The diversity of work on display was remarkable. VIVERSE is proud to support this momentum. We do this by offering tools that prioritize accessibility, collaboration, and scale. 

How to Create Web-Based XR Experiences with VIVERSE 

Begin your XR project in just a few steps: 

1. Visit create.viverse.com and sign in or create a new account to start building immediately; no installation or payment required. 

2. Browse the VIVERSE creator documentation to find tutorials, templates, and tips. 

3. Apply to the VIVERSE Creator Program if you’re working on a larger-scale or experimental project. This program offers publishing support, marketing opportunities, and technical collaboration. 

4. Join the community on social media and Discord to share your work, ask questions, and collaborate with others who are building for the platform. 

Whether you’re an artist, developer, educator, or indie studio, VIVERSE provides an open canvas and a global stage for your immersive ideas. 

Build XR Projects with VIVERSE Create—Now Engine-Agnostic

VIVERSE Create offers tools for every kind of XR project. From narrative prototypes to theater pieces, it brings creative visions to life.

Now, it’s also fully engine-agnostic. VIVERSE supports all major game engines—Unity, Godot, Wonderland, A-Frame, Three.js, Babylon, PlayCanvas, and more. Thanks to this compatibility, you can publish and share your project directly on the web!

Start building today → create.viverse.com