Mixed Reality Course '26 - VU703371
Mixed reality opens the door to fresh game ideas and new ways to play.
In this year’s Mixed Reality course at the University of Innsbruck, students were challenged to design MR fun fair attractions in a four-day hackathon.
The resulting prototypes showcase the students’ growing expertise with this exciting, rapidly evolving technology.
Zombie SurvivAR
This project is a wave-based Mixed Reality (MR) zombie survival shooter developed for the Meta Quest 3. It uses the headset's passthrough and room-scanning capabilities to transform the user’s physical room into a dynamic battlefield. Virtual zombie AI procedurally spawns directly onto the scanned environment's 3D mesh, navigating real-world geometry to actively chase the player. To defend themselves, players use a virtual arsenal consisting of a rifle and a revolver, each with distinct handling and shooting mechanics, along with an infinite ammo powerup. The core gameplay loop features an escalating wave structure. Surviving a set number of rounds triggers a victory screen, while player defeat results in a game-over screen. By seamlessly blending physical architecture with virtual threats, this application highlights the immersive potential of spatial awareness and environment-driven interaction in modern MR experiences.
by Andreas Kirchmair, Florian Kohler, and Max Santeler
MR. Chicken
The idea of this game came from Crazy Chicken, which we wanted to bring into Mixed Reality. The spawnpoints of the chickens get generated dynamically based on the furniture in the room and are perpetually updated, so the birds spawn in the players' blind spots. Chickens will proceed to spawn at a set interval and can be shot by the player for points. Trying to make this basic concept more interesting, we added a grabbing mechanic, letting you grab chickens when you come close to them, further playing into the MR experience, where you can move around the room freely and chase after them. Additionally, we implemented several powerups which get activated upon shooting the rare rainbow chicken. These powerups range from faster shooting speed to bigger chickens and more. Trying to reward patient play, we also implemented a score multiplier when not missing any shots. Attempt to get as high a score as possible so you are at the top of the saved leaderboard.
by Laurin Stecher and Matthias Pitscheide
