Stanford XR Hackathon (Creative Zenith Winner)
An immersive XR experience blending virtual reality, music, and elemental interaction to create a new medium for self-expression. MUve invited players to step inside a virtual world, choose their environment, pick their soundtrack, and interact with elemental forces / fire, water, wind / through hand-tracking technology to dance, play, and release emotions.
/// Self-Expression Through XR: Muve was born from the question — how can immersive technologies promote mental health and emotional release? Using Unity as the game engine, Oculus VR, and UltraLeap motion sensors, Muve created a sandbox where users could translate movement into elemental visualizations.
Choose an environment (forest, desert, ocean, sky).
Select a song to set mood and rhythm.
Channel elements like fire, water, wind as an extension of the body.
The concept was to transform VR into a canvas for dance, sound, and emotional release.
/// Immersive Systems:
Built in Unity with a focus on real-time physics and particle systems for elemental control.
Integrated UltraLeap hand-tracking for natural, controller-free interaction.
Optimized for Oculus VR to make setup frictionless for first-time users.
The development process included prototyping gesture recognition and refining spatial feedback loops (visual + auditory) to ensure the experience felt intuitive and rewarding.
Problem
/// In high-stress academic and professional environments, people often lack safe, creative outlets for emotional release. Traditional games and VR experiences focus on achievement, combat, or simulation — but few prioritize mental wellness, play, and embodied expression.
/// Muve provided a new kind of VR experience — not competitive, not productivity-driven, but healing and expressive.
Gestural Expression: Movements translated into elemental art.
Musical Flow: Users synced their body to music, creating visual symphonies.
Emotional Wellness: Encouraged release of tension through play, rhythm, and embodiment.
Muve demonstrated how XR could go beyond entertainment — becoming a tool for self-expression, de-stressing, and emotional freedom.
