Prototyping the future of film, games, and Immersive Storytelling
The Gaming, AI, Media & Experience (G.A.M.E.) Lab explores immersive technologies for interactive storytelling experiences. Our primary goal is to create immersive digital experiences that actively involve communities in both design and storytelling. We explore platforms that afford communities to jointly build and experience immersive narratives through inclusive design processes. In this sense, the content should invite users not just to watch or listen, but to actively shape the story.
We are particularly interested in advancing community-centered, immersive technology initiatives. From participatory media creation to AI-powered storytelling, it is a space where scholars, artists, students, and communities converge to co-create ethical, inclusive, and future-oriented media. Our focus areas include film, gaming, animation, extended reality (XR), and generative AI. We develop tools and experiences that are not only innovative but also culturally rooted, accessible in low-resource settings, and guided by community priorities.
The G.A.M.E. Lab is structured around five areas as follows:
- Interactive media and game design
- Animation and visual storytelling
- Immersive media and extended reality (XR)
- Interactive storytelling
- Human-centered AI and creative production
By integrating these fields, we reimagine digital storytelling, film, and games, expand access to underrepresented voices, and foster participatory modes of media creation.
Members are working on projects in interactive storytelling. See samples below.
A Day in the Life. An Interactive Story.
A Day in the Life is a one-minute interactive story experience about the everyday chaos, quiet courage, and emotional weight carried by a single immigrant mother trying to survive the city. You wake up late. The kids aren’t ready. Daycare is closing. Your boss won’t understand. One child gets sick. You have no backup, just a phone, your wits, and the fragile balance of a life stretched too thin. This game invites players to experience the emotional texture of decisions made under pressure, not to win, but to endure.
Game design. The game features an interactive experience with a branching narrative and multiple endings. It utilizes a minimal interface to ensure maximum emotional impact, removing unnecessary distractions to keep the player fully invested in the story’s characters and choices. It is developed using Twine, the accessible tool for interactive storytelling, and incorporates an innovative layer of optional AI-generated dialogue to dynamically add depth and nuance to character interactions.
Staying Housed in the City
An interactive storytelling game exploring housing and the affordability crisis in cities. Navigate real-world challenges, make tough choices, and discover how collective action and resilience can lead to change.
Another recent member collaboration was on a report for Africa No Filter and Meta, The State of Immersion: Exploring the Utility of Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Reality (AR) and Extended Reality (XR) in (Re) Creating African Image which explored the role of immersive media in Africa, specifically Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Extended Reality (XR), in reimagining and (re)constructing African visual narratives and cultural representation.
This project aligns with one of the lab’s aims, which is to critically examine how immersive technologies are being utilized across the African continent to challenge colonial representations, reimagine African identities, and construct more nuanced, self-defined visual cultures. We explored how XR tools can serve as platforms for expression, storytelling, and speculative futures grounded in African knowledge systems.
We envision G.A.M.E. as more than just a research space, but a vibrant community of makers, thinkers, and collaborators. We are developing programming for community-based AI trainings, interactive screenings, AI and Storytelling Workshops, and Co-Creation Labs, where community members come together to explore, experiment, and build.
By blending research with creative practice, we aim to spark conversations about technologies that reflect diverse experiences and expand who gets to be seen, heard, and remembered in our digital futures. Our work seeks to engage with a new generation of creators, especially those from the Global South, who are not only adapting to technological change but also shaping its direction.
Participatory Media Cultures 
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