Six students from the Department of Multimedia and Entertainment Science, STUST—Yong-heng Chang, Yan-ting Tsai, Zi-shuan Liao, Yu-zhe Zheng, Yu-jie Zheng, and Yu-ching Zheng—recently won the 2023 5G AIoT Empower Cloud Application XR Creation Awards and a bonus of 70,000 NTD with their VR work "The Mediator," which was greatly appreciated by Distinguished Professor Shin-jian Huang of the Department of Design, National Taiwan Normal University, who is also an international XR director and internationally renowned new media artist as well as by a team of industry experts as the judges of the competition. The work also won Vision Get Wild Award 2023-Games-Atypical Games Gold.

【The VR game work of the Department of Multimedia and Entertainment Science, STUST, won the championships of 2023 5G AIoT Empower Cloud Application XR Creation Award and Vision Get Wild Award 2023-Games-Atypical Games Group Gold Award.】

In order to connect with the industry's digital content and ecosystem and to accelerate the collaboration of industry and academia, Kaohsiung Exhibition Center, Compal Computer, and Light Array 3D had constructed an "XR end-to-end innovative application service platform" to provide an innovative mechanism for academia to form connections with industries. In the 5G network venue, the organizer displayed the results of digital creation applications and at the same time integrated the latest 5G Reality Studio to offer enjoyment for immersive viewing experience in the exhibition hall.

【Students from the Department of Multimedia and Entertainment Science, STUST—Yong-heng Chang, Yan-ting Tsai, Zi-shuan Liao, Yu-zhe Zheng, Yu-jie Zheng, and Yu-ching Zheng—were displaying their VR work "The Mediator".】

"The Mediator" is a third-person VR virtual reality game that combines board game features with puzzle-solving mechanisms. Players have to make their avatars solve numerous tests in a VR environment, including immersive exploration and treasure hunting. Players can also use the strange power of time to change things to help their avatars. The background of the game is a story where there is a god in desperation because all the living beings in the world will return to nothingness. Yet, the god finds the possibility of life in a dazzling flower. As he is unable to go down to the earth, he creates an avatar to search for the flower on his behalf. Due to a momentary mistake, the avatar had to go on a journey of exploration to find the flower. During the exploration, the avatar found a soul floating in the temple, and under the guidance of the soul, the avatar unearths the antecedent history of the world.

【Students from the Department of Multimedia and Entertainment Science, STUST—Yong-heng Chang, Yan-ting Tsai, Zi-shuan Liao, Yu-zhe Zheng, Yu-jie Zheng, and Yu-ching Zheng—were displaying their VR work "The Mediator".】

Director Zhi-cheng Sun and Cheng-shun Shie, the team instructors of STUST, pointed out that VR technology is a technology that has developed rapidly in recent years. It allows people to have immersive experience with virtual reality. In this context, more and more game-developers and researchers began to try to use VR technology to develop games, but there were few successful cases, so the team developed a game with a god's perspective based on VR technology, which not only challenges the limitations of VR technology, but also provides players with a whole new gaming experience.

Cheng-wen Wu, President of STUST, said that games convey culture and art through technology and that the process of cultural improvement lies in touching people's hearts. Moving the people's hearts is the core value of technology and cultural promotion and development. STUST encourages teachers and students to work together to innovate technology and technology applications, keep abreast of the XR industry trend, actively expand in terms of teachers and innovative technology equipment, and expect to open up new horizons in the realm of XR.