IMMERSE Symposium 2026 · UIUC · April 28–29
Constraints, Not Freedom
Designing Virtual Environments for Distributed Co-Creation
Dual Ph.D. candidate
Informatics · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Science and Technology in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage · The Cyprus Institute
Abstract
How can we make user-generated-content (UGC) systems worth investing real time and attention in?
The role of interaction architecture is not yet theorized. Across a decade of design-research projects on user-directed creative platforms, we discovered a “blank-slate paradox”: maximizing a user’s freedom can undermine the creative economy in which they participate. We respond with five productive constraint patterns — spatial, propositional, relational, technical, thematic — for structuring, motivating, and moderating distributed co-creation in authentic settings.
Meta is shutting down Horizon Worlds, the flagship metaverse platform it spent tens of billions building. Meanwhile Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite Creative thrive. Practitioners like Will Wright (The Sims) and the Quake modding scenes understood this intuitively. Demoscene at 4KB. Instagram’s 1:1 frame. The knowledge social media’s rise displaced is the knowledge immersive computing needs back.
Virtual environments are infrastructure for distributed co-creation, not destinations.
Spatial Works integrate site conditions.
Analogous to: site-specific works · residencies · Pokémon GO · geocaching
Wikar 2019–2023
Wikar is an AR system that ties cloud-hosted 3D content to physical sites through QR codes. Visitors must be on-location to access; the content is unavailable except through co-presence with the site.
Deployments include the Augmented Dreams AR Sculpture Park (Graz, 2022), Erwin Wurm exhibitions (2021), and Eva Schlegel installations (2022). Built at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, eDream and Fiddler Foundation supported.
Wikar v14 (2023) · Wikar v1 (2019) · AR Sculpture Park (Graz, 2022)
Propositional Works react to authority.
Analogous to: creator–fan dynamics · comment sections · pull-request review · fact-checking
Nicosia International Airport 2024–
Our team modelled an inaccessible heritage site from limited documentation and 3D scans, then positioned the public as experts who could help us complete it.
Over two years in exhibition, the public contributed 300+ oral testimonies, corrections, and uploaded media, allowing us to compound previously-undocumented details onto the virtual reconstruction and dataset for posterity. This is propositional modeling, a methodology for digital heritage.
Relational Works build off one another.
Analogous to: exquisite corpse · telephone · improv “yes, and” · open-source forks
C.H.A.I.N. Series 2020 · 2022 · 2025
We organized mass-collaborative game development projects for hundreds of distributed creators to work without direct oversight. The relational structure and rules distribute coordination at scale.
Three iterations: C.H.A.I.N. (2020) chained sequential games; C.H.A.I.N.G.E.D. (2022) introduced branching narrative forks across 40+ developers; C.H.A.I.N. 3 (2025–) connects 120+ developers’ worlds through spatial doors. Peers check each other’s work through QA tools and analytics in a coordinating software layer.
C.H.A.I.N. 3 (2025) · C.H.A.I.N.G.E.D. (2022) · C.H.A.I.N. (2020)
EGW @ GDC 2024 presentation · Game Developer interview (CHAINGED)
Technical Works overcome set restrictions.
Analogous to: demoscene · Minecraft / Sims abstraction · fantasy consoles · Oulipo
Soap Soup 2024–25
Soap Soup is a rigid creative format: artists start with an identical scene (fixed geometry, shared assets) and define only a few images and sounds.
Creativity flourishes as 120+ international artists discover and share new tactics for expression within the format. The constraint produces a repertoire that subsequent contributors observe and adapt. Soap Soup is now used as a charrette format in game-design courses, teaching how technical constraint produces collaborative invention.
Thematic Works fit into a scene.
Analogous to: peer review · scenes · genres · gallery shows · bundles
Haunted PS1 Demo Disc 2020–23
The Haunted PS1 is a freeware indie game collective that curates applications to a resurrected 1990s “demo disc” release format, with overwhelming interest from developers.
4800+ members have become a community of practice with creative gravity, pulling competing creatives towards experimentation and abstraction; a coherent “scene”.
Haunted PS1 on itch.io · Wikipedia · Fan wiki
Demo discs I built: Spectral Mall (2022) · Demo Disc 2021
Materials Poster PDF, slides, submitted abstract.
- Submitted abstract (PDF)
- Poster (PDF) [forthcoming]
- IMMERSE Symposium 2026
Contact Author and acknowledgments.
Colter Wehmeier
Dual Ph.D. candidate
Informatics · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Science and Technology in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage · The Cyprus Institute
wehmeie2@illinois.edu · portfolio.colter.us
Credits & partners
Nicosia International Airport VE was developed at the Virtual Environments Laboratory of The Cyprus Institute, in the context of DARIAH-EU and its UDigiSH Working Group (Digital Practices for the Study of Urban Heritage). The exhibition was hosted by the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation in Nicosia.
Wikar was supported by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, eDream, and the Fiddler Foundation.
C.H.A.I.N. and Haunted PS1 Demo Disc work is part of the Haunted PS1 community.