Welcome, and thank you for visiting our blog!  I’m Laurie Annis, cofounder of AXR, and a 3D/XR developer with 30 years of experience serving social impact businesses. 

You might already know what 3D is, but you might be wondering, “What is XR?”  XR is a term used to describe “extended” reality, which includes:

• Virtual Reality - complete immersion in a virtual environment, typically experienced in a headset that shuts out the real world
• Augmented Reality - virtual content added into the real world, usually experienced through a screen, like a mobile device
• Mixed Reality - partial immersion in a virtual environment, with virtual content experienced through a headset with an open view to the real world

We chose to use the term XR in our product name to convey our plan to bring family histories to life through as many of these modern, engaging platforms as we can.

I got my start in XR when I landed my first dream job in early 2016, as an overqualified 3D game artist – quickly turned Lead Artist – on the multi-player VR game Hypatia.  Working on Hypatia was a labor of love that completely meshed with my values: a social game, with an ambition to democratize technology while making geography, history, art, and science immersive, engaging, and accessible on a wide scale.

I feel incredibly lucky to say that developing AncestoriesXR – an interactive-narrative video game bringing family histories to life – is now my second dream job!  My cofounder Retha Hill inspires and energizes me every day with her innovative vision, expertise and acumen. Just like Hypatia did, AncestoriesXR embodies my values through our core mission to increase kindness and empathy in society, by providing a better understanding of our shared histories.

If you’re interested in game development and making 3D art for games, please consider subscribing to my Patreon here, where I share tips and sneak peeks at the technical side of developing AXR and related projects!

Thank you again for joining our community.  We look forward to sharing our aspirations for AncestoriesXR with you, and more of our progress in coming weeks!  

Sincerely,
Laurie Annis