Turning the Campus into a Game Map: Hualien Students Build a 360° Immersive Escape Room
As digital technology advances, images are becoming more than something to watch: they can create immersive experiences in which users participate, explore and interact.
In recent years, 360° imagery、virtual reality (VR)、interactive tours and generative AI tools have become widely used in tourism, exhibitions, brand marketing and digital content. Viewers no longer simply sit in front of a screen receiving information. By changing their viewpoint, exploring spaces and finding clues, they can become part of the story.
On May 1, 2026, National Hualien Commercial High School partnered with Jing-Yeu International Ltd. to hold the “Campus Escape Room: 360° Challenge Missions” workshop. Introducing students to important trends in digital content, the course combined generative AI, 360° photography and the UVC VR720 interactive platform to help them build their own immersive escape-room adventures.
The focus was not on how many software features students could master. Instead, new digital tools guided them from their first ideas toward interactive content that other people could experience and explore.Starting with Ideas: Finding a Game Theme of Your Own
The instructor introduces the course.
The instructor did not immediately ask students to start taking photographs. The course began with “creative ideation.”
In groups, students discussed what kinds of adventures they could design if their campus became one large game map.
Some suggested campus treasure hunts, others mysterious disappearances, and some developed adventures combining deduction and puzzles.
To introduce the workflow of future content creators, the course used generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Canva AI to support story ideas and character development.
Students tried asking AI questions such as:
* What interesting plots could a campus escape room have?
* How can we design missions that make players want to keep exploring?
* What puzzles would suit senior high school students?
* How can we structure the story to make it more immersive?
AI helped students find inspiration and learn to make their ideas concrete, developing complete story structures and sequences of challenges.
The instructor prompted them to consider:
“Would a player want to keep going?”
“What makes this challenge interesting?”
“Would someone trying it for the first time understand?”
Group discussions
This gradually helped students develop user-centered design thinking.Morning Session: From Story Design to Planning 360° Photography
Getting to know the 360° camera
Once their stories began to take shape, students moved into a key part of immersive content creation—planning 360° photography.
Many students were using a 360° camera for the first time and found panoramic photography fascinating.
The main difference from conventional photography is that a 360° image has no fixed viewing direction. Viewers can look around freely, so every part of the scene could contain an important clue.
Students therefore began asking:
* Where should we hide the clues?
* Which direction will players look first?
* Which locations are easiest to notice?
* How can the photography give players a sense of exploring a space?
Before taking photographs, each group surveyed the campus to find suitable locations.
Some chose classrooms as secret bases, others turned corridors into mysterious passageways, and some used campus corners to create adventurous story settings.
In addition to teaching camera operation, the instructor explained spatial composition and the design of viewing routes to create the most immersive browsing experience for players.
Students gradually discovered:
Photography involves more than pressing the shutter. It requires thinking about the complete experience from a player’s perspective.
Using the 360° camera
Afternoon Session: Bringing Ideas into UVC VR720 to Build a Playable Escape Room
After photography, the course moved into the most eagerly anticipated practical stage.
Students imported their morning’s 360° photographs and materials into UVC VR720 and began constructing interactive escape-room games.
With the instructor’s guidance, students learned step by step to:
* Upload 360° photographs
* Connect scenes
* Set up interactive hotspots
* Add written hints
* Design routes through the challenges
* Link the story sequence
Turning 360° photographs into an escape-room game Turning 360° photographs into an escape-room game Turning 360° photographs into an escape-room game
Ideas that had existed only on paper gradually became interactive games that others could operate and experience.
Many students were delighted to discover that simple digital tools let them build immersive work without complex programming skills.
Turning 360° photographs into an escape-room game Turning 360° photographs into an escape-room game Turning 360° photographs into an escape-room game
Through repeated testing and revision, they also came to understand:
What matters is not how complicated a tool is, but how engaging the idea is. Even the most powerful software cannot replace a good story and an interesting experience.From Finishing a Project to Designing an Experience
Once the projects were complete, groups took turns presenting their work and trying one another’s games.
Using VR equipment or screens, students explored the different teams’ creations firsthand.
Rather than simply explaining which photographs they had taken, they began discussing:
* Why were the clues arranged this way?
* What did they want players to feel?
* Which challenge was the most demanding?
* What problems arose during testing?
* How did they adjust and improve the game?
Through discussion and sharing, students gradually moved from image makers to “experience designers”.
They were beginning to understand:
Good content is more than a finished product. It invites people to participate, encourages exploration and leaves a memorable impression.
Sharing their escape-room creations Sharing their escape-room creations Sharing their escape-room creations
Using Technology to Inspire Creativity and Turn Learning into an Adventure
Jing-Yeu International aimed to do more than teach equipment and software operation. Through generative AI, 360° imaging and an interactive platform, the course helped students develop creative thinking, problem-solving and teamwork.
From story ideas, scene planning and 360° photography to building on UVC VR720 and testing interactions, every stage connected with important capabilities for the future digital content industry.
Students learned not only how to use tools, but how to turn creative ideas into tangible results through technology.
The course concluded with project presentations and an awards ceremony. Each student went home happy, with a sense of achievement and a thoughtful gift.
Seeing the campus escape rooms they had built reach completion, many students realized for the first time:
Technology is more than impersonal equipment.
When creativity meets technology, everyone can become a storyteller and create an adventure world of their own.🎬 Watch the workshop video on YouTube:
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