Growing Community Through Play: Prototyping Belonging in XR
by Paige Dansinger
What helps someone move from being an online follower to becoming an active, engaged member of a community? This question has recently guided my work through Games for Change GAME PLAN coursework, an 8-week program for museum educators, and inspired a series of experimental game prototypes exploring mentorship, participation, and belonging within XR communities.
The challenge emerged through conversations within XR Women leadership spaces, where we reflected on how difficult it can be to transform digital visibility into meaningful connection. Many online communities attract followers, but deeper participation, peer mentorship, and sustained engagement require more intentional systems of support and care. Rather than creating experiences that simply ask users to “sign up,” I wanted to explore whether creative play itself could help cultivate belonging.
My first prototype began as an immersive community garden experience built in Horizon Worlds. Players explore an island environment, select flowers, and place them into shared garden beds. Each garden container triggers different environmental responses — water effects, green light bursts, birds, and celebratory confetti — paired with mentorship-inspired affirmation messages encouraging creativity, contribution, and community care. XR Women member Tink helped playtest the experience, and together we added her flower contribution into the shared garden.
During classroom playtesting, I received valuable feedback on my second prototype, created using Lovable AI, encouraging me to make the educational framework more visible. While my original focus centered on emotional learning, mentorship, and social belonging, I realized that integrating lightweight educational content could strengthen engagement and retention without compromising the project’s core purpose.
As a result, I expanded the experience into a browser-based garden game prototype inspired by collaborative card systems and shared growth mechanics. Players now plant seeds, water and nurture flowers, unlock new blooms over time, learn about bees, pollinators, flowers, and basic gardening concepts, while also receiving affirmation messages throughout the experience. The educational layer supports the larger metaphor: communities grow through care, participation, and mutual support.
Additional systems now include profile badges and levels, persistent stats, shared journaling tools, team quests, synchronized teammate lists, bee bonus interactions, and environmental feedback designed to reward exploration rather than competition.
What excites me most about this work is the possibility of designing XR experiences that support emotional safety, encouragement, and community identity formation through interactive systems. In many ways, the project asks a simple question: what if belonging could be designed intentionally?
I’m excited to continue developing these ideas through the Games for Change Annual Festival, where I will be teaching a Remix Reef hands-on workshop this July, and where Remix Reef will also be featured as part of the festival’s playable immersive arcade experience.
