Inspiration
Tunisian heritage is often difficult to access and is frequently told through outside perspectives. At MIT Reality Hack’s Community Hack, we wanted to explore how immersive storytelling could help change that.
One of our team members has spent over six months working on community-led heritage scanning in Tunisia through her nonprofit project, TanitXR, named after Tanit, the goddess of protection. Together with local volunteers, she has helped build a growing archive of 3D scans of real Tunisian artifacts and sites. For this hackathon, we wanted to do more than just show those models. We wanted to bring them to life.
Our goal was to take artifacts that already existed in the TanitXR archive and transform them into an experience people could walk through, listen to, and emotionally connect with. We saw the Community Hack as the perfect space to turn months of technical preservation work into something human, accessible, and story-driven.
What it does
This project for TanitXR is a guided WebXR storytelling experience centered on the story of Queen Elissa, the founder of Carthage.
The experience is built around three real Tunisian artifacts from the TanitXR archive, structured as a beginning, middle, and end. Users explore the scene in a web browser and activate each artifact to unlock its part of the story.
Throughout the experience, users are guided by Nura, a small character who explores alongside them and explains the history and meaning of each object. Nura helps make the experience feel welcoming and conversational, especially for people who may be new to XR or to Tunisian history. Together, the artifacts, the narrative, and Nura create an accessible way to experience cultural heritage not as static objects, but as living stories.
How we built it
Early on, we realized that the experience we imagined was much bigger than what we could realistically ship during a hackathon. With support from mentors and the MIT Reality Hack community, we stepped back, white-boarded everything, and focused on what mattered most: telling one clear story, through three meaningful artifacts, in a form that people could actually access.
We built the project in Unity using C#, and deployed it to the web with Needle Engine as a browser-based WebXR experience. It runs across platforms in both VR and AR, and we tested it on Meta Quest 3, Apple Vision Pro, iPhone, Mac, and PC to make sure it works beyond a single device or headset. For the content itself, we intentionally chose artifacts that had already been scanned in Tunisia by local volunteers as part of TanitXR’s growing archive. We then researched the story of Queen Elissa using library sources, JSTOR, and historical articles, and wrote a narrative that connects each object to a moment in her journey.
We also paid special attention to language. To avoid Americanized pronunciation in the voiceover, we wrote names and places phonetically based on Tunisian Arabic. This small detail took time, but it mattered to us, because this story is rooted in a culture that deserves to be represented with care. In the end, the project became a balance between technical execution, historical research, and cultural respect, shaped by real constraints and a lot of intentional choices.
Challenges we ran into
Like many hackathon projects, we ran into real-world constraints—unstable internet, large file sizes, and even a historic snowstorm that disrupted our timeline. Those limitations forced us to focus on simplicity: beginning, middle, and end, with three key artifacts aligning with our narrative.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We shipped a complete and fully working WebXR experience that is accessible with or without a headset. The project is grounded in real Tunisian artifacts and ongoing community-led heritage preservation work, and delivers a clear narrative despite very limited time and resources. Beyond the technical outcome, what we are most proud of is the community that formed around the project. Several members of the MIT Reality Hack community became genuinely interested in TanitXR’s digital preservation efforts. People volunteered their time, shared ideas, offered thoughtful feedback, and supported the project far beyond what we expected. What started as a hackathon team quickly became a space for connection, collaboration, and new friendships. Building those relationships and seeing others care about preserving Tunisian heritage has been just as meaningful to us as shipping the experience itself.
What we learned
This project reminded us that scoping is not just a technical decision, but what makes it possible to actually ship something meaningful. Working within a browser showed us that XR storytelling does not need to be limited to headsets, and that accessibility directly shapes who gets to participate in these experiences.
More than anything, we learned the power of community. The Community Hack became our favorite part of MIT Reality Hack because it did not feel like a competition. It felt like a space where people were genuinely rooting for each other, sharing ideas, and helping one another bring their visions to life.
That support, openness, and sense of building together influenced the project as much as any tool or engine we used. It reminded us that technology is only one part of the work, and that meaningful projects grow through collaboration, trust, and human connection.
What's next for TanitXR
This project is just a starting point. We plan to expand the experience with more artifacts and stories, all sourced from community-led scanning efforts in Tunisia. Our goal is to continue growing this archive with local volunteers and partners, making heritage preservation something people can actively participate in, not just observe.
On the technical side, we want to evolve this into a larger browser-based virtual heritage space, something that can function like an open, accessible museum that anyone can visit from anywhere. We also plan to test and deploy the experience in classrooms, cultural spaces, and public settings, both in Tunisia and internationally, to explore how immersive storytelling can support education, cultural connection, and long-term preservation.
Most importantly, we want to keep building TanitXR as a community-driven project, bringing together technologists, artists, historians, and local contributors to protect and share stories that deserve to be told by the people they belong to.
Built With
- needle
- unity
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