Laurie Annis

Laurie Annis is a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University's The GAME School (Games, Arts, Media, and Engineering), where she teaches courses in extended reality (XR) and game design and development.

Annis is a senior 3D/XR generalist with extensive experience across the full production pipeline for games and interactive media. She is the author of Blender 3D for Jobseekers, a beginner's guide to professional 3D content creation, and the founder of Unreality3D.com, a creator-first 3D web publishing platform, and Interconnect3D.com, a platform helping 3D creators share and discover premade assets and tools. Her shipped XR work includes Hypatia, a free-to-play VR experience on Steam, Stoven Universe and Magical Capsule Critters, VR/Mobile/Web playable spaces originally published on Spatial.io and actively transitioning to Unreality3D.com, and Ancestories3D, a free-to-play browser experience on Itch.io.

Annis develops AI-assisted creative workflows that leverage large language models for technical problem-solving, code architecture, and production support while preserving human creative direction and critical judgment. She integrates these practices into her teaching, preparing students to use AI tools responsibly and effectively in professional game and XR development.

Prior to coming to ASU, Annis led and contributed to 3D, XR, and game production teams across multiple studios and projects, including serving as Technical Lead, Producer, and Project Manager on CanastaMatch Play, Senior Project Manager and XR Generalist at MedMicroMaps, Creative Director and Cofounder at AncestoriesXR, and Lead 3D Artist roles at Stax3D, TimefireVR, and RoomsAlive. She has trained over 30 artists on 2D, 3D, and XR production workflows and is active in the Phoenix game development community, including leadership in the Phoenix Unity Engine Developers meetup group and regular participation in IGDA Phoenix events. She has presented at industry events including IGDA and GeekGirlCon.