First-Year Students Win Holloway Competition with Virtual Reality Gaming Venture
Armored Pig Studios team members Dylan Nye, Kinoa Witt and Aidan Cronin pose with the $15,000 grand prize check after winning the 38th Paul J. Holloway Prize Innovation to Market Competition.
Itâs never too early to move forward with a great idea.
A trio of first-year students with a passion for virtual reality gaming proved just that, taking home the $15,000 grand prize at the 38th
Armored Pig Studios â made up of Kinoa Witt, Dylan Nye and Aidan Cronin â impressed judges with their business plan focused on developing and designing virtual reality games.
The team has already found success on the Meta platform with its game , a multiplayer, stress-relief sandbox experience where players can creatively fight a ragdoll character. The group is actively developing additional games as it builds momentum.
âI think the numbers set us apart,â Witt says. âWhat weâre building isnât just an idea â weâre well past that stage. What really sets us apart is that we have the proof and the data to back it up. Weâve already reached hundreds of thousands of users, which shows that VR is not just interesting â itâs an industry worth pursuing.â
Though only in their first year at UNH, the team draws on a range of complementary experiences. Witt, a computer science major, has been involved in virtual reality development for four years; Nye, a liberal arts major, brings experience in game design; and Cronin, a finance major, supports market analysis as the business grows.
âThis is my fourth year in VR development, so itâs really rewarding to win this competition and have that time validated,â Witt says. âFor me, it means more time to keep building. The $15,000 will help with costs and allow us to continue expanding and scaling.â
Named in honor of Paul J. Holloway, an accomplished business leader and successful entrepreneur, the Holloway competition is USNH's premier business plan competition for undergraduate and graduate students across the university system.
Armored Pig Studios may have taken home the top prize, but the five other finalists also left strong impressions on judges and received awards of their own. In total, 34 teams entered this yearâs competition.
Other business ideas pitched during the finals included innovations in research collaboration, indoor rock-climbing technology, AI business solutions, government services, and workplace productivity tools.
Ethan OâLeary of OmniClimb, a venture developing technology that provides indoor rock climbers with real-time performance feedback, presents during the Holloway Competition. OmniClimb won the Sustainable Impact Award.
UNH President Elizabeth Chilton noted that all finalists benefited from the experience, regardless of the outcome.
âThese are creative ideas that meet real-world needs. But just as important as what students develop is what they learn along the way. We donât move from an initial idea to a final pitch without refining it, adjusting it or often rethinking it entirely,â Chilton says. âWorking through uncertainty, getting feedback and continuing to improve is exactly the kind of iterative process that prepares students â whether it's your first year or you're a graduating doctoral student â for their careers and for life.â
Chilton credited the UNH Entrepreneurship Center for helping to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem where students from any major can bring an idea forward, find collaborators, and find support to explore it.
Paul College Dean Lucy Gilson says that seeing students from multiple disciplines collaborate highlights the strength of the competition.
âThis is the cornerstone of what we do. We educate our students both inside and outside of the classroom,â Gilson says. âExperiential learning is important to all of us, and the magic happens when you see students from different colleges come together.â
Below are the results of the 2026 Holloway Competition and additional information on the six finalists.
