Inspiration

We have a deep love for classic, skill-based 1v1 arena shooters. There's an unmatched intensity in a duel where tactics and aim are all that matter. We set out to build a polished, competitive shooter that captured that feeling. But we also saw a need within the creator community for a reliable, open-source foundation for competitive games. Our goal was twofold: to create a fun, playable "Pistols Only" shooter, and to provide the entire project as a well-documented toolkit for other developers to learn from, adapt, and build their own unique games upon.

What it does

For players, 1v1 Arena Remixable is a fast-paced, competitive shooter. Players queue in a lobby, are matched against opponents of similar skill using an ELO-based system, and face off in intense "Pistols Only" duels across 4 distinct, curated arenas. For creators, it is a powerful, open-source template. The entire TypeScript codebase is available for anyone to use. Developers can take our modular systems—the LobbyManager, the robust CombatManager, the cross-platform AmmoUI—and adapt them. They can easily add new weapons, create different game modes, or build entirely new competitive experiences using our stable foundation, drastically reducing development time.

How we built it

The game was built in the Meta Horizon Editor using TypeScript (horizon/core, horizon/ui). We architected it as a series of modular, reusable systems: A Lobby Manager that handles matchmaking and queuing. A powerful Combat Manager that serves as the brain of the game, managing the entire match lifecycle from start to finish. A dynamic, Cross-Platform UI System, exemplified by the AmmoUI, which intelligently adapts its layout for VR, mobile, and desktop. The code was written with the specific intention of being clean, organized, and easy for other creators to understand and modify.

Challenges we ran into

Our primary challenge was creating a truly seamless and fair cross-platform experience. It wasn't about the network code, but about the feel and balance. Making sure a VR player with motion controls could have a fair fight against a mobile player on a touchscreen required countless hours of tuning aim-assist, weapon recoil, and movement speeds for each platform. Furthermore, maintaining a high, stable framerate across a wide range of devices was a significant hurdle that demanded careful optimization.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud of achieving a balanced and fun gameplay feel across all platforms. It’s a great feeling to know that a player can be competitive whether they're in VR or on their phone. Implementing a fully functional ELO rating system from scratch was a major success, as it provides a fair competitive ladder. Most importantly, we're proud to have created a stable, feature-complete project that can serve as a reliable starting point for other creators in the community.

What we learned

This project was a deep dive into performance optimization and competitive systems design. We learned to implement critical techniques like object pooling to manage resources efficiently, which was essential for keeping the game smooth on mobile. We also learned the intricacies of building a fair, ELO-based matchmaking system. Most importantly, building this as an open-source project taught us the value of writing clean, modular code. Designing systems to be easily understood and adapted by others forces a higher standard of quality and organization.

What's next for 1v1 Arena Remixable

Our focus now shifts to supporting the creator community. Our next steps are not to add more features to our specific "Pistols Only" game, but to improve the open-source toolkit. We plan to write comprehensive documentation for each system, create tutorials on how to add new weapons or create new game modes using our foundation, and engage with other creators to help them bring their own competitive game ideas to life.

Built With

• typescript