Anapanic

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  Celebrating a win!

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  Anapanic

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  Podiums ready to play

Inspiration

I have always loved word games and created many for various consoles over the years. I recently got my first Meta Quest headset and then saw this competition which provided the push required to try and bring a word game into the virtual world. I also run a TikTok Live three times a week playing word and puzzle games with a large audience, so I have friends eager to try playing a live anagram game in a different format.

What it does

The main focus of Anapanic is a multi-player anagram game - there are six podiums around a TV screen featuring the game host who greets you, congratulates the winner, and tells terrible Dad jokes after each game. There are dog ear headbands in various colours to wear, including a 7th one hiding up a tree! There's also a quiet pond area with a bench to relax in between rounds.

How I built it

Drawing on my experience of similar games I knew what I wanted to make but not how as this was a completely new development environment for me. I worked with Typescript and the desktop editor to do most of the coding side of things, while all the world design was completed using the VR headset.

Challenges I ran into

This was my first experience of ever making a game in 3D as all my previous games have been 2D puzzles. Being able to create the world inside of VR actually made this easier than I expected. This was a whole new language to learn for interactions as well, and I found getting camera angles right on mobile particularly challenging when in focused interaction mode.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I think the world has done a very nice job of reproducing the experience of our live stream anagram game we play on TikTok, albeit with a smaller player count (6 rather than 60+)! I particularly like the headbands with the doggy ears that match the host.

What I learned

I learned all about creating a world in VR! I had to learn everything very quickly! I was impressed by the number of tutorials and the active Discord that helped get me up to speed.

What's next for Anapanic

We already have a community from our TikTok live streams who are excited to play this and I can't wait to show them. I'd love to build more word games to play in Meta Horizon in the future too.

Built With

• meta
• typescript