Ancient Warriors

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  Into the Village

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  Chapter 1 Intro

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  Enemy Infiltration

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  Draugr Swarm

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  Mixed Reality Chapter Selection

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  To the Staircase

Inspiration

Ancient Warriors was inspired by Norse mythology, cinematic VR storytelling, and the idea of creating a short, intense experience where players feel like they are traveling through a living myth. Games like God of War and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla influenced the atmosphere, while classic VR wave shooters inspired the combat pacing.

Ancient Warriors begins in the Norse realm, forming the first chapter of a larger vision that will eventually expand into mythologies such as Hindu, Japanese, Greek, and Egyptian.

What it does

• A VR on-rails action experience set in a Norse world
  
• Automatic movement through handcrafted environments
  
• Bow-and-arrow combat with Draugr, Trolls, Dark Elves
  
• Rune-based health system (6 runes that break on hit)
  
• Cinematic boss encounter: a Dark Elf on a wolf-drawn chariot
  
• Environmental ambushes on rooftops, bridges, stairs, and ruins
  

How we built it

Tools and Technologies

• Unity + Meta XR Interaction SDK
  
• OpenXR + XR Interaction Toolkit
  
• Custom spline-based movement
  
• Enemy activation triggers
  
• Boss sequence controller
  
• Canvas-based rune health UI
  
• AI-generated art for concept direction
  
• Particle effects for magic, combat, and hits

Challenges we ran into

• Player initially stopped at only 1–2 path points → fixed path logic
  
• Dark Elf boss not moving due to parent/animator conflicts
  
• Particle effects looping when they should play once
  
• UI panels appearing slightly rotated in Canvas
  
• Performance drops with many enemies → solved using activation + cleanup
  
• Very tight development timeline
  

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a complete VR level in a short timeframe
  
• Smooth, comfortable auto-movement system
  
• Cohesive Norse visual style across UI, enemies, and world
  
• Dynamic environmental encounters (bridges, rooftops, pillars)
  
• Integrated AI art efficiently into the design workflow
  

What we learned

• How to balance VR comfort with action pacing
  
• How spline paths + triggers create a theme-park-style VR experience
  
• Optimizing enemy activation and destruction for memory
  
• Using AI image tools as part of fast iterative development
  
• Timing animations and particle effects using events
  
• How VR storytelling differs from flat-screen pacing
  
• Baking light improves performance drastically
  

What's next for Ancient Warriors

• More enemy types: witches, spectral wolves, berserkers
  
• Bigger boss fights across multiple realms
  
• Upgradable bows, arrows, and shields
  
• Expanded narrative and lore
  
• New Mythologies: Hindu, Japanese, Greek, Egyptian
  
• Optional hand-tracking mode
  
• Passthrough-enhanced magic encounters
  
• Leaderboards and social challenges
  
• Turning Ancient Warriors into a full episodic VR campaign
  
• Ragdoll Physics

Built With

• blender
• csharp
• meshy
• mixamo
• photopea
• unity