BANISH - The Farmhouse

Inspiration

I’ve always loved horror games, especially co-op. Lately I’ve been really invested in two in particular and wanted to fuse my favorite parts into one experience. I love tense teamwork, ritual mechanics, and that feeling of the unknown. BANISH is my take on that: a creepy, re-playable, cult-style horror set on a corrupted farmhouse that feels dangerous, but still delivers a great time with friends.

What it does

BANISH is a multiplayer ritual horror experience. Players explore a corrupted farmhouse, hunt for keys and ritual items, and complete a banishing rite while a roaming monster patrols the property. It's tense but re-playable, so each session feels a little different while keeping the same energy.

How we built it

BANISH was built utilizing the Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor. Some assets were custom built, some were obtained via Unity, and some were generated via Horizon's GenAI system. Synched props, triggers, and UI panels were used to keep co-op players aligned and to ensure gameplay is coordinated.

Challenges we ran into

Balancing horror with re-playability and short loops was a little tricky. I wanted to create tension without making failure feel punishing. It was also a challenge to achieve the look and design I envisioned for the world while still keeping optimization in mind. It took quite a bit of testing to get the game to feel just right.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I’m proud that BANISH feels like a full loop: find the items, perform the rite, survive the monster, and get a clear win/lose. I was able to make it feel cinematic even with capacity limits, and I kept it co-op friendly so players always have something to do together. Most of all, it turned into the exact horror experience I set out to build.

What we learned

I learned how important clear, readable objectives are in horror; players can handle tension, but not confusion. I also learned how to break big moments (like the banishing rite) into smaller synced steps so Horizon can handle them. I also got better at balancing visual detail differently for VR, desktop, and mobile so the farmhouse stayed scary but still playable across devices.

What's next for BANISH - The Farmhouse

Next for BANISH is refining difficulty and pacing based on additional player runs. The systems were built to be modular, so the same ritual framework can be dropped into new maps and locations. BANISH is planned as the first in a series, and I want to connect future chapters into one larger, creepy storyline across worlds.