Dark Maze

Inspiration

This game was originally inspired by those vintage Nintendo games I played as a kid. Simple "find your way to the end of the level" type games, where enemies kinda just patroI a spot back-n-forth and a simple game mechanic defeats them; where you had to find a key to get past an area, and the whole way you earned points for simply playing the game. Dark Maze puts a player into the position of being a mouse in a table maze, trying to find their way out. I was inspired to update this old SubD game through nostalgia for both building in Horizon and retro gaming. When I was first learning how to build in Horizon Worlds, when it was only SubD and Codeblocks, this world was my baby. I put so much time into careful placement of every piece. When this contest was announced, while having another submission planned (Star Drop) for an update, I just couldn't help but go back to my very favorite old build to fix it up too, add some new things, and make it mobile playable, whether it stood a chance to win or not.

What it does

The Mobile update does the following:

Brings the game from VR-only play to VR & Mobile play: The orbs were re-worked and re-made with mobile in mind for visual, sound, and added mechanics. The rocks and keys were each re-made so that Mobile players could actually grab and hold them, with an action button enabled to throw or drop them. The doors & locks were re-worked so that Mobile players could actually interact with them and unlock the doors.
Adjustments and Changes: A complete overhaul to all game sounds and music was made, adjustments to the Maze itself were made, the Achievement-board title was changed to "Maze Milestones", the original Leaderboard tracking maze-completions was reset, added visual effects (lighting adjustments & flickering orbs), and minor bug & exploit fixes.
Added Point-gathering: Players can pick up 5-points throughout the Maze (guaranteed behind every locked door, otherwise randomly placed), and players are now rewarded 2-points for hitting an orb with a rock. A newly added Leaderboard tracks points for all players. This was added to further encourage exploring, interacting with, and progressing through the maze.
Added a weekly "Maze Race" Leaderboard tracking who was 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., each week to complete the maze. This was added as a shareable moment for players, as well as encouraging players to return each week.

How we built it

The original game was built entirely in Horizon Worlds using the original SubD VR editor using mostly basic pieces; the game was updated using the Desktop editor with Typescript for new mechanics.

Challenges we ran into

The scripting, as usual for me, was a challenge. I prefer to build environments, scripting is not something I'm good at, or like to do.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud of getting those scripts to actually work well. For a bit there, wasn't sure I could.

What we learned

I learned a lot about Typescripting, things that are probably simple for most? I learned a lot more about the differences in designing for VR vs Mobile, and the difficulties in making a game equally playable for both.