Up or Die

Inspiration

World ID: 856912434177732 “Up or Die” was inspired by the wild emotional rollercoaster of vertical climbing games like Only Up!, Getting Over It, and Chained Together—but reimagined as a playful, winter-themed social experience built for mobile. I wanted to preserve the tension, panic, and victory of those games, while wrapping everything in a world of ice, snow, and slippery chaos that feels more fun than punishing.

I was especially drawn to the idea of turning failure into something visible, social, and humorous—where every fall becomes part of the shared story. Instead of hiding mistakes, “Up or Die” celebrates them with frosty monuments, friendly peer pressure, and laughter echoing across the mountain as players push each other higher.

What it does

Up or Die is a vertical multiplayer climbing challenge built for Meta Horizon Worlds and designed specifically for mobile portrait play. Players scale snowy cliffs, floating ice platforms, fragile frozen bridges, and fantasy winter obstacles using a one-thumb, tap-and-hold movement system with swipe-to-jump traversal.

Every fall leaves behind a permanent Flag of Failure displaying the player’s username and height reached—slowly transforming the mountain into a frozen graveyard of past attempts. With proximity voice chat, players hear each other’s laughter, screams, panic, and celebrations in real time as they slip, recover, and race upward together. At the summit, a mysterious cake reward awaits—an ironic, wintery nod to “the cake is a lie,” teasing players forward with sweet false hope after countless icy falls.

How we built it

I built the world entirely in Meta Horizon Worlds using the desktop editor, focusing heavily on vertical readability, mobile accessibility, and multiplayer performance. The level layout, obstacles, and visual signaling were carefully designed to feel fair, legible, and fun on a small portrait screen. Persistent social markers were integrated directly into the world to ensure every failure becomes part of the shared environment.

Challenges we ran into

Balancing frustration with fun was one of the biggest challenges. Too punishing and players quit; too forgiving and the tension disappears. Ice mechanics and vertical spacing had to feel slippery and dangerous without becoming unfair.

I also experimented heavily with a true one-touch movement concept, but overriding and reshaping the default movement system proved to be technically challenging and limiting in practice. Finding the right balance between simplicity, responsiveness, and platform constraints required multiple iterations to ensure movement still felt precise, readable, and fair in a fast-paced vertical multiplayer environment.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I turned failure into a social monument, delivered a truly mobile-native control scheme, and built a world that’s naturally fun, whimsical and cozy

What we learned

Simple, touch-first gameplay can still support deep skill expression—but implementing a true one-touch control scheme (where players tap and drag to move and swipe to jump) proved far more difficult than expected. Overriding the default movement system consistently and reliably within the platform had technical limitations, and our custom controls were often overridden in practice. Ultimately, we learned when to adapt to the platform instead of fighting it, and stuck with the default movement to ensure stability, responsiveness, and a smooth player experience.

What's next for Up or Die

First I would plan to finish up all mentioned but unfinished features (one touch, and Flag of Failure). I plan to add themed seasonal climbs, cosmetic rewards, live events, and new summit surprises to grow long-term competition.

Built With

• claudecode
• horizon
• meta
• noesis
• typescript