Duck Duck Doom

Inspiration

Duck Duck Doom grew directly from conversations with the Horizon Worlds community. Newcomers often found existing worlds daunting or too fiddly on a phone, while groups of friends craved fast‑paced, social experiences they could dive into between meetings or during commutes. We realized there was a gap for something instantly approachable, yet thrilling, on mobile—an easy “grab‑and‑go” game that still packed a visceral punch when you saw that giant rubber duck hurtling toward you.

What it does

Duck Duck Doom puts players in a quant farm themed arena. Their goal is to not be eliminated by the giant flaming rubber duck that quickly starts bouncing from end to end of the playspace, splattering players and dropping their numbers. The last player standing reigns victorious and the eliminated players spectating from the lobby are able to jump in again!

How we built it

My partner and I built this using both the desktop editor and the VR editor, using the VR tools for placing aesthetic items to flesh out the environment, and the desktop tools to rapidly develop the game concept and function. We regularly utilized AI gen tools for code, models, and sound effects to build out our experience.

Challenges we ran into

This was my first time using typescript after learning codeblocks just a couple weeks prior. This was also our first time using custom model importing and there were some challenges we faced on both fronts as we learned how to quickly navigate the documentation provided.

We also experimented with dozens of ideas that sounded fun on paper, but once implemented diluted the fun that is the core concept of the game or increased the barrier to entry for new players by complicating the game loop.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This game has already been played by thousands of users and we have had a ton of feedback and overall support for the concept. Learning how to take player suggestions and productively combine them with our more strategic design concepts was extremely rewarding and continues to be something we're proud of. The number of players who we'd hear talking about how much they enjoyed the game was a surreal experience as well.

What we learned

This world taught us that no matter how much testing we could manage, nothing beats having dozens of players in a game with you to watch what they're doing, how they're breaking the game, what exploits they've discovered, and what players want more of. Quickly patching bugs to keep lobbies alive was very important as we learned that our games functioned well with small lobbies but rapidly fell apart as active players ballooned.

What's next for Duck Duck Doom

We've built a robust system for themed events, so we have plenty of those planned! We are also planning on implementing a customization system to reward loyal players and add value to limited time events.