End Effectors Drop Zone

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  Title Screen

How to play

Start a session, you can play solo just by readying up and starting a game, but there is two player co-op also. Left thumbstick moves, right thumbstick snap turns. Click the left thumbstick to dash. Supply drops will start dropping in, you can see where they are by looking around for green beams. Avoid/Kill the End Effectors and collect as many supply drops as you can before you are inevitably are exterminated. The only way to score is to collect supply drops, but collecting supply drops gives you new weapons!

About the game

Inspired by wave based horde survival games, End Effectors Drop Zone is a fresh take on the genre and pretty rare for the VR medium, especially with online co-op. I built it in the last week and haven't really slept. I wish I was able to add more enemy types but didn't have time. Built in Unity, with Photon Fusion 2. It's a spinoff of a different unrelease game I made a vertical slice of years ago.

How I built it

As mentioned, the game is built in Unity, with Photon Fusion 2. It uses the shared mode topology, my biggest goal with the project was to push the limits of what a horde mode/survival game could be on Meta Quest. It supports up to 60 enemy AI units pursuing the players at once, all with dynamic IK, foot placement, and ragdoll death states, and a plethora of visual effects.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the art, which I spent a lot of time on. Using PCSS filtered realtime soft shadows, Bakery for the baked mixed lighting, and Bakery Volumes for dynamic global illumination on the characters.

This was an entirely new project, and my first Fusion 2 project.

Challenges I ran into

I was working on a different idea all of November and it wasn't working out, and I pivoted 8 days ago. I slept very little and cranked this bad boy out. It has some glaring issues but I'm still pretty happy with it. At the last minute I couldn't get my build to upload to my release channel until I switched to the Meta Core SDK, and it flipped the hands upside-down inexplicably, so there's that. Also there a bug with the enemy state machine where I believe he's targeting you in the same frame he dies, so he never dies and becomes invincible. Terrifying. I'm sure there's other bugs :)

What's next for End Effectors Drop Zone

I'd like to fix the bugs, and then move onto adding more enemy types, weapons, leaderboards, and a meaningful progression system with unlocks.

Built With

• c#
• photon
• unity