Can You Handle It?

Can You Handle It?
Finger Guns Target Practice
Piano Session
Tower Fall
Menu

Inspiration

I’ve had the idea for a hand-tracking game built around dexterity and coordination challenges for a while. Over time, I started thinking about how “modifications” to the hands could add a strange, surreal feeling that can only really work in VR: your left hand controlling the virtual right hand (and vice versa), fingers controlling the opposite hand’s fingers, hands that suddenly become huge or tiny, etc. When this challenge was announced, it felt like the perfect excuse to finally jump in and play with the idea.

What it does

It’s a game where you’re a contestant in a game show called “Can You Handle It?”, and each challenge requires you to use your hands in one way or another to solve it. The challenges start off fairly simple, but as you progress, you revisit earlier challenge types with new hand “mods” (left becomes right, hands shrink or grow to unnatural sizes, and more). What used to be straightforward suddenly takes real focus and coordination.

How we built it

The game was built in Unity 6.2, using the Meta All-in-One SDK and the XR Hands package. It’s written in C#, with a local SQLite database for progress and preference saving. Other tools used include Blender, Audacity, GIMP, and Reaper. Initial development started two days after the competition announcement (November 07).

Challenges we ran into

One big challenge was figuring out the best way to intuitively communicate what the hand mods are doing. If your left hand suddenly becomes the right (or vice versa), it can get confusing and disorienting because there’s a disconnect between your real-world hands and the modded ones. The solution was to color-code the hands (left and right), and whenever a hand moves away from its real-life “anchor,” a ghost version appears with the original colors. The modded hands then use the correct colors to clearly show which real hand is controlling which virtual hand.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I’m very proud of the hand interactions. I think they’re creative and offer a unique experience that makes even simple challenges more fun and engaging. I’m also proud of getting all of it done in a month. Focusing on smaller challenges with reusable components helped me build something that feels genuinely worth playing within the competition timeline.

What we learned

I learned how to use the XR Hands package to implement hand tracking, and I learned a lot about Addressables—especially loading and managing tutorial videos and game audio cleanly.

What's next for Can You Handle It?

I’d like to polish the existing challenges with more depth and variety, and add brand new ones. I also want to expand the hand mods and add new ones (throwable hands you move with finger motions, more pose-based “effect powers” like the finger gun, etc.). And eventually, I’d love to add a competition mode where you face off against one or more opponents in a full game show challenge showdown.