Dimensional Defense

Inspiration

Who doesn't like classic games? They are always easy to play and very catchy. So we were excited to create a multiplayer game by merging the strategic depth of classic tower defence with the immersive power of mixed reality and take it to the next level where people can have creeping enemies materializing in their living room, while they strategically build towers that shoot bullets in defence. Thinking on fast-paced battles where players dodge projectiles and strategize on the fly, using their physical space as the battlefield, plus interacting with other friends! A chance to revolutionize the genre, building a game that's as exhilarating as it is innovative.

What it does

Since this is a multiplayer game, it needs at least two players to start. Players have the option of hosting or joining a session. The use of mixed reality allows the players to place the battlefield over any surface of their preference. When setting up a battle, they will be able to use their hands to drag and drop towers and objects to create their defense strategy. When the objects are already set up, the game begins. There will be a portal from which the enemies will come in hordes. Players will check their pain points to improve their strategy. While enemies are attacking players can choose to add more assets to their defense or send more enemies to their opponents! Each player has 20 lives, and the last player that survives wins!

How we built it

This game was built using Unity and Meta Quest 3 as the main software and hardware tools. We also used different features of the Meta Presence Platform to enhance the mixed reality experience of the game.

Challenges we ran into

There were some challenges that we ran into when developing the game. We knew it would be difficult to connect everything and make it work properly, considering that part of the team members were not very familiar with the used technologies, but it was harder than expected to cope with all the learning and fast-paced development and testing to meet the deadline. For instance, the main challenge was the learning and use of the networking service (Netcode) which took us a significant amount of time to figure out, but we could solve it through deep research and testing. Another important challenge was the creation of the spatial anchors. This issue also cost us some time and a lot of debugging. In the end, we discovered that the solution was in the Oculus platform and we could manage to fix it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We feel so proud of having finished this project which was a big challenge for all of us. This was also our first Hackathon, so there were many doubts in our team, but we feel so good to have not given up and continued learning together and solving issues, despite the uncertainty. Regarding our game building, we would like to recognize the effort we put into the synchronization of the game and the visuals which was a big accomplishment at an early/late stage of the project which gave us the confidence that we could make it till the end and also the capacity to solve smaller issues that came on the way. .....

What we learned

Now we definitely have a better knowledge on how to create a multiplayer game for mixed reality. We also learned that sometimes coding using new technologies can be overwhelming, but with patience and consistency, anything can be learned, and that we are capable of more than we think.
We are sure that this skill of fast learning will help us to cope with all the new technologies that come out every day and be able to adapt rapidly and leverage their potential.

What's next for Dimensional Defense

We would like to improve some aspects of the game and create more play variations that can unlock the full potential of giving a modern approach to this classic game. Then, we definitely want to publish it.