Taffy Trot

Inspiration

The 3 of us (HarlesMac, FlexedTie and myself Matlo.3D) have always wanted to work with each other on a game idea that would be unique to Meta Horizon. We had all been apart of the Horizon Worlds community and space for awhile and so when this mobile contest got announced, we quickly formed a team and started discussing the potential of entering a submission together. Since we were all apart of the MHCP program as well, we were able to jump straight into working on things. After a few meetings with each other, we knew we wanted to work on a unique OBBY/Platformer style game, one that was going to look beautiful and sound great on a mobile device. And so we began, and Taffy Trot was born!

What it does

Taffy Trot is an exciting and chaotic "8-bit video game" stylized OBBY/Platformer set in a bright and colorful candy wonderland in the sky. The game was built to be something that any player could easily pick-up and play, and safe for all ages. What makes Taffy Trot very unique is it's simulation aspect to the game, where colorful physics-based candy and obstacles fall from the sky and down onto the trail. What you end up with is a gameplay style that is very unpredictable and completely different every time you play the game. The player can't use the same movement pattern to complete the track because of this, so skill and some quick fingers are a must with this game! Player's need to "trot" their way up the leaderboards to sweet sweet victory.

How we built it

The game was built primarily with the Meta Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor for the Meta Horizon app. We also heavily used other programs to put the game together such as Blender, 3DSMax, Substance Painter, Adobe Creative Suite, Bing Image Creator, MidJourney, Windsurf, MetaAI, Llama, Typescipt and Meta's codeblocks system.

One thing we also utilized every chance we could was Meta's GenAI feature imbedded within the Horizon Desktop Editor. It ended up being a fantastic feature that helped us produce the game much faster than we could have otherwise.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into some challenges right at the start during the brainstorming stage. We got on a quick call with each other to discuss some ideas for a game, as well as potential game names and game loops that work well for a mobile game. We eventually worked our way down to one idea we would all be happy to work with, but deciding on a name that worked wasn't the easiest. We eventually knew we wanted to go with a 8-bit video game candy world aesthetic, so we came up with a few names. One of them was "Toffee Trot" which initially we really liked, but HarlesMac pointed out quickly that if we didn't execute the 3D environment well enough, it could potentially look like a world filled with "doo-doo" because of that candy's particular brown color. We laughed for several minutes before finally composing ourselves to eventually land on the final game name "Taffy Trot" which we all loved as well and would allow for a much more diverse color palette! Overall it was challenging but a fun moment in the whole process.

Visuals were another challenge. Blending 3D models and the 2D pixel 8-bit style we wanted to incorporate was tricky and we really had to decide which elements made sense to be 3D objects, and which would be 2D graphics. FlexedTie tackled a lot of the environment look and feel, constantly adjusting the lighting, animation and colors in the world to a state we were all happy with. At many times he revisited the look, keeping in mind things such as color theory and psychology. In the end, we were able to achieve a result that was very colorful. A world filled with life that was visually stimulating to look at on a mobile device. It ended up looking fantastic in VR as well!

HarlesMac was in charge with the power-ups and downs for the game, and those presented their own challenges as well. Things such as scale, positioning and function of them were adjusted all the way to the deadline.

Issues with how fast items dropped and respawn times, what player speed felt comfortable, how long to make the track, etc were all things that we addressed and discussed as a group as they came up for us.

As we moved through the process of getting the game done, many bugs came up (some game breaking, some not). We would constantly fix and update things. Of course as soon we fixed one thing, new bugs in the game would come up to deal with. As with all the challenges and bugs we faced, we took them all in stride and stayed calm. We knew we had years of experience in our little group, and most game breaking issues that came up we were eventually were able to fix and address. We knew the challenges would be part the process and had a great group mindset in terms tackling those challenges as they came.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One thing we were very happy with was the overall style, branding and look we were able to give Taffy Trot. We wanted it to be something that would look amazing on a mobile device. We revisited the look many many times to the point where we thought it was the perfect balance of graphics on screen. Not too much to overwhelm the player but more than enough to make the game feel game super fun! A bright, arcade-like candy wonderland vibe is what we were aiming for.

Another thing we are very proud of is that we brought in custom made music for our game! HarlesMac brought with him a wealth of music industry knowledge and years of experience to the team, and so we were very lucky to utilize that to come up with music that fit perfectly with the game and get just the right vibe we wanted!

Finally were just very happy with the concept overall and how we were able to execute on the idea we had. The simulated dropping objects aspect to the game is something we felt was a very unique selling point to our game. The fact that every time you play the game you will have a different experience was something we were all excited about. That chaotic but fun nature of the game lent itself perfectly for a mobile game, especially the one we were trying to achieve. The player really does have to use some skill to dodge items while simultaneously gathering as many points as possible on their way to the top of the trail. The sounds and VFX were also something we spent a lot of time choosing as well to make sure everything fit well with each other.

What we learned

We learned a lot throughout this process. Things such as how to combine Horizon's code block system and typescript together was something we took a lot of notes on. We learned how Meta's Gen AI worked, and we utilized it many times to help create our game. It helped us a lot with creating objects, scripts and environment features for our game. Since it was available for us to use, we really explored and made use of it. We also learned how quickly we could build worlds using the Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor. It was relatively seamless for us to be able to transition testing things for mobile and then back to VR. Placing items and adjusting things on the fly for our game through the desktop editor was very ideal. Things such as bringing in new models, updating textures, and generating new AI created features through the editor was something all of us were enjoying thoroughly.

What's next for Taffy Trot

After seeing we were able to create a pretty solid game loop for our game, we're excited to further develop this game with potential IWP's and in-game rewards. Potential visual updates, expansion areas and alternate track selection are all things we are currently exploring. We are also looking forward to seeing how the game is received and what feedback will come within the first few weeks/months from all the players. That feedback will guide us to what will be important to tackle next, but we do have our own plans of exciting new things we'd love to bring into the game and to players as well!