Karaoke Bar VR

Inspiration

I wanted to sing karaoke in front of an audience from the comfort of my home. VR seemed like the perfect medium to recreate that nightclub atmosphere without the social anxiety.

What it does

Karaoke Bar VR is an immersive Meta Quest VR experience that lets you perform karaoke songs in a virtual nightclub. You select songs from curated playlists (Party Classics, Power Ballads, Disney Essentials, and 90s-00s Hits), and the app loads you into a club scene with animated dancers and lighting. The dancers respond to the music - they dance when you're performing, go idle when you pause, and applaud when you finish your song.

How we built it

Built in Unity 6 using the BNG Framework for VR interactions. The app uses Unity's Video Player for local video playback of karaoke tracks stored in StreamingAssets. I implemented a playlist system with the EnhancedScroller UI framework for smooth song browsing. The scene architecture uses PlayerPrefs to pass song data between the home menu and club scene.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was Android's read-only APK file system. Initially, the video player crashed trying to enumerate files in StreamingAssets. I had to implement platform-specific logic to handle file access differently on Android versus standalone builds. Synchronizing dancer animations with video state (playing/paused/finished) also required careful event listener management.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a polished, working VR experience as a solo developer. The scene transitions feel smooth, the playlist system is intuitive in VR, and the dancers add real atmosphere to the performances. Successfully deploying to Quest hardware with stable video playback was rewarding.

What we learned

Learned a lot about Unity's Video Player API, Android APK file structure, and VR UI/UX design. Discovered the importance of platform-specific code paths when targeting mobile VR. Also learned that curating a smaller, high-quality song list (23 songs) creates a better experience than overwhelming users with hundreds of options.

What's next for Karaoke Bar VR

Add multiplayer support so friends can watch each other perform. Implement scoring based on pitch detection. Expand the song library with user-uploadable content. Add more venue options beyond the nightclub scene - maybe a dive bar, stadium, or intimate jazz club.

If you want to test out Karaoke Bar VR, I can add you as a tester on Quest. Shoot me an email with your Quest email at stefanlonescu@proton.me