Mech Rivals

Mech Rivals

Inspiration

As a fan of Gundam Plastic Model Kits (Gunpla), we wanted to create a game where you can build your Mech and watch it come to life and battle. Each hex on the gameboard is sized based on the "Gundam Action Base 5" - designed to provide the experience of playing with 1/144th scale models kits that can actually shoot and explode. We also wanted to create a digital tabletop gaming system that can work for many different tabletop wargames like Battletech and Warhammer 40K. One day, we’d love to see our game tie-in with some of our favorite tabletop games and franchises.

What it does

Mech Rivals is a 2-player co-located mixed reality game.
Step 1: Host a game and have a friend who is in the same room join.
Step 2: Position your gameboard.
Step 3: Purchase Mech parts from the shop and build your mechs by fixing them together with your hands. The parts snap together smoothly like magnets!
Step 4: Deploy your Mechs to the procedurally generated battlefield.
Step 5: Pick & place your Mechs to direct them to move. Placing the drop-point closer to the hex edge allows you to determine the final rotation of the Mech.
Step 6: Battle until one side's Mechs are completely destroyed.

How we built it

This game was built from scratch in 1 month using Unity. We used the Meta XR Interaction SDK samples and Meta Building Blocks as a starting point. Meta Simulator and ParrelSync was used for testing.

Challenges we ran into

There was a bit too many features planned to fit into 1 month of development time. There is still lots more that we can work on and improve on.
Unity NavMesh does not work on table-sized small maps! In the end, we had to create our own homebrew A* Navigation System for hex traversal.
We originally had a hover-highlight system using Highlight Plus Unity Asset but it tanked the performance in VR and we had to remove it at the last minute.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

For this game, we came up with a novel Mech Building System and a "Pick-up & Place" Movement System that works well with hand-tracking.

What we learned

We should test on the headsets earlier, especially with multiplayer. Some network issues don't show on the simulator.

What's next for Mech Rivals

Lots of features that were planned but cut out due to the lack of time:

More Mech parts and weapons
Fog of war
Turn-based mode
Switching from passthrough to POV of pilot in Mech in Full VR. When playing tabletop wargames, you usually have to duck down close to the table to see if you’ve got line of sight. This would be a much cooler alternative.
More indicators to provide details on Mechs and their parts
Pilot panels that show health, ammo and various stats
Saving Mech designs
Painting of Mechs

We believe that this game is very promising and can go far with more development time.