Monkey Laser Face

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  Current key art for the prototype

Basic Gameplay Instructions

Grabbing Stick out your hand with an open palm. Aim your palm at a monkey or banana. If the universe cooperates, you will grab it. This is early early early access.

Shooting Monkey Lasers

• Red Back Switch Monkeys: Pick up a monkey with a red switch on its back. Hold it in one hand and flip the switch with the other. The monkey needs a moment to charge its face before firing. It may scream. This is normal.
• Stretch Monkeys: If a monkey has no switch, grab it with both hands and pull outward like you’re trying to stretch it into a longer, more aerodynamic monkey. It will scream first (could be pain... or maybe excitement), then fire a laser from its face. Again, normal.

Feeding Monkeys Present a banana to a monkey’s face, or shove the monkey’s face into the banana. The monkey will snatch it and devour it while the banana screams in protest. If a monkey wanders into a banana, it will eat that too. This may feel violent at first, but just breathe.

Monkey Mortality Disclaimer Monkeys cannot be killed. They are indestructible, emotionally questionable creatures. You can throw them out of your room, and gravity will handle the rest. The game considers this a “you problem.”

Banana Attack Planes Planes piloted by bananas will fire at the monkeys. Currently, their shots cannot kill monkeys. The worst they can do is make monkeys panic and poop balloons.

Balloon Interaction Rules When a monkey is blasted by lasers or banana planes, it will release balloons. You can hit balloons with your hands. Monkeys can hit balloons. Monkey Lasers can pop balloons. Banana planes can hit and pop balloons. Everyone agrees balloons should suffer.

Destruction Notes Monkey lasers can destroy walls, planes, and balloons. They cannot destroy the Banana Blimp or buildings. They are still under construction for future destruction.

There are no objectives, no points, and no pressure. This is a pure Monkey Laser Face sandbox, showcasing the strange behaviors and systems that will evolve into the full game. Further chaos will be added later. We would love to get this sandbox out for the holidays. What do you all think?

Inspiration

With the goal of making something fun for hand tracking and mixed reality, the project began with the idea of treating a stuffed monkey as a reactive weaponized toy you could bond with. The contrast between something soft and harmless and the unexpected emergence of a powerful facial laser created a tone that felt strange, playful, and worth exploring. The concept of bananas serving as both food and enemies added a layer of absurdity that set the foundation for the world. For hand tracking, we wanted to have weapons, but knew it would be a challenge to hold. I picked up my son's stuffed monkey. Then, for some reason, I thought, what if you hugged the monkey and it shot a laser out of its face? Monkey Laser Face was born. R&D made us realize that hugging or squeezing doesn't work quite well. Stretching the monkey arms to initiate the laser is better, like holding up handlebars, and it's better for aiming.

What it does

The prototype introduces a physics-based stuffed monkey that the player can interact with using hand tracking, feed, and use as a laser-emitting tool. When fed bananas, the monkey reacts with expressive behavior while the bananas scream in protest (who wouldn't?). The monkey’s laser can destroy the mixed reality walls and ceiling, revealing an exterior virtual city. Banana piloted biplanes then appear and attack the monkeys, and the player must protect the monkeys and aim the monkey’s face laser to defend the space. If the monkey is hit, it emits balloons that add to the chaos.

How we built it

The prototype was developed in Unreal Engine 5, with support for mixed reality and hand tracking. The monkey uses a physics-driven character setup with custom behaviors for walking, vocalizing, and reacting to player interaction. The banana characters use simple rigging and sound cues. The mixed reality destruction system tracks laser impact locations and replaces targeted wall sections with virtual openings. Enemy biplanes use spline based flight paths and state driven damage responses. The blimp functions as the deployment source for the planes.

Challenges we ran into

Ensuring the monkey felt both physical and responsive required iteration. Managing destruction in mixed reality while keeping performance stable was another technical hurdle. Establishing clear visual communication when walls break open and enemies appear took tuning. Integrating airborne threats into a space defined by the user’s room layout required flexible spawning logic. Feature Creep! There is so much we want to do so staying on a deliverable path with this one was tough. There is just SO MUCH we can do with this. :)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We achieved a functional loop where feeding, interacting with the monkey, and defending the room all work together. The laser-driven destruction system reliably opens the MR environment to the virtual world outside. The banana-piloted biplanes fly, attack, take damage, and crash. The monkey’s expressive reactions and the screaming banana consumption help define the tone of the experience. It is insane, we love it, and it is a feature creep bomb which is a great thing to have.

What we learned

Mixed reality relies heavily on readable interactions and immediate feedback. Simple physical behaviors can create strong player attachment when paired with expressive reactions. Destruction that alters the player’s real space is powerful, but it requires careful handling to maintain clarity. Establishing a consistent tone early helps guide mechanical decisions. Hand-tracking is a whole new world we are starting to learn and continue to explore. Throwing, grabbing, shooting... all of it requires a different approach, but we are happy with how things are going so far. This opened up a lot of wild ideas for us.

What's next for Monkey Laser Face

We would love to release this sooner rather than later. Make it early, early, early monkey access. Getting feedback will be key, and we think everyone will have a blast with this. Future work includes expanding enemy variety, introducing helicopters that attempt to steal monkeys, and deepening the survival loop around feeding and protecting the troop. Customization systems for monkeys and bananas, additional play objects, and new room-agnostic environmental hazards will support long-term engagement. The goal is to build on the prototype’s core loop while keeping the tone grounded in chaotic mixed reality mayhem. We experienced significant time compression while playing, which is a sign that we are on to something very special.

Built With

• animation
• blueprints
• chaosphysics
• cplusplus
• metapresenceplatform
• metaquest
• mixedreality
• passthroughapi
• physics
• sceneunderstanding
• spatial-mapping
• standalonexr
• unrealanimation
• unrealdestructiontools
• unrealengine5
• xrdevelopment