Oh, SHIP! Time to Escape

A Space themes escape room. Work together to get out of a time loop.

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🧠 Inspiration Oh, SHIP! began during the COVID-19 pandemic as a creative way to bridge distances through gaming. One person explored in VR while friends followed along via Zoom, collaborating to solve puzzles. After winning top honors at a hackathon, we expanded it into a VR multiplayer escape room in Horizon Worlds—where players guide each other, each with unique roles and shared goals. And now porting into mobile.

🚀 What it does Oh, SHIP! Time to Escape is a cooperative, asymmetrical puzzle adventure. One player navigates the spaceship to find clues, while others at the bridge guide them—sharing observations and coordinating actions. This gameplay loop encourages teamwork, communication, and engagement through shared progression, making every puzzle solve a collective triumph.

🛠️ How we built it We started in Horizon Worlds using its VR creation tools. To compete in the Elevate Your Mobile World competition, we optimized the experience for mobile: completely redesigned the UI, added bridge-view interfaces, and revamped the progression system to highlight satisfying milestones and moments worth sharing. Completed within a rapid two-day build fueled by AI-assisted scripting and asset creation.

🧩 Challenges we ran into Translating a VR-first experience to mobile was a major hurdle. We rewrote scripts and redesigned interactions to ensure everything remained intuitive on smaller screens. Synchronizing the bridge view with the roaming player in real time, while preserving narrative pacing and puzzle clarity, pushed both our technical and design skills. A lot of challenges we had are around lack of documentation, examples and support which we found lacking.

🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of We met the competition requirements through rapid innovation—publishing a polished mobile update in just 48 hours after learning about the contest. The refreshed progression system delivers clear, rewarding loops and shareable moments—perfectly aligned with the competition’s focus on progression and social interaction. Plus, our use of desktop editor AI tools accelerated development and let us experiment boldly under pressure.

📚 What we learned We proved that converting VR mechanics into mobile-first experiences is both possible and powerful when you focus on shared progression and social connection. Our process taught us valuable lessons in adaptive UI design, cross-device player roles, and how to craft emotional payoff moments that bring players together—even on mobile.

🔮 What's next for Oh, SHIP! Time to Escape We’re expanding the Oh, SHIP! multiverse with sequels and new loops in Horizon Worlds, continuing to explore asymmetrical gameplay. Future updates will further enhance progression systems—adding quests, unlockable content, and share-invites to keep players engaged and showcase those satisfying moments to the broader Horizon community.

Built With

  • desktop
  • horizon
  • hzw
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