Opinion Wars

Dogs or cats? Waffles or pancakes? Pick a side, then defend your opinion with like-minded teammates by fighting the other side in melee combat!

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Inspiration

I've never been too interested in creating complex shooters or lengthy quests on social metaverse platforms. Instead, I prefer exploring the creation of experiences that prompt players to socially engage with each other and create new connections. This is where the idea for Opinion Wars came from, along with inspiration from similar experiences on other metaverse platforms. Nothing unites people and gets them talking more than a shared stance on an opinionated topic. Because the prompts are all lighthearted, even players on opposite sides can laugh with each other over their choices. The combat portion was inspired by the need to gamify selecting an opinion. What's a better way to have players back their choice than literally fighting to defend it? Combat is relatively simple to keep things easy to pick up and play, but it does its job in engaging players with the game and the others in the world.

What it does

Players spawn into the world on a floating island and are immediately placed into a game loop of constantly running rounds. Players are given a prompt where they must choose between two opinions. They are then teleported into a combat arena, where their teammates are the other players who chose the same opinion and their opponents are the players who chose the opposite opinion. The team that wins the fight is deemed the winning opinion, and a new round begins shortly after. The game loop is quick, easy to understand, and optimized for mobile devices. Because rounds go by fast, no individual round carries too much weight and it is easy to stay for the next one. All game mechanics are as streamlined as possible, including the opinion selection and combat. This makes it easy for anyone to pick up and play on any device.

How we built it

First, I modelled the main environment islands in ZBrush and Blender. I chose to go with floating islands to minimize the complexity of the environment, as 3D art isn't my specialty. I then created the weapon assets and imported it all into the Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor. To begin programming I created a basic game loop system, heavily referencing the documentation as I had never worked on the platform or with Typescript before. From there I built out more of the game's essential systems such as weapon control and combat. Finally, I added particle effects, royalty free sound effects, additional original environment assets and many other touches of polish to make the game more presentable. I also barely had enough time to create some short songs in Ableton Live for the voting and combat phases of the game.

Challenges we ran into

As I said before, I'm more of a programmer than an artist. Getting the islands to look how I wanted took a large chunk of the contest time. Through constant iteration and redesigning, I was eventually able to get the art to a point I was happy with. For programming, I had never used Typescript or Horizon Worlds before, so it took a bit of adjustment to translate my knowledge from other languages like C#. Looking up tutorials, reading through the documentation, and referencing the sample worlds helped me to quickly understand how to create the systems I needed for my game.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am mostly proud of the speed at which I was able to learn how to create on a new platform and properly execute on my initial idea. I only had a few weeks to learn everything about Horizon Worlds, but I think I picked it up pretty quickly and am proud that I was able to create what I wanted without compromise. I'm also proud of the 3D art I created for the world. It is cohesive, fits the simple and approachable style I was going for, and is visually appealing.

What we learned

Working on this project improved my 3D art capabilities, taught me how to use the Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor, and taught me how to use Typescript. These are all skills I can use to create better worlds on the platform in the future. Now that I know the basics, I am excited to dig deeper into more complex aspects of creation on Horizon Worlds. This project taught me that the platform has a lot to offer and a lot of potential for future worlds.

What's next for Opinion Wars

Even though I was able to include everything I wanted in the current version of the game, I have plenty of ideas for how to expand it in the future. An idea I had to add more diversity to the game loop was random modifiers that occur every few rounds. Some rounds are normal, some give all players increased speed, some add obstacles onto the combat area, etc. Another component I could add to the world to increase player retention is progression and a shop. Right now all weapons are given to players at random, but putting them in a shop that players have to level up to unlock would reward players for spending more time in the world and open monetization opportunities. More weapons could also be added that are functionally different, including ranged weapons.

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