Pirate Booty Adventure (Formerly known as Loot or Lose)

Spawn area
Loot or Lose mini-game queue zone
Shop
Player inventory

Inspiration

The evolution from Loot or Lose to Pirate Booty Adventure was driven by three key realizations:

When players entered the world alone, they couldn't experience the game as it was meant to be played. They were confined to a small lobby with little to do.
The lobby’s limited space also made it hard to explain the game, leaving players confused and disengaged.
Although the original party game was fun among friends, most players play solo, often with no sound or voice chat—resulting in a diluted experience.

To address these challenges and expand the game’s scope, I decided to create a single-player progression-based experience that kept players engaged even when playing alone.

After considering various ideas, I landed on something simple yet satisfying: Digging. It felt thematically appropriate and complemented the pirate world. I repurposed our existing ship and ocean assets by building a large tropical island as a new central hub—an immersive lobby where players begin their journey.

On this island, players dig for coins, keys, and loot chests. They start with a basic Wooden Shovel, then progress to Stone, Gold, and Diamond shovels via the in-game shop. As players dig, they might also discover Elemental Loot Chests, a limited-time seasonal feature offering rare shovels and ability-enhancing hats unavailable in the regular shop.

The result is a satisfying loop of collecting, upgrading, and exploring—a combination of progression and collectibility that’s proven to be compelling for players.

And Loot or Lose isn’t gone—it’s been reborn. Players now choose from three classes (Pirate, Trapper, Investor), each with unique starting perks and abilities. Power-ups add strategic depth, and coins earned in the game now carry over to the single-player experience, giving players a tangible reward for participating.

What it does

Pirate Booty Adventure is a pirate-themed world where players dig for treasure, earn coins, and progress through better tools and items. It supports both single-player and multiplayer experiences.

Players begin on a tropical island, digging up coins, keys, and loot chests using shovels. These coins are used to purchase better tools and upgrades. Occasionally, rare Elemental Loot Chests spawn, offering limited-time cosmetic and gameplay rewards like special shovels and hats with unique abilities.

The game combines satisfying progression with collection mechanics to keep players engaged. A revamped version of the original Loot or Lose mini-game is also available, now enhanced with player classes, power-ups, and integrated rewards that tie back into the single-player system.

How we built it

The world was primarily built using assets generated with Meta AI. While AI generation has its challenges, it also produced optimized, well-textured models that perform better than many imported assets.

The original cramped lobby was replaced with a sprawling island surrounded by ocean and mountains. This new space serves as the main hub and gives players a full view of the environment, including the dynamic ocean and the Loot or Lose boat.

I generated a wide variety of shovels—some purchasable with coins in the shop, and others with unique skins and attributes found only in the Elemental Loot Chest. These loot chests also include hats that enhance player abilities such as:

Increased dig range
Longer jump distance
Faster movement
Higher loot yield chance

The loot chest system itself is visually engaging, cycling through rewards in real-time to build anticipation—just like modern games do.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was implementing an informative UI across all platforms.

Meta had recently introduced the player.showInfoSlides API, which I initially used to onboard new players. However, I later discovered it only works on mobile—causing major issues for desktop and VR users.

To fix this, I built a fully custom info slide system using the Horizon UI API. This involved layered image panels, interactive arrows for slide navigation, and careful text positioning to maintain legibility across devices. It took many hours of trial and error, but the final system worked reliably and now supports onboarding, daily rewards, and level-up notifications.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm particularly proud of the custom UI slide solution and the dynamic loot chest system. Instead of just text-based reward reveals, the chests display 3D asset previews cycling in real-time—creating that rewarding anticipation found in modern games.

Even after collecting all the elemental items myself, I still find myself watching the chest spin just to see what might come next. It brings a satisfying emotional payoff to the core loop.

What we learned

One of the most valuable lessons was the importance of world performance optimization, especially regarding vertex count.

The original world was already over 100% capacity before adding the island. I audited every asset by removing them one-by-one and checking the vertex budget panel. Surprisingly, the AI-generated assets were far more efficient than some small imported ones.

A particularly costly mistake: the original spawn room for Loot or Lose was built using hundreds of tiny wooden planks, which contributed a staggering 60% of the total vertex count. Removing it freed up vital performance headroom.

This insight led to optimizing the dig spots as well—replacing heavy dirt piles with low-poly AI-generated ones, which reduced runtime vertex usage by about 20%.

What's next for Pirate Booty Adventure (Formerly known as Loot or Lose)

Future plans for Pirate Booty Adventure include:

Professions System: Players will be able to take on roles like Miner (exploring caves and using pickaxes) or Fisher (catching and selling fish for gold). This will deepen the economy and gameplay loop.
Marketplace Trading: Players can list unwanted loot (common, rare, or legendary) from past seasons in a global marketplace, allowing others to acquire items they may have missed.
Expanded Wearables and Pets: Beyond hats, new wearable items will offer buffs and customization. Pets will also be introduced—some cosmetic, others functional (e.g. auto-digging or bonus coin drops). These will be earnable via loot chests or available in the shop.

The central vision remains the same: to create a world focused on collecting, progression, and pirate-themed fun. Because at the end of the day, pirates love loot—and this world will be overflowing with it.