Platform Jumpers (Remixable)

Inspiration

Our earliest memories of playing video games involves arcades, spaceships, and PEW PEW nonstop action. The exhilarating fun of moving rather and farther and shooting down more and more alien spaceships is fresh in our memories. We wanted to bring the excitement of classic space platformer to Meta’s Horizon Worlds. We’ve published over 50 games in Horizon Worlds since joining the platform nearly four years ago. It’s been a wonderful (though sometimes challenging) journey. When designing this template, we thought about what we would have loved to use when we first started building. We’re thrilled to share this contribution with the Horizon creator community.

What it does

You’re not just getting a copy of our game. You’re getting a beginner-friendly template designed to make game creation simple, fast, and fun.

We’ve built it so that you can start creating right away, even if you’ve never touched TypeScript before. Everything is neatly organized, clearly labeled, and comes with step-by-step instructions.

Here’s what makes it easy for new creators: • Style it your way. Swap backdrops, redesign jetpacks, restyle enemies and bosses—it’s all drag-and-drop. The core mechanics of flying and shooting are already built in. • Simple settings. Adjust the camera distance, enable or disable the onboarding platform, or switch on a mobile HUD with just a few clicks. • Progression made easy. Define XP, levels, and rank names. Add health bars above avatars. Let players spend coins to upgrade speed, armor, or power—no coding required. • Player rewards. Set up coin rewards for playtime, daily streaks, or milestones using simple JSON variables.

Every one of these features is powered by JSON and player tracking—but we’ve done the hard part for you. All you need to do is follow the instructions and make it your own.

And if you do know TypeScript? The template includes a “mysterious box” with the full game architecture—player manager, session stats, date/time systems, and more—cleanly structured and ready for you to expand.

Whether you’re just starting out or already exploring advanced systems, this template is built to help you succeed. We hope it inspires you to begin—or continue—your journey as a Horizon Creator.

How we built it

The game was built using Blender, Adobe Substance Painter, Procreate, Meta Horizon Desktop Editor, and 100% TypeScript code. Using TypeScript with the Camera API was a game-changer for this project. We were excited to take advantage of the Camera API to make the game feel more dynamic, following the player in true classic arcade game fashion. Our team consists of:  Metacrafters (art, 3d modeling, texturing, game concept, concept for level design) voytek.lorenc (Typescript, sound design, character rigging and animation, game concept, concept for level design) RandomGamesUniverse (game concept, concept for level design, testing)

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest hurdles was pulling off a 2D aesthetic using Horizon’s primarily 3D environment. Not exactly a walk in the park! It also took some trial and error to find the right balance—keeping the action constant without it becoming so chaotic that it’s impossible to play.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

At first, we honestly weren’t sure if building a 2D platformer in Horizon was even doable. But after a lot of experimenting and learning, we pulled it off - and we’re super proud of how it turned out!

What we learned

Diving into the TypeScript Camera API was totally worth it. It played a huge role in helping us nail that 2D feel. Now that we’ve got it under our belts, we’re hyped to explore even more Mobile/VR experiences in Horizon Worlds.

What's next for Platform Jumpers (Remixable)

We’ve got big plans! First up: testing different difficulty levels to find that perfect balance of challenge and fun—to boost playtime and keep folks coming back. We’re also looking at adding new characters and kicking off speed-running tournaments to keep the action fresh and exciting.