Interactive Asset - Ability Potions

Inspiration

Creators spend too long wiring basic power-ups. We wanted drop-in, Mobile-friendly potions that instantly unlock new routes, speedrun lines, and playful physics—without custom scripting.

What it does

Adds Double Jump, High Speed, Low Gravity, and Custom Scale abilities via drag-and-drop potion pickups. Each potion supports duration, intensity, cooldown, auto-respawn, and clear VFX. Works in single or multiplayer with network-safe state replication and sensible defaults.

How we built it

Using Horizon Worlds’ visual scripting and gizmos, we created a lightweight manager on the player that applies timed modifiers (jump count, gravity scale, max speed, player scale). Potions are prefabbed with states, object pooling for reset, and creator-exposed parameters for quick tuning. Simple meshes and VFX keep poly/texture budgets low.

Challenges we ran into

Balancing stacking interactions (e.g., Speed + Low Gravity), keeping movement changes smooth in multiplayer, preserving comfort when scaling the player, and maintaining mobile performance while broadcasting status to all clients.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Zero-setup prefabs that “just work,” consistent behavior in multiplayer test rooms, stable Mobile performance, and sample scenes that help first-time creators publish a buffed course in under an hour.

What we learned

Tiny UX cues (pickup SFX, countdown hints, fade-out) dramatically improve clarity. Safe defaults beat total freedom, and per-ability caps prevent edge-case exploits. Clear naming and grouped parameters reduce creator friction.

What's next for Interactive Asset - Ability Potions

More abilities (Shield, Magnet, Glide, Wall-Run Boost), HUD buff icons and timers, checkpoint integration, team/zone rules, leaderboard hooks, and difficulty presets for one-click balancing.

Built With

• horizonworlds
• typescript