POWER TRIP

Inspiration

Our inspiration for POWER TRIP is the classic “king-of-the-hill” arcade dynamic, reimagined for the social and persistent nature of Horizon Worlds. We design a system that is simple to pick up but offers deep layers for creators and players alike. The core idea is to make a player’s score not just a number, but a resource that powers competition, collaboration, and creative remixing. By turning status into something tangible and persistent, POWER TRIP becomes both a high-stakes game and a flexible framework that any creator can adapt for their own world.

What it does

POWER TRIP is a demo game and a remixable toolkit. In the demo, players earn points passively over time, with multipliers for holding high-risk zones. A player’s score doubles as their life force — players with higher scores can steal from others on contact. Points can also be spent at a hub to donate, buy temporary invincibility, or launch rivals across the map.

For creators, the toolkit provides: -Persistent scoring systems (points tracked globally) -Modular power-ups and purchases -Combat resolution and score-stealing mechanics -Dynamic scoreboard UI for leaderboards -Zone-based multipliers that can power up any activity

Each feature is modular and can be dropped into any world whether that’s a PvP arena, social hub, or roleplay environment.

How we built it

We built POWER TRIP using a modular, event-driven architecture in TypeScript. A central GameManager handles score accumulation, combat, and spawning. Other systems, like the MasterPurchaseManager for shops and the ZoneMultiplier for scoring areas, connect to the GameManager through network events. This decoupled structure allows each piece to be swapped out, extended, or reused independently. The result is a framework that is easy to remix, whether creators want a leaderboard, a donation mechanic, or just a clean spawn/teleport system.

Challenges we ran into

A major challenge was creating a reliable and performant player-to-player collision system. Simple trigger-to-trigger detection proved unreliable, so we built a robust object pooling system for runtime triggers that follow each player. This ensured predictable interactions and consistent combat resolution. Beyond powering POWER TRIP, this collision framework now serves as a template for any creator who wants dependable PvP or proximity-based mechanics in their own worlds.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are especially proud of the MasterPurchaseManager and its two-step interaction model. Players first choose an action (like “Donate”) and then select a target from a dynamic directory. This requires careful state management and timeout handling, ensuring fairness even when actions aren’t completed. This also allows future scaling of adding many more purchasable actions while still in a simple, mobile-friendly format. Paired with the AnnouncementManager, which broadcasts results to all players, this creates transparent, engaging social interactions. For creators, it’s a plug-and-play blueprint for fair, stateful purchase mechanics, useful in competitive arenas, shops, or roleplay economies.

What we learned

We learned the importance of centralizing state management while keeping systems decoupled. Early versions had conflicts when different scripts managed overlapping parts of the game state. By centralizing logic in the GameManager and relying on network events for communication, we created a more stable and scalable architecture. We also learned that providing clear UI and feedback loops (announcements, scoreboards) makes complex systems intuitive for players — an insight that helps other creators building advanced mechanics.

What's next

The future of POWER TRIP is about expanding strategic options and remix potential, while having tons of fun and supporting our growing world-building community! Planned extensions include new purchasable abilities (speed boosts, drains, hilarious hijinks), sound effects, Horizon leaderboard integrations, and weapons. Because every system is modular, other creators can remix them into new game types, progression systems, or social mechanics. By open-sourcing our framework, we aim to spark an ecosystem where creators build on each other’s work to design experiences we haven’t yet imagined.

Built With

• horizon-worlds-desktop-editor
• meta-generative-ai
• typescript