UNDERWORLD Costume Party

UNDERWORLD Thumbnail
Charon, our ride into the UNDERWORLD
Charon's boat to cross the River Styx and join the party
The costumizizer machine that transforms guests into 1 of 140 costume options including avatar scaling, abilities, and masks based on choice
The ruler of the realm, Hades. Not too happy about those throwing a party in his realm or trying to fool him behind costumes
DJ Deabeat explains the music player as well as encourages players to join in mobile to try 10 different dance animations

Inspiration

This world is an extention of an annual community build project I started 4 years ago. The concept was inviting the community to create a jack o lantern to be showcased in the world and voted on to represent the best in different categories. This year was the first to made in trimesh. However, with so many new competitions, clothing access, Meta Connect there was not enough entries to continue the project this year. Therefore, the world was pivoted to a new purpose to become a fun world of dress up.

What it does

Players can try on 140+ costumes for free that I Have made in 3 of my Costume City Clothing stores. It is so much fun to dress up in themed groups with friends and do group photos. Then the group can pick different themes and dress up again for more photos. Not only do players clothing get overridden into the costume chosen but also are sized to fit the character chosen. Many characters also have masks attached to the player depending what they pick as well as given flight, speed, etc based on if they pick a superhero costume.

How we built it

The world was built using Meta assets, imported assets created in blender or made in MeshyAI. Mechanics used are player override API, and a custom UI panel to pick your costume. We also added 10 imported mobile dance animations brought in from Mixamo. Allowing mobile players to feel like they are dancing with the dead. People enjoy doing all the old school dances like the running man, breakdances, chicken dance, moonwalk, etc. We also have incorporated 5 interactive NPC characters into our world. We have a scarecrow host that greets people after they cross the River Styx and help teach players about the costume changing machine. Another NPC is the DJ and instructs players how to use the music player in the world. There are two NPC characters that move around the dance floor and interact with players while they dance and enter multiple different Mixamo animation zones. The last giant NPC in the world is Hades who rules this domain and is not too happy players have entered his domain to throw a party without his permission and asks players why they dare try to hide themselves behind costumes and he cannot be fooled.

Challenges we ran into

We had some issues with the NPCs. Many times, the NPC would not be able to hear the player and give a response. We thought the size of our large NPC might be the issue. We made adjustments and the NPCs seem to respond when they are meant to. Our scarecrow NPC somehow reverted itself back to a default NPC and no longer was looking like the scarecrow. We had to regenerate her as the previous generation no longer existed in the NPC character builder. We had a few issues with our costume changer. The asset pool gizmo would on occasion not assign a player manager to some players as they entered the world. Without a player manger the machine does not change the player clothing. We had a few instancing issues. Players would end up in different instances when the world had room for them.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We feel we have showcased many new mechanics in this world like multiple dance animations, interactive characters that are fun but also have helpful information, and the largest assortment of costume dress-up override clothing I have seen in Horizon Worlds. Not to mention the mask wearables and other accessories offered for the ultimate dress up experience.

What we learned

We learned how to find the best ways to use NPCs to enhance game experience. We have learned how to create the ultimate player override system. We have learned how to add our own animations to our NPC from outside the Horizon platform.