What The Actual F?

Inspiration

World name: What the Actual F? World ID: 10164104135608619

After getting rejected once more, Professor F doesn't have any more F's to give. A Horizon World where you need to help the Professor find all the F's with an incremental game mechanic and a quest line involving conversations with various NPC.

What is "What the actual F?"

Step into Professor F's laboratory, where rejection breeds progress and absurdity becomes purpose. This immersive clicker + adventure game follows a brilliant but eccentric scientist rejected one too many times by academia. Surrounded by robot assistants and F-themed experiments, Professor F created his own universe dedicated entirely to the letter F. Players explore his lab, collect F tokens, and uncover a story celebrating persistence in the face of "no."

Based on our previous hackathon project (https://devpost.com/software/what-the-f), you can see the transformation in the trailer.

Inspiration

After "What The F," we realized Professor F's story was incomplete and the world used temporary blocks instead of actual art. Why does this scientist obsess over F? The answer: rejection. Every academic knows that feeling.

We rebuilt from scratch with a new narrative: Professor F's revolutionary research was rejected by every institution. He retreated to his lab, creating a universe around the one thing that won't reject him. You're witnessing a scientist's beautiful, absurd coping mechanism through quests, dialogs, and clicks.

This resonated personally—every developer faces rejection. This project didn't win its previous hackathon. We keep applying to events like XRCC, hoping to win something. It's our meta-narrative about persistence through rejection.

What it does

An adventure game with dialogs and idle/clicker mechanics in Professor F's laboratory:

Complete lab environment built in one weekend with Horizon Worlds assets

Multiple NPCs including Professor F and robot assistants

Persistent progression tied to the narrative

Integrated leaderboard (someone clicked 1000 times!)

A Complete rebuild featuring:

Lab designed from scratch using only Horizon Worlds assets and AI tools

Updated code for latest NPC specifications with context-aware dialogue

Environmental storytelling (rejection letters as wallpaper, "F" periodic table)

Challenges we ran into

Narrative Consistency: Balancing humor with emotion was tricky. Professor F needed to be sympathetic without being depressing—rejected but defiantly joyful. Finding that balance required multiple dialogue rewrites.

Environment Building: Creating a full lab from scratch presented unique challenges:

Asset placement without VR editor needed extensive planning

One team member forgot the desktop editor open and left home—the other two couldn't edit objects for hours!

Troubleshooting NPC dialogue glitches

Making the space feel lived-in while telling a story

Code Migration: Updating to latest Horizon Worlds specifications meant:

Merging separate NPC body and voice objects into one

Rewriting code for non-humanoid avatars like the Robot

Updating NPC-related functions

Maintaining progression data compatibility while adding new items like the F doubler

Extensive testing to prevent broken mechanics

Balancing Expansion: Adding NPCs and systems while keeping core gameplay engaging required careful balancing to avoid diluting what worked originally.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Complete World Transformation: We rebuilt with purpose—every element supports Professor F's rejection and resilience narrative.

Environmental Storytelling: The lab tells its own story. Rejection letters become wallpaper, failed experiments show persistence, every detail reinforces the "F" theme while revealing character depth.

Evolved Character: Professor F transformed from quirky to fully-realized with motivations, history, and emotional depth—maintaining his alliterative charm.

Technical Achievement: Successfully migrated all systems to latest Horizon Worlds version while improving performance and adding features.

Meta-Narrative: A game about rejection and persistence that came back better after initial submission—the theme mirrors its own journey.

Biggest lesson learned What we learned

Iteration Creates Depth:

Our original submission was ok, but having time to reflect and rebuild showed us how much depth we could add. The rejection narrative wasn't in our original concept, but it emerged from thinking about why Professor F exists.

Environment Tells Story:

Building the lab from scratch taught us how much storytelling power lies in environmental design. Players discover the narrative through exploration, not just dialogue.

Humor + Emotion = Engagement:

We learned that humor works better when it has emotional grounding. Professor F is funny because we understand his rejection - it makes his obsession both absurd and touching.

Technical Constraints Drive Creativity:

Working within Horizon Worlds' limitations pushed us to creative solutions for asset placement, NPC interaction, and world building.

Community Feedback Matters:

Player feedback from the original submission directly influenced what we rebuilt and enhanced.

What would you do differently next time? What's next for What the actual F?

Story ending. Currently we dont' have a real good story ending. We want to add more NPCs also in the way to get the story to have an ending.

Expanded Narrative:

More NPCs with their own rejection stories who've found purpose in Professor F's lab

Seasonal events themed around different types of rejection (grant rejections, paper rejections, conference rejections)

Deeper quest lines exploring Professor F's academic history for example

Enhanced Gameplay:

New collection mechanics and upgrade paths - more items than just the magnifier glass or the screwdriver

Collaborative challenges where players work together

Special rare "F" variants with unique properties

a phyics based game with the objects make out of the letter F

Community Features:

Team-based collaborating gameplay

Player-created F-themed challenges

Social spaces within the lab for players to gather (add some sitting pose areas)

Technical Improvements:

Bigger and better environment

Continued optimization for performance

Expanded animation systems

More dynamic NPC behaviors

The ultimate goal: Make "What the actual F?" a testament to turning rejection into creation - showing players that sometimes your best work comes after you've been told "no."