🎥On-Demand Videos: Mobile Game Design from Andy Sargent - Meta Game Developer
In this series of videos by Andy Sargent, Game Developer and Community Manager in Unit 2 Games at Meta, explore how mechanics, loops, and progression combine to create fulfilling and social worlds that players will love. Session 1 - Mobile Mechanics Explore how mechanics are a fundamental building block for virtual worlds. Mechanics empower players to interact with the world, and each other. You can think of these as player actions second-to-second. Session 2 - Core Loops Investigate core loops, which build on top of our understanding of mechanics. They are a combination of mechanics that support a repeated sequence of player actions in the world. You can think of these as player actions minute-to-minute. Session 3 - Retention Look at ways to encourage players to come back to our worlds using retention mechanics. You can think of these as player actions day-to-day.
🎮 New World Planning Form On-Demand Workshop with 5andw1ch and wafflecopters
Kick off your next project with a fresh approach to world design! This on-demand workshop introduces the new World Planning Form, a powerful tool to help you tackle early-stage design challenges and set up your creations for success. In this video, 5andw1ch and wafflecopters guide you through structured pre-production techniques to strengthen your development process: 🏁 Set clear and actionable goals 📓 Improve your design from the start 📊 Manage problems and risk Open to All Skill Levels This workshop is designed for creators of all skill levels—whether you’re building your first world or refining a top-performing one, there’s something here for everyone. Watch the video now below, and download the World Planning Form attached to this post to start planning your next world with confidence!
Mobile Players Control and Focused Interaction Workshop
Hi... For people who attended the workshop, this is the thread in which you should request access to the world (with your horizon username) after you have done your survey. Survey: https://meta-horizon-creators.com/3RaAWrb Also: some links Custom Input API Overview https://developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds/learn/documentation/create-for-web-and-mobile/typescript-apis-for-mobile/custom-input-api Button Icon Reference https://developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds/learn/documentation/create-for-web-and-mobile/grabbable-entities/action-buttons/ Focused Interaction API Overview https://developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds/learn/documentation/create-for-web-and-mobile/typescript-apis-for-mobile/focused-interactionWeekly Creator Challenge #7: Mobile HUD Design Challenge
Are you planning to participate in the $1M Mobile Genre Showdown Competition? If so, this challenge will help you polish your skills creating Custom UIs for HUDs. This is a great feature to include in your games to make it easier for players to stay up-to-date with their stats, progress, and world interactions. You’ll learn how to: Design a Custom UI for Heads-Up Display Create interactive objects that communicate with the HUD Update the HUD per player Duration: Apr 7, 2025 - Apr 11, 2025 Estimated Time: 45 mins Mentor: PigeonNo12 Rewards: Challenge Champion Badge 🏆 Challenge Trifecta Badge 🏆🏆🏆 after completing three challenges Need Help? Forum Support: I’ll be actively monitoring this thread during the Challenge duration to help you succeed Live AMA: Join my Challenge AMA: Mobile HUD Design on 4/8 at 11am PST / 2pm EST Challenge Steps: 1. Create the Custom UI Design for the HUD Looking for guidance on how to do it? Check out this step by step video tutorial: Intro to Custom UIs Design UI with a field that will display some type of stats (collected coins, health level, ammo…) 2. Change the Display Mode to Screen Overlay This is where the magic happens! Screen Overlays allow you to use a single CUI gizmo, and display the same layout for all the players in the world Once you enter preview mode, the custom UI will be attached to your screen Here’s some reference documentation: Non-interactive custom UI screen overlay 3. Create and connect the binding variables that will update the HUD during runtime By default, the CUI is static. If we want to change values during runtime (like updating the ammo count) we use bindings. This documentation will help you getting started - Building Dynamic Custom UIs 4. Create the events that will update the HUD We need a way of letting the HUD know that the values have to be updated, and for what player. This is where the events system comes to play Create the events that will be sent from the interactions in the world. For example, colliding with a coin could broadcast an event that would be listened by the HUD, containing the player that performed the interaction as a parameter The events system is powerful like that: allowing you to send information to the entire world without having to reference variables in the properties panel! For guidance on where to start with the events system, check out: Community Manual - Communication Between Components 5. Putting all the pieces together Add an interaction to the world (like a grabbable object), and broadcast an event when the player interacts with it. Don’t forget to include the player as a parameter! Listen to the event in the HUD script, and update the binding variable for that player (see Player-Specific Custom UI) Playtest the experience and observe the changes in your HUD! If you get stuck completing this challenge, I’ll be hosting an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) Session on Tuesday 4/8 at 11am PST / 2pm EST. Don’t forget to bring your questions! Skills You’ll Develop: Configure the CUI to display stats on the player’s screen Update the CUI with world interaction (e.g. collecting coins) Display information for specific players What You’ll Need: Install and run the desktop editor Adding an IDE to the desktop editor Helpful Resources To complete this challenge, make sure to review the following resources: Intro to Custom UIs API Reference Custom UIs Examples Tutorial UI Component Class User-Defined Components for Custom UI How to Earn Your Badge Create a custom UI that displays stats on the player’s screen, that updates when interacting with elements in the world Publish the world Post to this thread with: Your world link A screenshot of your creation A brief description of your experience Or any follow up questions that you may have about your creationJoin us for - Marketing Strategy and GenAI Live Events
️Marketing Strategy Webinar hosted by Scout House and Meta Horizon Go-to-Market Academy on Friday April 11th at 11am PT! Meta Horizon Go-to-Market Academy is working with MHCP to provide launch education and resources to help developers achieve success. This will be our first of many sessions focused on various go-to-market strategies. We are partnering with Scout House, a content production studio that has helped launch 100+ games, Worlds, and apps. In this webinar, they will guide you through the process of developing and optimizing your marketing strategy. After attending this webinar, you’ll: Understand how to leverage marketing best practices to reach your target audience and launch your app Learn to apply marketing and outreach strategies to diversify your audience Identify the next steps for building your personal marketing plan This webinar is designed for MHCP Creators and Partners who are ready to launch or have recently launched their world or major update. Register Here Using the Power of GenAI to Master Horizon Worlds Creation, Monday April 14th 11 AM PT Learn how to rapidly ideate with Meta Horizon’s GenAI Tools and the future of creating from Ryan Short, Product Manager, Debraj Ghosh, Product Marketing Manager, and Abhishek Nath, Engineering Manager. See worlds and assets created with currently available and soon to be released GenAI Tools. Learn how to use new GenAI tools within desktop editor to improve your workflows. Ask questions from the team developing the latest in GenAI tooling. Join us Monday, April 14th, at 11 AM PT for this can’t miss presentation. Register HereHelp! My world is laggy and jittery! Using Real-Time Performance Metrics to understand your world.
So, you've built a great world, and gotten all the meshes and interactions implemented to make it engaging for your players, but when you go in to play test it, the framerate is awful, and actions sometimes stutter when you try to initiate some scripted interaction. You've probably overextended the runtime in some way and are going to have to 'performance optimize' your world. The first step is going to be to get some _concrete_ measurements as to what is wrong, and the best way to do that is to use the in-world performance panel tools. In VR, you can bring this up by first enabling the Utilities menu in Settings, and then selecting "Real-time Metrics' from your wrist menu. On Web (but not desktop or mobile), you can bring up the same metrics under the viewport by pressing P. Once you have the panel up, there are a variety of metrics to configure. The most important is FPS, which you want to maintain above 70 at all times (60 for web). But to do so, you will need to look at a variety of other stats to see what things are straying 'out of bounds' and need to be addressed. What to optimize: Draw calls You have too many discrete meshes and textures in view at one time. Reduce/combine them. GPU Too much work is being done by the GPU to draw the scene due to too complex modules, particles, or high rez textures. Physics Too many collisions to process, including from both active physics objects, anything collidable, and triggers. Scripting The code being executed in typescript is taking too long, perhaps due to inefficient algorithms or too many bridge calls. Custom ui bindings If there are too many binding updates per second, or the bindings are too complex, it can cause UI updates to freeze There are a number of other metrics to look at, which are described in detail in the below docs. Overview of Real Time metrics https://developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds/learn/documentation/performance-best-practices-and-tooling/performance-tools/enabling-and-modifying-the-realtime-metrics-panel Real Time Metrics on web/mobile https://developers.meta.com/horizon-worlds/learn/documentation/performance-best-practices-and-tooling/performance-tools/using-performance-tools-from-web-and-mobile Happy performance tuning!
Battle for Steel city Universe
For the past year, I've been building a 5-6 world universe. Currently, I have Zone One and Zone Wars live, with Zone 2 and Zone 3 in progress. The initial Zone One project started as a proof of concept—an experiment to see what was possible. At first, it was just an awesome build with no clear idea of how to make it immersive or retain players. Given the complexity of Horizon Worlds, I knew Zone One might appeal more to an older crowd. To help new players, I created a Mod Team to run Steel City and guide newcomers. It worked for a while, but with the long development times of the other worlds, we may have lost some momentum. With our latest addition, 5v5 Zone Wars, I was hoping for a big rollout and strong traffic, especially given Zone One’s popularity. It’s only been a week, so I’ll give it a month to see how things progress. The success of Zone Wars will determine whether I continue this massive project or shift focus. Looking ahead, I’ve learned what works in Horizon and how to streamline experiences. My goal is tomake things easier to understand and more engaging. I plan to create experiences and mini-games under the Battle for Steel City brand to build retention, grow an audience, and establish a universe that can sustain itself with community involvement. This year, I plan to release Zone 2 and Zone 3, along with Zone Racing and an inner-city sport called Blitz Board. There will also be several cinematic story experiences, including rescue missions, defense missions, and the epic battle for Steel City. Exciting times ahead—let’s see where this journey takes us!Hungry Hungry… (Game Night)
I’m working on a reinterpretation of the Hungry Hungry Hippos game but without hippos. Another game in the Game Night series following Who Dat? and Pie in the face! We have more games in this series currently in production that all take place on a dining room table next to a shelf filled with board games. Its family game night, pick your favorite game by Game Night Games. Hungry Hungry… coming soon!
