Color Dash

Inspiration:

Our team's inspiration for this world came from a culmination of brainstorming amongst each other. Whether it was memories of playing the Nintendo game called "Splatoon" or the belief that everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler. Together we wanted this project to provide a simple, yet addictive gameplay style. As we discussed different ideas, we kept in mind the limited timeframe allowable for building this world and decided that we wanted to create a more interactive experience for both mobile and virtual reality users.

How we built it:

For the building process we primarily used the Meta Horizon VR Editor while also applying the desktop editor and web preview to perform quality assurance testing. Our team of three consisted of RedLeader18, Remie_Lebeau and Foxalope. RedLeader18 is an experienced builder with an affinity for detail. She worked primarily on creating the layout and environment design for the experience the players will embrace. Remie_Lebeau is our dedicated scripter. He pushed the scripting to create a seamless experience for both VR and mobile player alike. Throughout the process, he was able to adapt new strategies to the scripting to make everything flow more fluently. Foxalope is our primary tester as well as being our bringer of goodwill and cheer when team members were frustrated. He assisted with quality assurance testing and came up with great ideas such as creating the game name and other gameplay features to make the game more fun.

Lastly, through the culmination of our different skillsets, we were able to take our ideas from a blank canvas into a world that not only will be our competition submission, but a world that we will continue to develop and evolve with time to provide the best experience we can!

Challenges:

Throughout the building process, many different challenges were encountered. One of the most challenging was having all the colored blocks return to their original color prior to the game being played again. The reason this presented a challenge was because one script block alone could not execute the action and kept giving us errors. We found a work around for the problem by having the first controller handle the first 30 blocks that are changed and then sending the next 30 to another controller and so on. In total we needed to use over 6 block controllers but were able to achieve the functionality we were expecting.

Another challenge we faced was scheduling as each team member had a different schedule of availability. We were able to overcome this by using other means of communication both outside and within the Meta platforms. Another work around that we used was to leave text notes within the world with ideas for each other which allowed us to communicate our ideas and plans without needing to be building simultaneously.

Accomplishments:

The proudest accomplishment we have during the building process was seeing our ideas and thoughts bloom into the world we have submitted. Throughout the build, we were able to develop our skills further through learning how to import images via blender and learning new tactics to game flow and design. There were many big learning curves, but they will only elevate our worlds more that we want to create in the future.

Next Steps:

Our next steps for improving the world would be upgrading the project's features with our newfound skills in blender and making the scripts more efficient to provide a smoother experience. With more time, we have many ideas to implement and plan on doing so in the future. These consist of a leveling system; single player time attack mode; ability to choose your own color; a variant to the game using handheld launchers to color the environment instead of avatar collisions and a color-blind mode to assist anyone who may need it. We believe with these additional features; the world would receive more traffic and lead to a better retention rate. Our goals are to continue to enhance the player features and develop our skills even further to bring larger scale experiences to all players whether mobile or VR.