Gladiatronix

Inspiration

Gladiatronix was born from a desire to recreate the thrill of old-school robot battles — reimagined with modern tech and immersive design. The idea of a futuristic arena packed with chaos, lasers, explosions, quests, and leaderboard-driven glory felt like a perfect fit for Meta Horizon Worlds. I wanted to deliver short but intense experiences players would want to replay and share.

What it does

Gladiatronix is a fast-paced arena attraction with three distinct modes: • PvP – Duel friends in tactical combat arenas. • PvE – Fight waves of spider bots and complete timed quests. • Boss Battle (PvB) – Face ObliTron-V1 and discover its weak points.

Players interact with dynamic hazards (exploding barrels, lifts), use reactive sound and weapon effects, and track their progress on leaderboards. It’s quick to learn, fun to repeat, and always changing.

This version includes few weapon and, yet offers both single-player and multiplayer experiences in an arena that rewards both skill and spectacle.

How we built it

Gladiatronix was built entirely inside Meta Horizon Worlds, using both the desktop editor and VR editor tools. I worked mostly on weekends due to a full-time job, often brainstorming ideas during gym sessions and rushing home to bring them to life.

I designed, scripted, and built Gladiatronix entirely inside Meta Horizon Worlds. I handled all the logic, UI, audio, and gameplay features across PvP, PvE, and boss battles. I used Horizon’s asset library heavily — remixing and combining low-poly elements to maintain performance — and also imported a few royalty-free external assets (like terrain) that I purchased and customized to enhance the world’s atmosphere

The world is powered by intense scripting and complex logic, especially in boss behavior, wave combat, game mode switching, and the leaderboard system. Building this helped me push the limits of what’s possible in Horizon — and it taught me techniques that I’ll use to build even bigger, better worlds in the future.

Everything was optimized to perform well in mobile, ensuring stability across devices.

Challenges we ran into

• Memory optimization for dynamic scenes (especially in PvE mode) 

Memory constraints in Horizon Worlds required careful optimization. I had to reduce visual effects, assets and streamline logic while keeping the action impactful. • Ensuring all three game modes were balanced and intuitive • Syncing leaderboard data cleanly and figuring out quest systems and rewards • Time limitations were the biggest hurdle. I work full-time as a developer, so Gladiatronix was built mostly during weekends — and I even used part of my vacation to finalize it. Balancing work, life, and development was tough but rewarding.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• A full game loop that supports PvP, PvE, and boss battles
• Replayable gameplay that encourages sharing and friendly competition
• A cinematic boss experience
• Intuitive design that works for first-time players

What we learned

• Simple, polished interactions beat overloaded mechanics
• Clear onboarding makes or breaks quick experiences
• Mobile-first design forces you to prioritize what matters
• A good leaderboard and challenge system adds life to short-form contentfeatures.
• Audio matters — immersive sound made the battles feel more alive than any visual tweak.
• Time management is everything when preparing for competitions.
• Building for mobile requires constant memory awareness — and creativity to work around it.
• Practical game dev skills — This project taught me a lot about real game development, from gameplay balancing to UX to player engagement design.
• Smart optimization — I learned how to reduce memory usage by dynamically spawning and deleting assets when needed, which helped keep the game smooth on mobile.

What's next for Gladiatronix

• Unlockable weapons and cosmetics — Players will earn visual upgrades and new gear as rewards, adding personalization and motivation.
• More weapons, more impact — New items won’t just look different — they’ll significantly change gameplay styles and strategy.
• New zones & hazards — Additional arenas with environmental traps, reactive terrain, and surprise challenges.
• Boss difficulty scaling — Future versions of ObliTron and other bosses will adapt based on time elapsed or number of players in the arena.
• PvP mode evolution — A capture-and-hold variant is planned, adding team-based objectives and shifting control points.
• More enemies, more chaos — New bot types will drop into the battlefield, including flying drones, shielded units, and swarm types.
• Deeper challenge options — Existing levels will offer multiple difficulty tiers, letting hardcore players chase bigger rewards.

This is just the beginning. Gladiatronix will evolve — and the arena will only get more intense.

Built With

• codeblocks
• desktop-editor
• metahorizon
• quest3
• typescript