Gold Rush

Gold Rush is an action game where players team up to search for gold and battle to collect as much as possible.

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Inspiration

The game’s overall look is inspired by classic 60s sci-fi films and comics, exploring an alien world for hidden treasures and resources, while the gameplay was based on our memories of silly, chaotic battles in multiplayer arena games and battle royales.

What it does

Gold Rush is an action game where players team up to search for gold and battle to collect as much as possible, depositing in their base within the time limit. Players are armed with laser guns that can be used to mine for gold or to blast opponents out of the arena.

The battle over gold is punctuated by the game’s namesake - the Gold Rush - a rare occurrence where a gold vein overflows, pouring out tons of nuggets for anyone to collect. Players must move quickly and work as a team to take advantage, as the Gold Rush is announced to all players, leading to a frenzy of action around the special gold vein.

How we built it

The game was programmed using TypeScript in the Horizon Worlds Desktop editor.

The laser guns are a highly modified version of the laser in the Simple Shooting Mechanics example.

The model for the lobby was found on Sketchfab, and the remaining models were imported from the Public Assets available in the desktop editor. Our team's audio engineer created custom sound effects and music for the game.

AI Tool Usage:

The walls surrounding the playfield were created using the generative AI tool inside the Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor.

The skybox was generated by the Horizon Desktop Editor's AI tools.

The indicator arrows were animated using the Gen AI Assistant tool.

Challenges we ran into

TypeScript was a new programming language for the team, which presented a unique set of challenges for us to overcome.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to stand up the core game loop very quickly, based on a rough outline of the design, and get into team playtesting, allowing us to land on a fairly fun vertical slice at the end of the competition.

What we learned

Our team had to learn TypeScript as well as how to use the Horizon Worlds Desktop Editor. The Meta-provided tutorials allowed us to quickly learn many of the capabilities that Horizon Worlds has, such as rapid prototyping and iteration.

While we didn't use every feature available, we did take the time to learn how to use them, allowing us to build all kinds of other games in the future!

What's next for Gold Rush

We would like to continue to polish the experience and add in additional features, such as power-ups, alternative firing modes for the laser, additional maps, and much more. This vertical slice was enough to prove out a very fun core loop, and we would love to build off of it and create a highly replayable and rewarding game for the Horizon platform!

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