RUNARIA | Devpost

Inspiration

RUNARIA was inspired by the growth of casual mixed reality puzzle games that combine high polish with spatial gameplay and interactions. We wanted to create a casual game that feels native to mixed reality, where players enjoy a well-balanced progression of spatial puzzle challenges. Our core idea was to leverage the latest Meta SDK features such as hand tracking with micro-gestures to design a beautiful and intuitive experience anyone can jump into. The goal is a game that is casual, relaxing, visually stunning and uniquely designed for mixed reality.

What it does

RUNARIA is a mixed reality puzzle game where players solve spatial puzzles using floating rune stones. Designed for hand tracking and micro-gesture interactions, players pick up and place stones to solve puzzles, reveal new floating islands and build a tranquil world suspended in mid-air. The game encourages relaxing, meditative gameplay sessions supported by soft ambient soundscapes.

How we built it

We developed RUNARIA using the Meta Mixed Reality SDK, building the full experience around hand tracking, micro-gestures and passthrough. Our puzzle system supports several custom designed floating island challenges, prioritizing high-polish implementation, intuitive onboarding and a natural difficulty progression. The scope is designed for a 20 minute relaxing gameplay session that delivers a complete and satisfying experience.

Challenges we ran into

•. Achieving a high level of polish within a tight four-week sprint

•. Creating a mixed reality video trailer based on in-game capture

•. Designing core mechanics that feel intuitive without explicit tutorials

•. Designing progression that supports flow state and relaxation

•. Sound design for mixed reality without an in-house audio team

•. Balancing fun for both casual and puzzle-driven players

Accomplishments that we're proud of

•. Level of polish achieved in a four-week sprint

•. Integration of micro-gestures as a core mechanic

•. Visual look and feel

•. Level progression and puzzle variety

•. Seven polished level progression

What we learned

•. Building games in mixed reality is more challenging than building enterprise applications

•. Micro-gestures are a great new input paradigm and we expect them to become a standard interaction method across mixed reality apps.

•. Great team exercise to explore new categories and creative directions in mixed reality without external client constraints or external product owners.

What's next for RUNARIA

We plan to run a final polish sprint to refine the level design, visual fidelity and UX details. Once ready, our goal is to publish RUNARIA as a standalone mixed reality title at $4.99, with future updates expanding puzzle systems and content through DLC packs.