Sort It! VR

Inspiration

We wanted a VR game that hits fast, feels physical, and is instantly readable. No tutorials, no menus, no “press X to have fun.” Just grab, match, deliver. The inspiration came from those oddly satisfying sorting toys and chaotic desk moments where everything is urgent and color-coded. Sort It! VR turns that into a clean loop: you’re always one good decision away from saving yourself and one mistake away from panic.

What it does

Sort It! VR is a rapid-fire VR sorting game where colored energy tubes drop from above and you have to route them into the matching slots (pink, green, blue). Each correct delivery adds +5 seconds to your timer. Each mistake (wrong slot or expired tube) costs -5 seconds. Waves advance based on how many packages you successfully deliver, increasing the amount you must handle while the game ramps up pressure. Your run ends when time hits zero, then your score and best wave are saved to a local leaderboard.

How we built it

We built Sort It! VR in Unity using XR Interaction Toolkit for core VR interactions: grabbing, physics handling, collisions, and haptics. A spawner drops “message tubes” from a ceiling chute, each tube carries a color and a lightweight action payload. Slot receivers validate color matches via trigger colliders and feed results into a wave director that manages difficulty scaling, scoring, and the performance-based timer. Visual feedback uses clean color application (no fragile material swapping) and quick audio/particle cues for instant clarity under stress.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was reliability under chaos: physics-driven objects, frequent spawning, and fast interactions can create edge cases instantly. Early on, we hit an issue where the first spawned tube occasionally appeared without proper color info. Another challenge was preventing “error spam” where a single tube could trigger multiple wrong-slot penalties from repeated collisions. We solved these by enforcing strict initialization at spawn time, applying color deterministically, and adding guardrails so each tube can only penalize once for wrong-slot contact.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• A gameplay loop that’s understandable in seconds and addictive in minutes.
• A performance-driven timer system that feels fair: skill directly extends your run.
• Wave progression tied to delivered packages, making difficulty growth feel earned instead of scripted.
• Solid feedback: haptics, audio, and visuals that keep the player oriented even when everything goes sideways.
• A lightweight local leaderboard that makes “one more run” inevitable.

What we learned

VR is brutally honest. If your interaction model isn’t bulletproof, the player will find the cracks in the first 30 seconds. We learned to prioritize clarity and predictability over complexity: tight validation, clean feedback, and systems designed to survive messy physics. We also learned that difficulty scaling works best when it respects the player’s agency, which is why the timer is controlled by performance instead of forced pacing.

What's next for Sort It! VR

Next up is multiplayer, but it won’t be in the first release. The plan is to ship a polished single-player core, then expand into competitive and co-op modes: shared chaos, role-based sorting (one spawns/one routes), sabotage mechanics, and ranked leaderboards. We also want to add new tube types, modifiers, and themed “workstations” that change the strategy without adding friction. The goal: keep it simple to start, deep to master, and hilarious to fail with friends.

Built With

• c#
• unity