Play with Luna!

Inspiration

Tiny paws, big fun! This game is truly inspired by our own lovely Maltese, who is the sweetest dog you’ve ever met and brightens our day every time we see her. We couldn’t help but imagine a world where we could interact with her in a cozy, magical way. If she could speak, we imagine she would sound exactly like the loving, playful companion in this game. That simple, warm feeling of affection and responsibility is the heart of Play with Luna!

What it does

Play with Luna! is all about nurturing the sweetest dog in the metaverse and joining her on wild, delightful adventures. The core gameplay loop revolves around keeping Luna’s Happymeter full by attending to her needs:

Care and Comfort: You can give Luna food and hear the cutest sound as she eats from her bowl, administer medicine to heal her, give her baths where she swims around with cute duckies, or watch her snore in the most adorable way when you give her a bed. Players can also give her hearts to show their affection and a toy to watch her play. Taking care of Luna allows you to observe as her teary face flips the frown upside down into a laughing one!

Fantastical Adventures: The game truly shines when you join Luna on her many adventures. Using simple finger dragging as the primary mechanic, you help Luna whenever she runs into trouble. Shark in the bay? Simply drag a plank to help her walk across. Raining cats and dogs? Hand her an umbrella! Car lost a wheel? Drag it back into place! These mini-games take players on adventures to find underwater treasures, board a spaceship, or join her friends for a birthday celebration. Many of these mini-games are also educational in nature, teaching young players that Monarch Butterflies fly over 3,000 miles a year and that Venus Flytraps eat bugs. Adventure and education combine in this delightful experience.

How we built it

The game was built using Blender, Adobe Substance Painter, Procreate, the Meta Horizon Desktop Editor, and 100% TypeScript code.

We leaned heavily on the focused interaction feature throughout the game, as dragging elements across the screen is the main mechanic that provides players with hours of entertainment and a very intuitive input method.

We used GenAI extensively throughout this project to achieve a high-quality, cozy aesthetic and rich interaction:

Mesh Generation: Many 3D assets were created using generative mesh tools.

Texture Generation: Since the game mostly leans on 2D assets, we used texture generation to create key art for elements like Luna’s treats, canvas, flowers, painting elements, and most story backgrounds.

SFX Audio Generation: This was critical for the cozy feel. Luna makes super cute sounds when she is fed, sleeps, or plays, and all of these bespoke sound effects were created using Meta’s SFX Generation. All sounds in this game with the exception of music were generated by SFX Audio Generation or NPC Speech (see below).

NPCs (Non-Embodied AI): We used AI-powered speech very heavily, though for this 10+ experience, we limited the speech to scripted text only and intentionally disabled the conversation feature. The AI-generated voice powers the narrator, who provides updates on our progression and Luna’s needs, and, most importantly, powers Luna herself when she asks for your help at each mini-game.

Our team consisted of:

Metacrafters: Art, 3D modeling, texturing, game concept, sound design, concept for level design. voytek.lorenc: TypeScript, sound design, character rigging and animation, game concept, concept for level design. RandomGamesUniverse: Marketing, testing.

Challenges we ran into

Working with AI-powered non-embodied NPCs and focused interaction were the biggest challenges, but only because this was the first time we used these features in a project. We quickly found they were easier to implement than we originally imagined - actually, quite a lot of fun!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of making a very cute and cozy game that feels very simple and accessible on the surface but packs some serious AI-powered interaction under the hood. When you click on the stats, the game’s guide gives you a recap of how Luna is feeling and what she needs in that moment. We love how we were able to algorithmically create a succinct paragraph that is delivered in a very human-friendly way - through a friendly voice - giving players immediate and actionable feedback.

What we learned

This project was a major milestone for our team, marking our first extensive use of a non-embodied AI NPC and our first game that heavily leveraged focused interaction (dragging/dropping) as the core mechanic. It was a wonderful learning experience that quickly demystified these advanced features. We now feel much more confident using these powerful tools, which will open up new possibilities for future interactive experiences.

What's next for Play with Luna!

We have so many features we’ll be implementing to build on the progression and keep players coming back for more. We will be adding many more interactive stories and mini-games. Future additions include a pet shop, a scavenger hunt, paw mail (player-to-pet communication), and a cupcake castle adventure. We plan to continually build on this experience to make it the most delightful and enduring companion game possible!