Strategize With Your Own Clones in ‘We Are One,’ Out Today on Meta Quest 2

Whoever came up with the saying “if you want something done right, do it yourself” probably didn’t imagine this could be applied to a world where robots and plants were at war with each other. But that’s exactly the case in We Are One, where you must create and coordinate with your own clones to fight against the machines. This unique first-person puzzle shooter is available now for $19.99 USD on Meta Quest 2 + Pro.

In We Are One, you play as one of Mother Nature’s Sproutlings, a being that can replicate itself using other plants in the area. This cloning ability is key to solving the game’s shootout puzzles: You need to find out what kind of actions you need your stationary clones to perform to defeat all the enemies in a given level (We Are One has more than 50 levels in all). Time slows down as you choose where to place your clones and how you want them to act. They can shoot at enemies or toss guns, ammo, shields, and other objects to one another, and they’ll repeat that same action after you move on to the next clone.

Each clone’s time loop is very limited, so you must plan your future selves wisely before the clock runs out. Sometimes a clone’s only role is to help the others around it, like if it has a bad vantage point but access to weapons that you can then pass on to the others. And in times where there are a lot of enemies, you need to make sure that every shot counts and that each clone can destroy a few machines on their own.

To celebrate the launch of We Are One, we caught up with Flat Head Studio Co-Founder Arnold Holler to talk about the cloning premise, the vibrant art style, and how the upcoming level editor will greatly expand on what players can do with the game.

Arnold Holler: We’re a team of four enthusiastic developers: Dani, Melle, Philipp and myself. Our journey together began during our studies at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, where we were able to create a game together as part of our masters degree program. We’ve all had a passion for video games since childhood, so this was a long-awaited opportunity for us. Additionally, the team shared a growing interest in VR and the release of the first Quest was right around the corner. It seemed like a great time to dive into the market, and after some talking I convinced the others to give it a shot.

We already had a strong team, and we knew we needed a unique idea as the foundation for a great game. That’s why we dedicated a lot of time to brainstorming and idea generation. Countless meetings, brainstorming sessions, and hundreds of ideas later, we finally settled on a concept that resonated with us. This concept eventually evolved into We Are One as it exists today. Getting plenty of positive feedback from our peers in the first year of development convinced us to pursue a commercial release of the game.

Once we received our first government grant, we had the financial means to keep working on the game after university and start our own company together.

AH: The original inspiration for collaborating with yourself across rounds actually came from a browser-based Flash game called Cursor*10. It’s a top-down game that challenges the player to guide a cursor through a series of obstacles, ascending the stairs to move to the next level—for instance, pressing a button unlocks the stairway for your future self. We loved the idea of helping yourself and were intrigued to bring a similar concept into the immersive world of VR. The tracking of the headset and the controllers allows us to replay your movement. This makes it possible to witness your past actions right beside you, amplifying the sensation that your previous self is an individual all on its own.

AH: Although We Are One isn’t a heavily story-driven game, it conveys its lore and world through Mother Nature’s narration and employment of environmental storytelling. The player embarks on an adventure in a serene forest, guided by Mother Nature herself. As a Sproutling, an embodiment of nature, their journey leads them to a ravaged industrial landscape, deep into the heart of the machines.

Certain elements of the lore are directly conveyed by Mother Nature’s voice over, for example the game’s main mechanic—cloning yourself in short time loops—is possible because of your role as the champion of nature. You exist in a globally networked ecosystem that allows you to experience time in a more flexible way, unlike the entirely linear robotic machines.

However, we decided to leave the storytelling somewhat open so that players can have their own interpretations of the world of We Are One. Nevertheless, an attentive player will discover little clues now and then about what the machines and their destructive behavior are all about.

AH: One of the biggest technical challenges was making sure that clones repeat the exact same actions that you did before. At the beginning we spent quite some time trying to figure out what the best way to create a time loop in Unity would be. Everything would need to happen exactly the same as it has happened before—in programming this is called deterministic behavior. While we thought about recording and replaying everything, we also wanted players to be able to interact with past clones, like stealing items from them.

We decided we’d simulate the game world for each loop and needed to make sure that it behaves exactly the same each time. Unity uses Nvidia’s PhysX engine integration, which is theoretically capable of deterministic behavior but the implementation in Unity is not deterministic by default. After a couple months, a bit of trial and error and a lot of reading, we found a way to get it to work.

If you want to read up on it, we actually created a blog post in the Unity forums where we explained it in detail.

AH: The level editor will be available this fall on Quest. It’ll allow you to create your very own custom maps by placing and configuring spawn points, weapons, enemies, and objects in the environment. Once you’ve created a map, you’ll be able to upload it to a public server where other people can download and play it. This gives players an opportunity to share their creations, play the maps their friends created, or try new puzzles made by the community.

AH: We had two major reasons why we settled on this look: Firstly, we are a rather small team and in the beginning of development we had only one 3D artist onboard. The art style of the game had to work with little resources and therefore we ditched the idea of making semi-realistic game art early on.

Secondly, we wanted to go a little crazy with the creative possibilities. We found a lot of inspiration for stylized visuals and interesting color palettes in games like Borderlands, SUPERHOT, Compound, and APE OUT. Melle, our amazing artist, dedicated a lot of time working out our art style, resulting in a mix of real watercolor textures with digitally drawn brushstrokes and a strong use of outlines and colors.

We also strongly believe that the art style should complement the gameplay. For instance, we made sure to use bold colors for important game elements like enemies, weapons, or spawn points, while toning down the surrounding environment to be visually more discrete.

AH: As a team, we firmly believe that putting a reduced version of our game online as early as possible was instrumental in shaping many decisions we made along the way. By offering people the chance to provide feedback during the development phase, we were able to test out puzzles and mechanics with real players. Incorporating their valuable feedback early on allowed us to make adjustments to our game together with the community and create a product that resonates with our players.

Moreover, launching on App Lab was an incredible boost in motivation for us. The download numbers showed that there was interest in the game and the multitude of positive reviews further proved that our concept is genuinely enjoyed by our players. Additionally, it also allowed us to get a certain level of attention in the game development scene. This helped us get into contact with our amazing publisher Fast Travel Games, and we also believe that App Lab was a big factor for getting accepted on the Meta Quest Store.

AH: Every now and then, a player finds a solution that we haven’t thought of yet, which blows my mind. Some of the most creative things I can think of from the top of my head:

• Throwing a magazine and gun so they perfectly collide midair, resulting in a loaded gun ready to be used.
• Shooting at a past clone who’s equipped with a shield and precisely reflecting the bullets to make an incredible skillshot.
• A player killing a clone that was busy performing some actions. Later on, he realized the action of the now-defeated clone was actually necessary to beat the level. Instead of restarting the level, he used his next loop to kill the clone that killed the first clone. What a save!

It’s always great to see our players solve our game in an unexpected way and some of their solutions inspired us to make brand new puzzles.

AH: It’s unbelievable that our former university project turned into a full-fledged game, and we’re super happy that it’s now available on the Meta Quest Store for the whole world to play. My grandma is so proud!

Coordinate with your clones and rise up against your robot overlords in We Are One, out today on Meta Quest 2 + Pro.