Celebrating You, the #POPMJam Creators

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Posted by Vyker

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18 Jan 2023

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In Meta Horizon Worlds’ #POPMJam competition, 89 creators submitted worlds, flexing their creative building skills. The competition brought out the best in so many of our creators’ work, and we were thrilled to see so many compelling new mechanics, stunning designs, and truly collaborative builds emerge.

Unfortunately, due to some challenges with Worlds’ version stability toward the end of the competition, we weren’t able to fairly judge all entries. But that shouldn’t stop us from celebrating the incredible work on display in this competition! While we are unable to write about all of them, we toured each of the submitted worlds and took some personal notes about what we found particularly unique. We’d like to share some of those here with the broader Worlds community.

Thank you to everyone who participated in #POPMjam—your creations are truly inspiring!

Tomb Run by DFIyMcNasty

In this two- to four-player puzzle adventure game, players must find their way through puzzles and traps in the Pyramid to reach the King’s Tomb and retrieve the Ancient Red Ruby. The overall design of this world brilliantly evokes the vibe of old school tomb raiding movies. The puzzles are clever and intuitive, offering a challenging yet satisfying first run. The mechanics are just challenging enough to leave you wanting to improve your own run time. With the addition of a leaderboard, we can’t wait to see if any speedrunners emerge to top the charts.

Barretina Parkour by Jadranko.K-K

This parkour obstacle course for up to eight simultaneous players is a beautiful tribute to Catalan culture with stunning visuals and very unique mechanics—particularly the use of climbable objects (and sometimes even climbable towers of people). The use of hidden layers to give the climbing mechanic an intuitive and tactile feel really shines in this world, with climbing challenges getting progressively more difficult as you traverse through the various obstacles. The hidden wearable items spread throughout this world that gave players cosmetic rewards for finding alternate routes were particularly clever. Layer in the unlockable achievements, photo booth, and the hall of fame for speedrunners, and this world really has something for everyone. Did we mention there’s also a festive log that poops candy? Consume at your own risk.

Upward Falls by MKE_TheGuru

Upward Falls is a mind-bending experience with unique puzzles and physics to navigate for up to eight people. The goal? Make your way through this twisting and turning environment and collect the magic orbs hidden throughout the world. With artistic inspiration drawn from the works of MC Escher and game design inspired by Monument Valley, the look and feel of this world really comes to life in VR. Beyond the beautiful and ever-changing environment (which, by the way, will make you question the laws of physics as we know them), this world’s Flight School and Off The Dome minigame got us moving and really tested our physical endurance. After 20 minutes, we knew we’d be feeling the workout in the morning! We loved the flying and gliding mechanics in the Flight School and saw some amazing VR-magic potential in them, though if we didn’t get our hands and heads angled just right we were in for a terrifying fall.

Don’t Look Away by Vulture667

In Don’t Look Away, a horror-themed game, your challenge is to escape from a locked graveyard before being caught by any of the (up to) eight randomly spawned ghosts. To escape, you must first find randomly located keys hidden in stones throughout the graveyard. Thank goodness for the conveniently placed pickaxes beside them. As you’re finding keys, you better not take your eyes off the ghosts! Any time they leave your line of sight, they’ll resume the hunt. We loved this classic mechanic brought to life in VR. It really felt like you were being followed, and the urgency to escape was visceral. The tutorial stage before gameplay, spectator modes for more collaborative play, and social interactions were nice touches, too. After we escaped the graveyard, we were left thinking this could be the start to an incredible series, with more levels and increasing challenges along the way.

Cooperative Horse: Beach Hay-cation - By scout1138
World Collaborators: jcraig358 & mxdylanp

If the winter chill has you wishing for warmer days, head south to this sunny island beach. Horse Head Island is filled with several minigames that play to Worlds’ collaborative spirit. The eight-person (four teams of two) spring-loaded horse race is the island’s centerpiece. Beyond its adorable design, the unfurling spring that connects each horse’s body made for some really entertaining races. The horse race isn’t all, though. This island was full of minigames ranging from glider tours launched from a hot air balloon, volleyball, and a punching bag disguised as a piñata that breaks open to deliver candy—just as you’d expect it to. The island vibe is cemented by three unique original tracks sprinkled throughout the world. And, of course, each song is performed (or danced to) by the resident civilization of crabs.

Check out all of the amazing creator worlds from our #POPMJam Competition:

War of Seas: A Pirate Adventure
Aaronbeasley98

Barretina Parkour - Medium Obby
Jadranko.K-K

Clash on Warriors: Siege on Castle Fortress
AlexRusty2012

Strawberry World @POPMJam
amayah.a

11:11
Bambipie

Survival Island
Ash.xo

Block Buster Battles
PhatAndrew

Rage Room
DarkNLovely_Angie

Game of Life
Papaxing45

ESCAPE THE MOTHERSHIP!
hausmaple

VIBE
U4E-A