WinchCraft

Cover Image
Welcome Screen
Mixed Reality Screenshot

NOTE: Quest 3 Only

Inspiration

I used to think clicker games were stupid, then I tried one and I started to understand the appeal. There's something unusually satisfying about working toward simple incremental upgrades and unlocking them, rinse and repeat. Presented with a hackathon where I'd need to learn unfamiliar systems, I decided to keep the scope within reach (literally).

Style

Low poly is still too high poly for me. Hand drawn flat drawings are just about to go viral, I'm sure of it. Besides, for this type of game, it's really all about the feel of the collection and upgrades, which is where the particles, meticulously crafted sound effects, and music come in to pull their weight.

What it does

It's a short, cozy clicker game but with grab-and-trigger collection mechanics with satisfying sound design and vibe. Some light strategizing over the right upgrades will see the player making smart moves for faster collection. The end screen shows the time it took the player to beat all five levels, introducing some potential light-hearted competition.

How we built it

Interaction SDK and Passthrough enabled the grabbables and Poke interactions that put the click in clicker. Experimentation was done with the MRUK to bring in room geometry, but who needs realistic collisions when you can be satisfied with no collisions at all? Pure Passthrough gives us everything we need in this lightweight armscale experience.

Challenges we ran into

For valid reasons I don't seem to recall, I didn't use the Quick Actions or Building Blocks to set this up. Wrong move. The many references and configuration settings to get interactions behaving as expected was daunting. Also, MRUK didn't seem to be able to trigger a room scan like Scene API can, but the need for room geometry was eventually scrapped (eh) anyway. I also ran into issues with controller offset/rotation when testing for Quest 2, so this is a Quest 3 only build.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

It's a finished small experience, albeit with levels 2-5 severely unbalanced if it were a full release. For a hackathon where the total playtime should likely be less than 20 minutes, it's good. Once you get some automation momentum, you really fly through the remainder in a way that feels pretty good.

What we learned

Use the Building Blocks and Quick Actions, and maybe some extension methods that could give custom code involving interactions more readability.

What's next for WinchCraft

There's a VR game jam already underway that allows continuing an existing project, so potentially this could be expanded for that to introduce new balancing and game mechanics.