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Matthew Warner

“Kite” VR Game Published

“Kite” was my submission to the #SpringJam2022 competition at Horizon Worlds, which just had its deadline last night. There is some stiff competition this time around. The contest was to submit something, anything at all, under the theme of “spring.” Below are the video and essay components of my submission, which you can play at this link.

Essay:

My inspiration was simple: nothing says springtime to me more than kite flying. So the core of this submission is the experience of flying a kite. The kite ascends as you back up toward the wind and lowers as you walk downwind. Controller buttons reel out and reel in the string. A segmented tail moves behind the kite.

There are two minigames. In RandoSphere, a sphere moves randomly within an area defined by four pillars, and the player tries to get the kite to intercept the sphere. In LaserEyes, the kite fires lasers from its eye decals, and the player tries to get the kite to shoot targets on the ground. Each game is begun by a start button and lasts for 30 seconds. High scores are tracked on leaderboards.

The kite, its reel string, and segmented tail use local scripting. Everything else uses default scripting. Gizmos used include projectile launchers, popups, leaderboards, and text and sound objects.

Only one person at a time can fly the kite, but the world capacity can accommodate a party of 20 players who can take turns. “Kite” is appropriate for all ages.

Kite. Fly a kite and play two minigames: RandoSphere and LaserEyes.