Grenade Arena pits two teams against each other where players use throwable grenades to eliminate their opponents and score points.

Inspired by competitive arena games, I wanted to concept a game that could take advantage of throwing in VR. I hypothesized that throwing could feel more immersive and visceral than the typical point-and-shoot style of most other VR action games. I also believed throwing could introduce an aspect of anticipation and skill that could make the gameplay engaging. This game project was also an opportunity for me to learn how to test products with users and develop Unreal Engine code for multiplayer replication. I built and shipped the game on the Helios platform during my free time over a 3 month duration. This game mode became the first fully functional multiplayer game mode on the Helios platform and served as an early proof of concept for the platform’s flexibility to accommodate UGC content.

The Helios platform provides for base code classes, backend networking, and the player avatar system, but all other visuals, code, and gameplay were created by me as a solo developer.

I published the first prototype for testing after 6 weeks of development. My goal was to keep players interested for more than 10 minutes on average. I figured less than 10 minutes would indicate either the game was broken or the player became bored–both of which are failure conditions. The first prototype saw an average of 10-15 minutes and quickly rose to more than double that after major bugs were fixed and gameplay was refined.