Aug 14, 2025

From Burnout to Breakout Hit: Exploring Plastic Battlegrounds’ Indie VR Success

In 2024, Khang Nguyen was at a crossroads. After pouring six years into Cry of Athena—a VR title that was yet to ship—and watching his team disband, he was out of money, relying on food banks, burnt out and considered walking away from game development entirely.

Nguyen calculated that he would run out of rent money within the next three months, coinciding with the timing of his birthday."I couldn’t imagine going another year working on games without having released one, but the current game was too much to handle by myself. That, along with the money situation, meant I had to figure something out fast," said Nguyen.

This sparked the development of Plastic Battlegrounds⁠, a toy soldier sandbox game built within those three months by Nguyen with support from composer/level designer Cody Vidal, under the banner of their studio, Simulated Minds⁠. Inspired by childhood play, war movies, and a need for simplicity, the game was released as a make-or-break effort, a final shot at making it.

As Nguyen discovered, with the right support, even last second bets can change the tide. Around that time, he turned to Meta Horizon Start, a support and community program for early-career VR developers building for Quest. The connections, resources and encouragement he found there became a major turning point.

Plastic Battlegrounds is a toy soldier sandbox VR game built in just three months.

Rooted in Family, Sacrifice, and Second Chances

Nguyen’s journey into VR wasn't conventional. The son of Vietnamese immigrants who survived the war and rebuilt their lives in the United States, Nguyen grew up with the weight of his family's sacrifices, including the loss of his brother during their escape from Vietnam. He was originally on track to become a dentist, following in his parents' footsteps.

Things shifted when the pressure to meet expectations became overwhelming. He thought back to the joy he felt as a child, and began to wonder how to reconnect with that side. “I realized I was suppressing this whole other side of myself,” he said. “I couldn’t live a life without creativity, so I took a leap of faith into game development.”

Everything changed in college when he joined a game dev club and tried a VR headset for the first time. "I saw the future. I knew this was what I had to be part of."

He pivoted and taught himself to code, rebuilding his confidence and feeling more like his old self than he had in years. Over the next several years, he focused on building Cry of Athena, a deeply ambitious battle simulator inspired by his love of sandbox experiences. He built a large and dedicated volunteer team, but the project’s ambitious scope and intense technical challenges eventually caused progress to slow. As the project stretched on, Nguyen found himself struggling with limited resources and unsure how to get the game across the finish line.

By 2024, with no money, a disbanded team and major burnout, he faced his lowest moments. “Everything was going wrong at once. I felt like I had let everyone who believed in me, including my team, down,” he said. "It felt like I was right back where I started and began regretting my path. But I told myself: I’ve come too far to not release at least one game.”

It all clicked when someone commented on a Cry of Athena video saying that it felt like playing with toy soldiers. Making imaginary battles with toy soldiers had been his favorite childhood pastime and the original inspiration behind the game.

Recalling those moments reminded him that he hadn’t always been in survival mode. There was a time when play came easily, driven by creativity and freedom. Tapping into the source became the goal: building a game that helped players reconnect with the creative, playful part of themselves.

So he started over, stripped the concept of Cry of Athena to its core, and reimagined it as a simpler toy soldier sandbox game: Plastic Battlegrounds. The game expands on the childhood experience of playing with toy soldiers, making them come to life and allowing the players to be toy soldiers themselves. It lets players switch between towering over the levels as a human-sized player setting up armies and battlefields, or shrinking down to fight alongside toy soldiers at scale. With deep roleplay and creative potential, the game empowers players to bring their imagination to life.

Plastic Battlegrounds lets players switch between towering over the levels as a human-sized player, or shrinking down to fight alongside toy soldiers.

“It was absolutely a huge gamble. But when I decided on the toy soldier concept, it felt like life was returning to me. I knew others would connect with it, because I did. It was all about tapping into imagination and nostalgia, making it feel real.”

With Cody Vidal working alongside him on level design and music, Nguyen got to work to create Plastic Battlegrounds. The pivot was a move that reflects a common theme among successful indie VR developers: distilling the experience to its core mechanic and finding the fastest path to “time to fun.”

Developer Khang Nguyen gained inspiration from his childhood experience playing with toy soldiers.

How Start Helped Bring the Vision to Life

Because Cry of Athena was built for PCVR, Nguyen had to restart his development journey from scratch to bring his new game to Meta Quest. That meant learning an entirely new pipeline that many developers begin with, but for Nguyen, it required letting go of everything he’d already built.

“I had to start completely over. I had to let go of my ego and become a beginner again. Being in the Start Discord allowed me to ask any questions and not feel ashamed of how ‘dumb’ they might sound.”

Despite achieving one of his proudest engineering accomplishments of building a lightweight AI NPC system capable of running hundreds of characters on Quest hardware, porting a full game to Quest felt overwhelming to Nguyen, who was already spread thin with the challenge of completing an entire game in a short span of time. The game was made in Unreal Engine 4, an older version of the engine, and required navigating compatibility challenges.

That’s where Meta Start came in. The Discord community included developers also working in UE4, and their deep knowledge and willingness to share it fast-tracked Nguyen’s understanding of how to make the game function on Quest.

At that point, the game was still a prototype. With only weeks to go, he faced the challenge of turning it into something playable and fun. The Start program gave him the foundational knowledge he needed to handle Quest infrastructure, so he could focus on polishing the core gameplay.

When a critical bug prevented the game from uploading to the Meta Horizon Store, a group of Start members rallied to help. They spent weeks tracking down the issue, eventually solving it and allowing the app to pass VRC checks just in time.

“Some things would’ve been near impossible to troubleshoot within three months without my fellow developers on the Start Discord, especially when burnout was causing me to work at a fraction of my usual efficiency. Without their help, I would not have been able to ship the game before money ran out.”

Despite getting dangerously close to the deadline, he was considering delaying it, until he was invited to Meta Connect⁠ through the Start program.

At Meta Connect, Nguyen learned from other developers about how to go viral, target audiences and more. Ghosts of Tabor creator Scott Albright offered a big piece of advice that stuck with him: Don’t let perfectionism slow you down.

That moment reframed his approach. Encouraged by Albright and other developers at the event, Nguyen committed to releasing within 20 days on October 15th, a deadline that coincided with both his birthday and the launch of the Quest 3S.

“It was time to release. It didn’t need to be perfect, as long as it was fun, playable, and there was follow through with frequent updates based on player feedback.”

Plastic Battlegrounds was strategically launched to coincide with the release of Meta Quest 3S.

Going Viral, Building Community, Changing Lives

Plastic Battlegrounds was released into early access just a few hours before Nguyen’s deadline. Not long after release, the game found momentum on TikTok after Nguyen and social manager Joel Taylor each posted short videos⁠ that showed how people imagined toy soldiers when they played with them as kids. Both clips went viral, racking up 300,000⁠ views apiece, showing early signs of serious traction.

The game’s marketing potential quickly surfaced as players began crafting homemade war films starring toy soldiers: ClaymationVR⁠, a TikTok creator whose cinematic short videos of the game emulated the feeling of classic war movies, generated over 100 million organic views, with each post driving a noticeable spike in sales. Nguyen eventually brought him on full-time, an opportunity that helped Claymation and his family improve their living situation and quality of life.

And the ripple effects didn’t stop there. Another teammate used earnings to move his family out of a conflict zone. “It’s surreal,” said Nguyen. “The game may be about toy soldiers, but it’s had real-world impact.”

As the game continued to gain momentum, Nguyen began working even more closely with the Start team. Program leads helped provide publishing guidance, marketing support, Meta Horizon Store strategy and more, giving him the tools and momentum to build on the game’s early success.

What started as a side project grew into a viral phenomenon. Today, Plastic Battlegrounds has swelled to more than 7,000+ reviews⁠, and maintains a 4.9-star rating on the Meta Horizon Store. It has 15k members in its Discord community⁠ where players can talk directly to the developers, including Nguyen, and be a part of the development cycle by providing feedback and ideas, as well as share their creations and in-game stories.

But for Nguyen, the real success is more personal. His dad now plays the game daily and answers fan questions in social media comments–something that surprises Nguyen even more than the game’s popularity. His mom, who once worried about him to the point of insomnia, now sleeps well and proudly shares updates with extended family. “We didn’t always see eye to eye, but my parents always inspired me with their own persistence, resourcefulness, and resilience despite their losses and setbacks. And they now understand the importance of me pursuing my own path and finding happiness through it,” he said. “In that way, the path I took honors their sacrifices even more.” Khang dedicates his work to his family, including the brother he lost.

What began as a side project to buy time for the main game now supports nearly 10 developers across multiple countries, and has become a source of pride, stability and purpose.

"This was supposed to be a side project just to make rent," said Nguyen. "Now it's something that's helping others not just to survive but thrive."

Nguyen is also inspired by providing a new generation of gamers with an outlet to express their creativity. “It was through games that let me be creative that I became a developer.” Now, as young players grow up with Plastic Battlegrounds, he sees the impact coming full circle. “Some of them might even be inspired to start their own creative journey,” he said. “When players connect with you on that level, that’s the most meaningful part.”

Developer Khang Nguyen posing with his parents.

How to Build a Hit with no Budget: Nguyen’s Advice for Indie Developers

According to Nguyen, you don’t need money to start. You need a community, a good idea, and the willingness to move fast. Here, his top tips for aspiring developers:

Start simple. Overscoping can kill momentum. Build something you know people want.

Let go of perfectionism. Your goal isn't to win awards; it's to ship.

Listen to your players. Plastic Battlegrounds has seen frequent updates and improvements, many of them driven directly by player feedback.

Ask for help. The Start Discord was critical. "Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions."

Focus on fun. When the core experience is fun, players are more willing to stick with you and see the potential. Polish can come later.

Marketing is half the battle. Meet your core audience where they are, whether that’s TikTok or another platform they engage with daily.

What's Next for Plastic Battlegrounds and Simulated Minds

On the horizon is multiplayer support for Plastic Battlegrounds and the eventual resurrection of Cry of Athena, with lessons learned and a more focused approach. Nguyen says the team plans to focus on increasingly more ambitious games focused on smart NPCs and emergent gameplay, giving players the freedom to create and get lost in their own dynamic worlds.

Most of Nguyen’s original teammates from Cry of Athena have also since rejoined, greatly helping Nguyen with the pace of the game’s frequent updates. “Despite almost losing everything, everyone came back together as the original dream we set out to achieve was fulfilled,” he said. He is also thankful for the critical support he received from Start and the fellow developers in its community.

"I always knew we could achieve big things if we brought our imagination into the world,” he said. “Start helped give us the motivation, resources, help and knowledge to make that possible.”

Plastic Battlegrounds now supports a team of multiple developers.

Your journey starts here

If you’re ready to build your own breakout VR hit, the Meta Horizon Start program provides the support you need. Accelerate your development with:

Dedicated support. Receive priority technical support from Meta staff and fellow community developers.

Development resources. Get access to resources like software credits and pre-release products to accelerate your process.

A global community. Join our global community of developers and get invited to exclusive events and opportunities to give Meta feedback.

Apply to the Start program to accelerate your own VR development journey.

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