Oct 23, 2025

Ace of Spades: How HardyWest Became a Creative and Cultural Force in Worlds

Back in the fall of 2021, Khaleem “HardyWest” Solomon was doing everything he could to get into Worlds, which was still invite-only at the time. Fast forward to today and he’s banked more than $55,000 in competition winnings building worlds like Basketball Battleground⁠ and Metro Munch⁠.

How did he do it? It all started with a borrowed Meta Quest headset.

This is the story of one of Meta Horizon’s leading creators, a self-declared “Metaverse Boss” who constantly keeps pace with the latest tools Worlds has to offer and finds ways to grow right alongside them.

The Call That Changed Everything

To say that hearing Mark Zuckerberg announce his vision for the metaverse was life-changing for Khaleem would be an understatement. The “come build with us” message hit him so hard that within hours, he found himself standing on his mom’s doorstep asking to borrow his stepdad’s Quest headset.

“He never got that headset back,” HardyWest laughs.

Fortunately, Khaleem wasn’t starting from scratch. By the end of 2021, he had already built a freelance design career creating marketing assets like landing pages and ads for small businesses. That same design-meets-commerce mindset would eventually define how he approached Worlds as a place where creativity and entrepreneurship could grow together.

But first, he had to land an invite to actually get into Meta Horizon. Khaleem spent days cold-calling every creator he could find until, finally, he connected with a Canadian builder who provided him with a coveted access code. The rest, as they say, is history.

Once I got in, it was crazy. I spent so much time in Horizon that first year… It was a special time.

Khaleem “HardyWest” Solomon

From Hustle to Hardy World

Hardy spent months building his first world, the aptly named Hardy World. It gained traction with players almost instantly, despite Worlds’ capacity limit allowing only 16 players at any given time. “There were so many people coming,” he remembers.

Word spread fast. This world was different. It was lively, funny, unapologetically social, and perhaps most importantly, it was built for adults. There was music, games, what Hardy swears was the first beer pong table in Worlds, and an incredibly diverse fanbase with many players of color experiencing VR for the first time.

Hardy’s marketing hustle and startup mentality were literally written on the walls. Every corner carried logos and “Lease This Space” signs. He even hosted private “learn about the metaverse” sessions with VIPs for $50 a seat. Some players admired the hustle; others rolled their eyes. “I was coming in business-minded. I was coming in ‘money talks,’” he says. “People did not like that at first.”

Turning a Classic into a Destination

When the buzz around Hardy World started to plateau, Hardy was already chasing the next challenge. He was determined to build smarter, faster, and tighter, which meant teaching himself platform tools like TypeScript and Custom UI among others. The work paid off when he released Hardy World Spades⁠, a VR take on the classic card game, in mid-2022. The response from the community was immediate. Spades became the place to hang out in Worlds. A place where laughs and playful trash talk became a ritual people couldn’t wait to revisit.

As the world grew, Hardy experimented with ways to turn engagement into income. He began selling premium items directly inside Spades like virtual seats for $25 and custom “guns” for $50. Meanwhile, Hardy himself became synonymous with the world. His image, voice, and whole social media presence were so baked into Spades that fans were logging in to see him as much as they were to play the game. That was thanks in part to his marketing push on TikTok, Instagram, and his websites hardy-world.com and hardyworldspades.com⁠. Hardy even invested in Facebook and Instagram ads to draw people into his worlds.

It’s no surprise then that when Worlds expanded to mobile, Hardy was ready. He rebuilt Spades for portrait orientation and one-handed play, and incorporated the 2025 update with cross-platform support, ranking systems, and cosmetic upgrades. The result was a world that felt polished but familiar. For Hardy, though, the goal was never just building better or more optimized worlds. The goal was always building worlds that felt like home.

Building Culturally Resonant Spaces

Nowhere does that show up more clearly than in Hardy World Spades⁠, a space where Black players can see themselves reflected inside Meta Horizon. From the music to the table talk, it captures the rhythm and familiarity of a real-life night of spades. “It’s almost like walking into a Black person’s house,” he says. “You know if a Black person lives there or not. So when I approach my worlds, I try to put my flavor on it.”

That authenticity does more than build connection. In rare cases, it literally saves lives. During a live segment of Joy in the Morning⁠from creator JoyReign⁠, a player joined the world and wholeheartedly thanked Hardy for creating Spades. He told Hardy that Spades had helped him through one of the hardest stretches in his life: “It saved my life. This guy over here, Hardy — thank you for keeping me alive. That Spade room, that’s it.”

Being African American in this space is not something you see all the time. For people that look like me, when you see somebody doing something different, it’s like, man, I can do it too.

Khaleem “HardyWest” Solomon

Always Leveling Up

Part of the beauty of HardyWest’s culturally resonant worlds is that they also happen to be some of the most technically innovative spaces on the platform. This is no accident; if there’s one thing that defines his process, it’s how quickly Hardy turns new tools into opportunities for his own creative expression. Every time Meta rolls out a new tool, API, or feature update, Hardy is among the first to test it, break it, and build something unexpected from it. And that mindset fits neatly into where Worlds is headed.

As Meta Horizon continues expanding across devices and rolling out new creation tools, Hardy launches new worlds right alongside them, in effect serving as both showcases and testing grounds for the platform’s evolving toolkit. The timing couldn’t be more perfect with opportunities like Meta Horizon Creator Competitions and the Meta Horizon Creator Fund, which has committed more than $50 million in funding and prizes in support of creators who experiment with new tools and push the limits of what’s possible in Worlds.

That experimentation is where HardyWest truly thrives. His curiosity and willingness to create with the latest tools at full throttle is what’s helped him take home cash prizes in the Elevate Your Mobile World Competition, the Mobile Genre Showdown competition, and the Short Loop Mobile Worlds competition. And that’s all in addition to taking home the Technical Innovator Award⁠ at Meta Connect 2025.

Here’s a quick look at just a few of the standout worlds Hardy has created recently.

HardyWest’s Standout Worlds

Basketball Battleground⁠

A fast-paced mobile basketball game that turned casual play into long-term engagement.

🏆 Awards: Can’t Put It Down (Elevate Your Mobile World 2025), Best Use of Focused Interaction ($1M Mobile Genre Showdown 2025)

🚀 Innovation: Combined swipe-to-shoot controls with XP systems, daily challenges, and cosmetic rewards.

💡 Insight for creators: Retention and accessibility work together. Design loops that give players a reason to continually return.

Regal Boxing⁠

Built with collaborator MetaBigChief⁠, Regal Boxing used the Teams API to create a league-driven multiplayer experience.

🏆 Award: Best Teams API Implementation (Elevate Your Mobile World 2025)

🚀 Innovation: Introduced live tournaments, ranked ladders, and championship belts powered by Meta’s Teams API.

💡 Insight for creators: Early adoption of APIs unlocks features that shape community engagement.

Metro Munch⁠

As one of his first mobile hits, HardyWest showcased his UI skills in this fast-paced city delivery runner.

🏆 Award: Best Custom UI (Short Loop Mobile Worlds Competition 2024)

🚀 Innovation: Featured a dynamic mini-map, timer, and GPS-style HUD designed entirely with custom scripting.

💡 Insight for creators: Clarity in design. A well-built interface can turn a small world into a professional experience.

The Blueprint for Creators

For HardyWest, every project has been a step towards creative independence. Today, his studio, HardyWest Productions, represents the full realization of that independence — managing a portfolio of worlds and supporting collaborations with up-and-coming builders, all on his own terms. When asked what he’s learned along the way, he doesn’t hesitate: “Don’t give up. If you want it, you gotta see it. I think it all goes back to just having faith and believing in yourself,” he says.

It’s advice born from experience, and his journey accumulating that experience offers a clear blueprint that any creator can follow:

Build from culture. Familiar settings, like a Spades table or basketball court, invite players to connect and feel at home.

Adopt new tools. Stay ahead by testing new APIs, experimenting with AI workflows, and using every update as a chance to level up your craft.

Design with intention. Think about how players hold and use their devices. Build with vertical layouts, simple controls, and one-handed play for mobile, then carry those same design choices into VR.

Keep players coming back. Daily rewards, rankings, and progression loops give people a reason to return tomorrow.

Get creative with monetization. Go beyond selling items. Sell experiences players can’t get anywhere else that enhance community identity.

Are You Meta Horizon’s Next Technical Innovator?

Creators like HardyWest are redefining what’s possible in Meta Horizon. With powerful creation tools, monetization support, and a vibrant community, there’s never been a better moment to turn your ideas into reality.

Get started today — join the Meta Horizon Creator Program.

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