Jul 17, 2025

Must-Have Tools for Building Your Favorite Genre in Worlds

You know that feeling when building in Worlds just... clicks? When the mechanics feel right, the visuals come together and players engage exactly the way you want them to?

The key to making these moments happen regularly is understanding the tools at your disposal and, more importantly, leveraging those tools to the advantage of your game’s specific genre.

This is precisely what helped the winners of this year’s Mobile Genre Showdown stand out from hundreds of competition entries to claim $1 million in cash prizes. In this deep dive, we’ll examine the essential tools, techniques and strategies that five top winners used to make their worlds click.

In the cozy co-op cooking sim Let Me Cook!⁠, players raid the pantry for ingredients, experiment with combinations at the chopping board and discover over 40 recipes through trial and error experimentation. But the real magic happens after the cook, when players gather around a communal table to share their creations. It's a relaxing mobile-first experience that former CPA turned full-time creator Ashley Briley (Ashes2Ashes2) designed with discovery and celebration in mind.

Must-have tools

Ashley uses the Asset Spawning API to rotate rare menu ingredients daily, which encourages players to return and paces their progression across multiple sessions.

To guide players, she uses Custom UI overlays to trigger helpful tips when they get stuck or playful animations when they discover new recipes.

Ashley also leverages the Camera API to direct players’ attention to key moments so they don’t miss out on discovering a new recipe, and uses fast-travel buttons that let mobile players instantly teleport between different cooking stations.

A recipe for repeatable fun

Ashley’s secret sauce is creating planned anticipation with rotating content that gives players a clear reason to come back. As she explains:

“I’m using asset spawning to spread out and rotate content in my game. This way each visit to the world allows for a different experience. Players who are visiting for the first time will have access to ingredients that are categorized as “everyday” or “rare”, where the “rare” ingredients change each day on a posted schedule.

They’ll be able to make recipes that first day and then plan which day they want to return to make sure they can complete whichever recipe they haven’t collected yet. From a developing standpoint this also allows me to fit much more content into the experience and a way to expand it later.”

In the delightfully playful Kawaii’s Kitty Care Café⁠, players assume the role of caretaker to over 25 distinct feline companions in a colorful, Japanese kawaii-inspired environment. In the world, created by Jessica Richardson (Kawaii.Creator) and her family, players wash, feed and accessorize their furry friends on their way to becoming the ultimate Kitty Care Manager. The result is a supremely cozy space that blends roleplay elements with progression-based customization.

Must-have tools

Jessica’s family studio leverages TypeScript to power Custom UI systems for all care tasks and shop interactions. They also created tap-based mechanics to help make interactions feel smooth and mobile-friendly.

To create an immersive and inviting experience, the team used Worlds’ AI SFX tools and Suno for engaging sound effects and curated ambient audio.

Jessica’s team also leaned into external tools like Blender, Substance Painter, and Procreate to create the world’s expressive character models and vibrant textures.

The purr-fect formula for fun

Jessica’s team uses the latest creator tools to create a seamless player experience where every player feels welcome, connected and creatively free. As she puts it:

“We've always leaned into creating with the newest tools that Worlds offers… Every choice supported our goal of creating a space that feels familiar and immersive that keeps players coming back and spending time together.”

In Cometfall⁠, a mysterious comet unleashes magical monsters on an unsuspecting countryside, leaving players to explore, gather materials, learn spells and craft gear to defend themselves. It’s a lightweight RPG experience from Alexandre David (StormingDecker), an experienced dev and engineering lead at Rec Room who treated this ambitious hobby project “more like a second job.”

Must-have tools

StormingDecker used Custom Model Import to craft terrains, animate scary wizard rats and populate the spooky environments with custom props to create a dark fantasy mood.

He relies on TypeScript and the Worlds desktop editor to manage the world’s multiple complex systems. He notes,"Building this experience would have been nearly impossible without file-backed scripts and the Desktop Editor."

Alexandre also makes innovative, dual-purpose use of the Camera API for both storytelling and combat. He uses it to create cinematic cutscenes by detaching the camera from the player, and also built a dynamic fight camera that automatically keeps both the player and monster in view during combat.

Building a comet-sized adventure

By focusing on strategic pacing for mobile sessions, StormingDecker has crafted a game that feels expansive without being overwhelming, perfect for players who want meaningful progress in short bursts.

“The first part of the game is a tutorial, so you learn the game as you play, but can be completed in something like 3 minutes. The game saves state, so you keep what you unlocked the next time you play. On repeat visits, other monsters can also be found and defeated in less than 3 minutes.

The concept was a small RPG that can be advanced in short loops that take no more than 5 minutes. I used the mobile preview in the desktop editor during most of the development, and that forced me to keep in mind (for world design and UI) that aspect ratio right from the start.”

In Blast Riders⁠, players get a bird's-eye view of a street grid battlefield, navigating moving vehicles, shooting and colliding with others to be the last one standing. It's a fast-paced, cartoon-style battle royale with environmental dangers like volcanic lava and tsunamis adding chaos. The experience is the brainchild of Melissa Genao (PigeonNo12), a full-time creator and Meta Horizon Creator Program mentor, and digital 3D artist Joe Rudy Rodriquez (RexRod), who specializes in environment design and optimization.

Must-have tools

The duo uses the Camera API to detach the camera from player avatars. This creates a retro top-down arcade view that also cleverly helps boost performance by eliminating the need to render hidden geometry.

RexRod used Custom Model Import and a high-poly to low-poly baking process to craft the world’s city environment, optimizing it from 147,000 vertices down to just 12,000 without losing visual detail.

Meanwhile, Pigeon No12 leveraged TypeScript to manage the game’s complex vehicle movement systems and keep RPC calls in check during the game’s constant action.

Full blast ahead

The team’s approach centers on quick, repeatable matches that pop with bold visuals and frenetic social competition. In an inspired move, Pigeon hides player avatars from view to free up rendering capacity for dynamic vehicular action happening on screen. To cater to mobile players, the team also designed custom UIs with large, pressable buttons and recognizable icons for intuitive gameplay that doesn’t require instructions. It all contributes to Blast Riders’ jump-in-and-wreak-havoc vibe that both VR and mobile players can sink their teeth into.

"In the game, I'm using the camera API to completely detach the camera from the player's avatar, and attach to the vehicle they are driving instead. This allowed me to create an immersive arcade experience with a top-down perspective.

This contributed a lot with performance as well. RexRod did a marvelous job creating and optimizing the game art; part of this success was not having the need of including geometry behind the city buildings, because the camera angle only allows the players to see the front of the buildings.”

Immersion and atmosphere take center stage in Spaced Out⁠, an obby-style platformer from creator Dominick Frederick (Domeoc). Dominick is an aspiring full-time creator and developer who runs the small studio Edge of Creation — when he’s not crafting moody immersive experiences, that is. In Spaced Out, players teleport between three distinct dimensions, each of which draws them deeper into the unknown with strikingly rich environments. In order to get the world’s platforming challenges just right, Dominick spent days adjusting jump arcs and fall speeds until teleporting felt effortless on both mobile and VR.

Must-have tools

Dominick’s must-have tool of choice, the desktop editor, lets him build, test and refine environments quickly and efficiently.

Meanwhile, he uses Worlds’ AI-assisted scripting to handle the technical heavy-lifting, which frees him to focus on creating the best player experience.

The tone and mood of each level starts in Photoshop, where Domeoc workshops early creature designs and concept art. Then, it’s off to ZBrush, which he uses to sculpt creatures and block out environments.

One giant leap for obby-kind

With Spaced Out, Dominick’s main focus was on creating a unique visual style that would fully immerse players in his worlds. His biggest breakthrough didn’t come from an external tool, but from an unconventional experiment with lighting tools.

“One surprising way I used Worlds’ tools was in testing a silhouette-style experience. I shut off all the lights in the scene and experimented with different materials to create lit backgrounds and environments.

It was the first time I saw how lighting and materials alone could shape mood and readability. Playing it for the first time felt totally different, it turned the world into a dreamlike space where the player stands out as a shadow against the light.”

What will you build?

From cozy cooking sims to high-octane battle royales, these five creators prove that the tools for building exceptional worlds are right at your fingertips. Whether you're inspired by Ashley's use of Asset Spawning, Jessica’s kawaii-inspired world-building, Alexandre's innovative camera work, Melissa's performance optimization, or Dominick’s atmospheric lighting, the path to your next breakthrough is clearer than ever.

Join the Meta Horizon Creator Program to stay informed about upcoming competitions and download the Worlds desktop editor to start building. Your award-winning world could be next.

Stay up to date on the latest updates, improvements and fixes in Worlds by reading the latest release notes and following us on X⁠ and Facebook⁠.

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