Aug 26, 2025

A Bootcamp Bonanza: Recap from Worlds Creator Academy NYC

Across Meta Horizon, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more passionate and engaged crowd as the Worlds creator community. Whether it’s providing mentorship, chiming in on the Meta Horizon Creator Program Discord or providing tips on the creator forum, they know how to support each other’s success, and have fun doing it.

We launched the Meta Horizon Creator Program to do just that — connect new and existing creators, help them learn from Meta experts and their peers and thrive on the platform.

Resources like the creator program make learning and building accessible and fun, but sharing in the process together is where the magic happens, as the community continues to show us time and time again. That’s why this month, we decided to bring creators together for the first-ever Worlds Creator Academy bootcamp, an in-person event aimed at enabling creators to publish a world in just three days.

Here at Meta, the hype leading up to this invite-only event was huge, but the goal was simple: Provide guidance and hands-on experience to help creators publish their first world on mobile.

The results? Out of this world (yes, bad pun intended). The event was a smash hit, and it certainly won’t be the last. So gear up and dive in below to see highlights, explore what these creators built and learn how you can attend future Creator Academies⁠ with Meta Horizon.

Brainstorming to Build-Alongs: 3 Jam-Packed Days of Learning

Following our $50 million Meta Horizon Creator Fund and several creator competitions offering millions in prize money, we were eagerly seeking other ways to help creators grow and succeed. It just so happened that the rise of mobile worlds presented the perfect opportunity, ripe for learning and creative ideas.

Enter the Worlds Creator Academy bootcamp. Held between August 12 - 14 at Meta’s office in New York City, a city known as a world of possibilities (oops, did it again), this event hosted more than 100 creators, with dozens even travelling from outside the country to attend.

Creators were treated to a full agenda of tool demos, in-depth speaker sessions and of course, building worlds. But the real fun shined through the chance to meet other community members in person and form lasting connections along the way.

Bootcamp attendees engaged in workshops, speaker sessions and creator expert-led build-alongs.

“The opportunity to visit so many incredibly talented creators in the same place and bringing them together with a shared mutual experience is one of the most valuable opportunities imaginable. The connections, friendships and relationships built will be hard to beat. 11/10 experience. Would recommend.” - Andy

From working with creator experts like MikeyAce, SpaceGliterUnicorn, MetaJesus, King_of_Miami and Ashes2Ashes in build-alongs, to gathering tips on creating a winning marketing strategy to workshopping with generative AI tools in the Worlds Desktop Editor, attendees got hands-on with the complete world building pipeline.

By the end of the hands-on event, every creator published a world.

All in all, every attendee published a world at the end of the bootcamp. And just to add a little competitive twist, we wrapped things up with a mini-competition in which creator experts judged each world and awarded winners in each category.

Meet the Mini-Competition Winners

Most likely to successfully monetize:

Catch Up Tomato⁠: Smash. Shoot. Repeat. Play as a tomato and smash into other players to fill up your ketchup bottle and acquire the all-powerful ketchup gun and defend yourself or be smashed.

Gorgon Zombie⁠: Choose your weapons, kill zombies, earn currency, spend and upgrade. Do your best to reach the end (if there is one).

Best mobile game development:⁠

Speedy Food⁠: Curbside delivery at its finest. Sling your food to the customers as they drive by!

Zap on Tap⁠: Stranded on a planet ruled by Zappers, you’ll need Zap-oxygen to stay alive. Catch the friendly ones, dodge the toxic ones and see how long you can survive the chaos.

Beach Treasure Hunt⁠: Escape the city and comb the beach for starfish in this calming coastal environment.

Outstanding visual design:

The Gorge⁠: In a fog-filled chasm guarded by fortified towers, survival means holding your ground. Use sniper rifles, turrets and tactical gear to fight off waves of mutants across twisted terrain.

Most creative use of GenAI:

Trash Dash⁠: Race to clean up the streets! Collect trash and quickly sort it into recycling or garbage. Stay sharp though, because sneaky rats are on the loose and they'll steal your trash.

Best game layout:

Love Gnomes No Bounds⁠: In this two-player showdown, one player’s trying to impress their date, while the other, playing as a mischievous gnome, does everything they can to ruin it. Romance has never been this chaotic.

Attend Future Creator Academies

Whether you’re building battle arenas in Boston or party games in Paris, being a member of the creator community means you’re never truly worlds apart (last time, we promise).

But, if you’re itching to get in on the action and meet other creators in-person, fill out this form⁠ to be considered for future Creator Academies. We’re committed to investing in your success and continue identifying new ways to help you learn, grow and earn.

“I came into this extremely skeptical. I don’t build in Fortnite or Roblox, instead I've been an XR software developer for 10+ years. This event was very encouraging that Meta has a solid business strategy that can support creators while respecting their wide ecosystem of modalities.” - Kyle

Jumpstart World Building

Ready to enhance your skills and unleash your creativity? Be sure to download the Worlds Desktop Editor if you haven’t already, then dive into our Worlds Creator Academy video tutorials to level up with scripting, our generative AI tool suite and much more.

To unlock extra support, earning opportunities and a thriving community, join the Meta Horizon Creator Program, and don’t forget to follow us on X⁠ and Facebook⁠ for all the latest creator news. We can’t wait to see what you create!