Horizon Worlds – Pizza Kitchen

As Lead Game Designer at Linx Interactive, Meta asked us to create a Horizon World that combines role-playing and gameplay elements to attract, engage, and retain players aged 13 and up for extended periods of time. This world is inspired by a popular existing world: Zoo Chef Challenge, in which players must assemble, bake, and deliver pizzas to an animal-like jury.

Pizza Kitchen

Pizza Kitchen is a social cooking and restaurant-management experience built for Meta Horizon Worlds. Players work together to prepare pizzas, fulfill customer orders, earn rewards, and upgrade their restaurant while interacting with friends in a fast-paced multiplayer environment. Designed for virtual reality and social play, the experience combines cooperative gameplay, progression systems, and light business-management mechanics to create an accessible and engaging experience for a broad audience.

As the Lead Game Designer and creator of the original pitch, I established the game’s core vision, gameplay loop, and progression framework. I was responsible for designing systems that encouraged teamwork, replayability, and long-term player engagement while ensuring the experience remained intuitive and enjoyable within Horizon Worlds.

For the game’s largest content update, I led the design of new ingredients, expanded recipe options, and a brand-new abilities system that allowed players to unlock unique gameplay enhancements as they progressed. My responsibilities included feature conception, progression design, gameplay balancing, content planning, and coordinating with the development team to bring new mechanics from concept to release.

Through continuous iteration and player-focused design, Pizza Kitchen evolved into a deeper and more rewarding social experience, expanding both the creative possibilities available to players and the long-term progression systems that keep them engaged.

Horizon Worlds

Meta Horizon Worlds is a free virtual reality online video game with an integrated world creation system developed and published by Meta Platforms.

Horizon Worlds is part of the larger mission to create a metaverse that provides ways to connect and share experiences. Virtual reality, augmented reality, and smart glasses are ways to access the metaverse.

On this multi-player virtual platform, players move and interact with each other in various worlds that host events, games, and social activities.

Horizon Worlds is available on the following headsets: Oculus Rift S, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 3.