Meta Horizon Worlds Spotlight: SimonJosh

Welcome back to our weekly spotlight on the people building for Meta Horizon Worlds and their amazing creations.

Last week, we grabbed our 3-wood and worked on our drives in seemebro’s META GOLF, a place where you can smash golf balls and try to hit targets to your heart’s content.

This week, we chatted with SimonJosh about becoming the host of The Unknown Theater, a popular comedy club in Worlds, and how collaborating has made creating worlds a much better experience than it could ever be on his own.

What got you interested in VR?

A childhood friend of mine (who’s now my creative collaborator in Worlds) is the one who pulled me into VR years ago. But I’ve been interested in 3D technology my whole life, ever since anaglyph glasses and Magic Eye, which I see as precursors of a similar kind of magic as VR.

What do you draw upon for inspiration when building in Worlds?

I like to re-imagine timeless, classic styles and experiences beyond their limits using VR to balance the past and the future. For my most popular world, The Unknown Theater, the design was inspired by a vintage performance theater aesthetic.

What do you want people to take away from their experience with your worlds?

I want people to feel like they had a truly authentic live entertainment experience in VR and that they were engaged, present, lost in laughter and emotion, and riding the energy waves of a shoulder-to-shoulder capacity crowd having a great time.

Every Thursday night at The Unknown Theater is “Comedy Night in the Metaverse,” where we do our best to deliver on the details: we have an announcer, a host, an opening act, and a headliner, all of it carefully timed. We also have lights, music, and, when necessary, security. We like to host professional stand-up comedians who perform live and uncensored. (Which is why it’s an adults-only experience.)

I have this great memory from a few months ago that really illustrates what I was going for when I created The Unknown Theater: a show was wrapping up, and after my partner left the stage and I closed my booth door, I could still hear the audience. One guy in the crowd said “that was legit,” and others around him agreed. That really stuck with me.

Are you a programmer/creator as your day job, or do you see this as a hobby?

It’s my night job. I’m a search engine optimization consultant by day, and when the sun goes down, I become a Worlds builder, show producer and event host.

Do you collaborate with others, and if so, what’s that experience like for you?

I do, and I’m grateful that I get to partner up with a consistently hilarious 20-year professional stand-up and actor who is friends with a seemingly infinite supply of real-life comedians.

My main collaborator is one of the most idea-filled, out-of-the-box, and driven creators I’ve ever met. Tackling the limitless creative possibilities of VR and Worlds together has been beyond fascinating and fun, a constant whirlwind of collective imagination brought to life. I do almost all the building and scripting, but there’s nothing he hasn’t improved or refined with his invaluable feedback.

And that’s really important because running high-quality comedy events successfully requires a careful coordination of producers, comics, and supporting staff. The support and help we get boggles our minds, and it’s just so cool to find others who believe in what we’re doing and want to collaborate with us.

What’s your best advice for getting started on building worlds for Worlds?

Be patient and enjoy the journey. You can’t learn it all at once and there’s no right path. That said, look up and learn fundamentals like basic selecting and snapping as soon as possible. And take advantage of the fact that Worlds is both a creation tool and a social app by meeting other creators who will inevitably teach you things.

What do you think the ultimate potential is for Worlds?

That the headsets will get powerful and comfortable enough, the software polished and enhanced enough, the load times low enough and user capacity limits raised enough, that the quality of social experience between the virtual and real can converge. It can become the way to hang out when you can’t be together in person.

I also envision Worlds as a place where the biggest names in comedy will be able to reach a colossal live audience with amazing presence and realism.

How do you think VR fits into the future vision of the metaverse?

VR provides the most powerful social presence, making all the connective metaverse technology more fundamentally meaningful and psychologically relevant, both now and, increasingly, going forward. Augmented reality does a great job of pulling people in, but maximizing immersion in a shared VR space is the most lastingly compelling experience.

What’s your favorite VR experience?

I adore POPULATION: ONE, but Worlds has taken my top spot for a while now because I continue to discover new ways to enjoy it. I love creator mode and building art out of shapes. I love that I am finally having my first scripting experiences and they’re going well. And I love that Worlds enables me to express my creativity and put on performances for wide audiences right from my home.