COLUMBIA — When building a new world in Meta Horizon, Khaleem Solomon, better known as HardyWest online, starts out with a blank grid. Before the virtual gaming system had more advanced features, he had about 15 shapes to choose from.
“And you could literally build anything with those shapes,” Solomon said.
A former graphic designer and website builder, Solomon learned how to create, pulling out shapes, scaling them and stretching them to build what he wanted in the virtual world first introduced by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2021.
“I built a table. I built a couch,” Solomon said. “It was special. It was a special time because I’ve never done 3D modeling. But it felt … natural to be using my hands and building something.”
Now the mixed reality product, described by Meta as merging “people’s real, physical space with your digital content to create new experiences where physical and virtual objects co-exist and interact in real time,” is Solomon’s career.
The Columbia resident has earned more than $55,000 in competition winnings, building worlds like basketball shooting game Basketball Battleground or Metro Munch, the “ultimate food delivery experience.”
It’s a situation Solomon calls a “dream come true.”
“I definitely wouldn’t have thought I’d have been building games even earlier in 2021, but knowing what I’m able to do now and earn now, I don’t want to keep it a secret,” Solomon said. “It’s not a secret. I will let everybody know about the opportunities inside Horizon.”
Where it started
Solomon got into the Metaverse about four years ago when he stumbled upon a video of Zuckerberg announcing his company’s shift from Facebook to Meta.
The corporate name change was meant to unite the company’s multiple brands, which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. It also brought attention to the company’s new virtual reality technology — the Metaverse — which Meta said was meant to “help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.”
“Seemed like a great opportunity or something I could build with, and everything, because Mark Zuckerberg was talking about this 10-year plan and ‘Come help us build the Metaverse,'” Solomon said. “So I got my hands on the VR headset and got in and started learning immediately.”
Solomon’s first world was called “Hardy World” and featured logos that Solomon made from scratch, a basketball court, a spinning dice and what he thinks is one of the first ever beer pong tables in the Metaverse.
At first, only 16 people could fit in a world at a time, but now the number is up to 32 and will eventually be over 100. When Solomon started in December 2021, he said it felt like he was part of a secret.
“Because at the time, everybody was big on NFTs, and it kind of felt like this was what was going to be the next thing,” Solomon said.
Though not everyone shared Solomon’s optimism. Meta has gotten criticism in the past for its low user numbers with The Wall Street Journal reporting in 2022 that the company initially aimed to reach 500,000 monthly active users in Horizon Worlds by the end of the year, but instead ended up closer to 200,000.
Despite public concerns, Solomon still believes the technology is set to be the future “once the rest of the world knows about it.”
“The world is changing so much. We do so much on our phones, like nothing is really in person anymore. And if you spend enough time in the headset, you can definitely see it being possible that most of the things that we do every day could be done in the headset, too,” Solomon said.
Why HardyWest stands out
Over the past four years, Solomon said he has created hundreds of worlds — from card games to clubs — each one inspired by his love of innovation.
“I want it to be different,” he said. “I want it to be like nothing they’ve ever seen before.”
Solomon’s goal for every world he creates is for people to be able to, and want to, look at every visual for five minutes.
“So I definitely try to make it easy for the person to experience the game, but if it’s like a Hangout situation, I want the world to be beautiful … I want it to have swag. I want it to look cool, easy on the eyes, stuff like that.”
Solomon also makes an effort to create spaces catered toward adults, like his Club 90 — a hip-hop and R&B club.
“When I got in, a lot of the worlds that I was seeing were like rainbows. It wasn’t mature work, and definitely not worlds of culture or built by Black creators,” Solomon said. “So I think what made Hardy World so successful in some of my earlier worlds was that people, when they came in, you just knew, like, ‘Oh, this got swag,’ like, they just knew that it was like a world for them. And a lot of people stuck around.”
Solomon said while he was motivated by the potential of the Metaverse, other people need more support to believe that they can do it for themselves.
“A lot of people have to see that somebody else did it, or somebody that looks like me did it for them to want to take that step,” Solomon said.
In the future, Solomon said he would love to use his passion for motivating others to help empower people who may be interested in doing what he’s doing and “spread the Metaverse gospel.”
He’d also like to connect with more people in the area that might be interested in getting involved, maybe even creating a virtual “twin” or replica of local businesses or Columbia landmarks like Williams Brice Stadium.
“I really want to stand on being a pioneer in the space, and be able to answer any questions that I can about the space, and help people find their way,” Solomon said.
Those interested in more information can follow Solomon on social media @thehardywest.
