Technical Game Designer
I transform gameplay ideas into functional systems.
I specialize in implementing and refining gameplay mechanics, AI behaviors, and procedural systems in Unreal Engine 5. I thrive on tackling complex technical challenges, discovering creative solutions, and ensuring game systems operate both efficiently and reliably.
Explore my projects to see how I approach problems, develop solutions, and bring gameplay concepts to life.
Solving a Challenging AI Navigation Problem in Y2Kill
In UE5, AI usually uses a NavMesh for navigation, but it only functions on floors. In our game, the robo-spiders needed to traverse floors, walls, and ceilings, so my task was to design a new navigation system.
I searched online but only found a $100 plugin that our team couldn’t afford, and no tutorials explaining how to build what I needed. So, I had to think creatively.
I realized that the key difference between flying and walking on walls is staying close to a surface. I studied a free flying AI plugin and adapted its approach, creating boundaries near walls that allowed spiders to move as if they were walking on them.
The final challenge was rotation. I implemented custom code that checked every tick how the spiders needed to rotate depending on the surface they were moving on.
The result was a complete navigation system that allowed the spiders to move across floors, walls, and ceilings while chasing the player.
Polishing and Completing an Almost Finished Tomahawk
My second project was less about solving major problems and more about polishing and completing an almost finished game. I joined after most mechanics had been implemented, but the project’s vision had changed, so my job was to rework and polish existing systems.
I improved the AI’s behavior to make chasing the player more engaging and worked extensively on attack animations. The challenge was ensuring the attack animation transitioned smoothly when the enemy ceased moving. I accomplished this by decoupling the animation’s bone movements and blending them with the idle animation to create seamless transitions.
I also developed a spawn system that could respawn distant enemies by sending them back to their spawn tubes and teleporting them to the closest tube to the player.
Another interesting task was implementing a returning, player-controlled tomahawk. Since UE5's projectile system did not support the behavior I needed, I created a separate target actor that the player could control, making the tomahawk chase it like a donkey chasing a carrot on a stick.
In the end, my portion of the project was completed, and we also released a Steam page for the game.
Multiplayer Networking and Procedural Generation in Bun and Run
My last project was a huge challenge. It required networking and procedural generation skills, areas where I had no prior experience. However, I believe every project should challenge you and help you grow.
