ASCENDANT

Trailer

Project Details

My Role

Developed under Gamer2Maker mentorship in Unreal Engine 5 — responsible for technical implementation and gameplay design direction.

Lead Developer

• Architected a modular Gameplay Ability System (GAS)-style feature set in UE5 Blueprints/C++ so stealth, parkour, and abilities could iterate without monolith coupling.
• Implemented a hierarchical finite-state machine (FSM) for Idle, Dash, Grapple, Invisibility, Hacking, and Assassination with guarded transitions and interrupt rules.
• Extended Character Movement Component workflows for wall climbing, sliding, and teleport dash, including root-motion timing and collision query traces.
• Built enemy AI with Behavior Trees, Blackboards, and EQS-style perception queries for patrol, detection cones, and combat reacquire loops.
• Profiled Blueprint hot paths — tick reduction, event-driven updates, and object pooling for ability FX — to keep framerates stable under dense AI load.

System Designer

• Designed data-driven mission graph / objective pipeline linking unlocks, district progression, and fail-forward stealth outcomes.
• Built cooldown/cost resource management tables so abilities stayed readable without soft-locking infiltration routes.
• Engineered an alarm propagation network with detector nodes, escalation timers, and reinforcement spawn hooks on detection events.
• Integrated camera hacking as a tagged interactable subsystem feeding stealth FOV and traversal shortcuts.
• Implemented lock-on targeting and contextual execution montages with animation notifies for reliable assassination commits.

Game Designer

• Authored the GDD covering stealth affordances, traversal verbs, and enemy AI roles, referenced against Metal Gear Solid and Dishonored infiltration structures.
• Defined core loops around infiltration → intel retrieval → escape, with soft-fail deterrents rather than hard mission resets.
• Designed prototype objectives: Disable Alarms → Acquire Keycard → Access Terminal → Escape the Zone as sequenced gating systems.
• Defined difficulty curves for enemy awareness radii, patrol density, and resource scarcity across districts.

Tools & Technologies

• Unreal Engine 5 — Blueprints/C++, hierarchical FSMs, Behavior Trees, Blackboards
• Character Movement — parkour traces, slides, teleport dash locomotion
• Blender — environment blockouts and asset integration
• GitHub — branching, code review, and build checkpointing
• Confluence — GDD, system specs, and tech documentation
• Discord / Figma / Illustrator / Photoshop — coordination and UI/texture pass

References

1. Nystrom, R. Game Programming Patterns — Finite State Machines and hierarchical state structure for ability modes.
2. Isla, D. Handling Complexity in the Halo 2 AI — Behavior Tree / Blackboard control for agent decisioning (GDC).
3. Kojima, H. / Konami — Metal Gear Solid series: infiltration affordances, alert phases, and stealth information design.
4. Arkane Studios — Dishonored: systemic stealth verbs, non-linear objective routing, and power-cost tradeoffs.
5. Epic Games — Unreal Engine Character Movement Component and AI Perception documentation for locomotion/query pipelines.

Workflow Summary

• Pre-Production

  Defined narrative and stealth system flow → drafted GDD and technical documents.

• Prototype Development

  Built and tested core systems (state machine, AI, parkour).

• Testing Phase

  Iterated on level flow, alarm systems, and enemy AI behavior.

• Look Dev & Lighting

  Applied cyberpunk aesthetic and visual consistency.

• Final Build Optimization

  Debugged transitions, refined performance, prepared for playable demo.