Developed advanced character movement systems including sliding, climbing, mantling, vaulting, and air movement mechanics in Unreal Engine.

Implemented client-server movement replication and prediction for smooth online gameplay.

Optimized movement responsiveness and gameplay feel across different network conditions.

Worked closely with design teams to refine player control and traversal flow.

Shadows of the Lost is a dark fantasy action RPG inspired by Souls-like titles, where players harness the corrupting power of shadow to battle forsaken gods and navigate a world consumed by betrayal and myth. Built in Unreal Engine 5.5, the game emphasizes punishing combat, atmospheric exploration, and systems that balance power with the ever-present risk of corruption.

Key contributions include developing a modular multi-type damage system (Physical, Fire, Frost, Lightning, Magic) with stat scaling and resistances, designing a fall damage system with lethal trace checks and scaling curves, implementing an Enemy Leash AI system that ties into designer-configurable behavior trees, creating the cinematic Fog Gate boss encounter system with cutscene integration and arena management, adding a transition loading screen to smooth texture streaming, and extending the State Manager and Gameplay Tags to unify combat, AI, and animation states. These systems were delivered on a tight timeline in preparation for the upcoming vertical slice milestone, ensuring the build showcased polished combat encounters, smooth AI behavior, and stable performance for presentation.

I was responsible for developing the enemies behavior, my main goal in this project was to create enemies that would attack the players in many different ways, creating an interesting and fun gameplay. After valuating many different ideas, i established that the game would feature four different types of enemy: an Ant, a Hornet, a Scorpion and a Rhino. They would always know the location of the closest player and try to attack him. Each enemy would differs form the others in how it would move around the level and attack the player.

The actual AI part of the enemies is managed by the Behavior Tree and BlackBoard systems which are integrated into Unreal Engine 5 by default. 

First I created a BlackBoard that I filled with all the key data that the enemies would use during the game. Then, I programmed a single behavior tree called "General BT". This tree was used as a prototype for testing some of the tasks that all the enemies would use in game. These tasks were then collected to create two subtrees that could be easily implemented in the various enemies' behaviours. One subtree was responsible for the behavior of chasing the player, while the other was responsible for escaping or getting distracted by the players' special abilities.

I designed a comprehensive system that incorporates various abilities, particularly the ability to cloak and sneak around. This necessitated the creation of different AI states to respond effectively to player actions. Initially, I encountered issues where the AI would continue targeting the player even when cloaked. To resolve this, I implemented a check to determine if the player was cloaked and adjusted the AI’s state accordingly.

This system leverages several features of Unreal Engine, including Environmental Query System (EQS), behavior trees, a custom AI controller, and a custom patrol component.