C's workshop

Progress updates.

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Some pages of a comic I’m working on. Done mostly during personal down time. Started on desktop—now drawing mostly on the IPad with Adobe Fresco.

Would love to put this out somewhere somehow one day

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Devlog #10 – Adding Collision Conditions to Bush Object & more

What I worked on:

Modeled a bush in UE5 using the polygroup edit tool. Started with individual leaves, duplicated and arranged them into a full bush, and added branch-like stems for detail. 🌿

Followed a tutorial to set up collision so the bush doesn’t block the character — making it look like the player can actually hide inside the geometry.

Got crouching under objects and into tight spaces working with UE5’s built-in Crouch and Uncrouch functions. These run much smoother than the custom version I tried earlier, and big thanks to folks in chat who pointed me in the right direction a few streams ago!

What went wrong:

Still trying to access the editable Blueprint window for UE5’s built-in Crouch function so I can implement the node structure from the tutorial. Haven’t found it yet, which makes progress a bit tricky — but I’ll keep digging (and possibly hook into Uncrouch as well).

What’s next:

Add wind/physics to the bush so it moves naturally in the scene.

Continue building out the hiding mechanics for the character.

That’s all for now 👍

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Devlog #9 – Crouching works!

What I worked on:

Continued working on the first stage of hiding mechanics by adding a crouch animation and input for the Third Person Character (Player).

Finally got the crouch input working after running into issues during the last dev session.

What went wrong:

Spent some time debugging the Blueprint for the ThirdPersonCharacter. With continued troubleshooting (and a bit of help from ChatGPT), I figured out the node structure problem.

The good news: crouching is now functional! 🎉

What’s next:

Finish up the rest of the steps to bring the hiding mechanics fully online.

Reflection: Feels good to see progress stacking up — the first piece of the hiding mechanic puzzle is finally in place! 🧩

That’s all for now — we keep going. 🔝

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Devlog #8 – Continued Progress on Hiding Mechanics

What I worked on:

Dipped further into UE5 Materials using the node graph. It’s a bit like texturing in Blender, but the node setup here is more technical — fun challenge!

Kept building out the hiding mechanics. Added crouch-to-standing and standing-to-crouch animations for the player, laying the groundwork for hiding behind obstacles.

What went wrong:

Progress is slow while figuring out the hiding mechanics, but that’s part of the journey! Next week, I’ll dive deeper and aim to wrap up the first stage of hiding mechanics.

What’s next:

Finish the first round of hiding mechanics implementation.

Jump back into integrating the flying AI for the enemy character.

That’s all for now — time to take a breather and recharge for next week! 😎

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Devlog #7 – Starting to Set Up Hiding Mechanics

What I worked on:

Began implementing hiding mechanics for the prototype game.

Imported and set up a crouching animation from Mixamo into UE5. (Since we’re working on a prototype, fully keyframed animations aren’t being implemented at this stage. Using Mixamo animations as a base allows me to refine and tune them later, which should save time in the long run.)

Started getting familiar with some of the node structures in the Blueprint Editor. Slowly understanding how things connect and flow.

What went wrong:

Still couldn’t get the flying AI plugin to load at the start of the stream. Reached out to Jackson again — the issue seems to be a missing file in the plugin demos preventing them from loading in UE5.

To save time, shifted focus to hiding mechanics instead of debugging the plugin during this session.

What’s next:

Continue implementing hiding mechanics.

Add line-of-sight blocking so the enemy can’t see the player behind obstacles.

That’s all for now — time to wrestle with more game dev chaos 😂

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#TheDevJournal 🎮

This is where I post my devlogs! I’m learning UE5, C++, and Blueprints, building enemy AI and flying mechanics, and sharing all the wins, fails, and chaos along the way. Follow #TheDevJournal to watch it all unfold.

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Devlog #6 – Plugin Load Success

What I worked on:

Learned more about lighting in UE5 — it’s similar to 3ds Max and Blender.

Jackson’s Flying AI plugin finally loaded! 😁

Added a faint rectangle light in the enemy’s starting cage so the player can see them at the beginning.

What went wrong:

Plugin demos still wouldn’t load for tutorials; reached out for help.

Spent time on file organization, so less gameplay progress today.

What’s next:

Reverse-engineer the Flying AI plugin to understand how it works.

Implement Flying AI behavior for the enemy.

Begin player hiding mechanics.

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Watch this video on Twitch Live

Streamin'!

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Devlog #5 – Flying AI & C++ Integration

What I worked on:

Continued learning C++ in UE5 (about a week in).

Reached out to Jackson (@esotericgamedev) to integrate his Flying AI system into my project.

What went wrong:

Couldn’t get the plugin/asset pack to load. Waiting for a fix so I can explore his Blueprint and Behavior Tree setup.

What’s next:

Integrate Jackson’s Flying AI into the enemy character.

Start prototyping the player hiding mechanic.

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Watch this video on Twitch Live

Learning UE5 & C++

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Devlog #4 – Enemy AI Setup

What I worked on:

Got the enemy to chase when they spot the player.

Set up logic for the enemy to stop chasing when they lose sight (using PawnSensing).

Tried adding a flying/recon mechanic, but couldn’t get it working in Blueprints yet — still figuring out behavior flows.

What went wrong:

Enemy started too fast (600 speed) — reduced to 400.

Patrol return is still janky; sometimes they walk into walls or clip. This is especially noticeable in the ruined city layout.

What’s next:

Build the player hiding mechanic.

Refine enemy patrol and flying behavior.

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Devlog #3 – Blocking Out the First Level

Started blocking out my first test level today — just grey boxes for streets, buildings, and hiding spots. Nothing pretty yet, but it’s enough to start shaping the space where the game will actually happen.

Ran into a frustrating bug where my character kept falling straight through the geometry during playtests. After digging around for way too long, I finally figured out it was the collision settings. I had to switch each object’s preset to BlockAllDynamic and set the Collision Complexity to Use Complex Collision as Simple. Once that was fixed, the character finally stayed on the surfaces. Took me a couple of hours, but hey — learning as we go.

That’s all for now — time to wrestle with more game dev chaos 😂.

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Devlog #2 – First Steps in UE5

Dove further into UE5 this week. Explored the interface, learned basic lighting and object placement, and started laying out the first playable blockout of the environment.

The focus was on scale, navigation, and how the player will move through the space. Some of the choices here may shape later encounters with enemies, so it’s fun to experiment early.

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Devlog #1 –Building a Game About Being Hunted

Welcome to my first devlog! I’m documenting the creation of my game from scratch.

So far, I’ve started exploring Unreal Engine 5 and thinking about the environment, player mechanics, and enemy behavior. The enemy patrols a ruined urban district, flying above and sometimes chasing the player, which sets up the tension I want to build.

There’s a lot to learn and a lot to experiment with, but that’s part of the fun. Stick around for the chaos of game development!

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