#thedevjournal

[ccb-a]

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 👍

[ccb-a]

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. 🔝

[ccb-a]

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! 😎

[ccb-a]

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 😂