A First-Person Shooter set in a dystopian Victorian city — built in Unreal Engine 5
by a team of eleven. I owned the enemy AI architecture and player controller.
Gameplay Programmer: Enemy AI · Player Controller · Menu Systems
Unreal Engine 5 · C++ · Blueprints
Team of eleven
First-person shooter, dystopian Victorian setting
Watch the official gameplay trailer for Atelier's Key.
I was responsible for the enemy AI architecture and the core player controller. Both systems required close iteration with the design team; I drove the technical direction, owned the implementation, and tuned the feel through the full production cycle.
I designed and built a modular Behaviour Tree governing all enemy behaviour from the ground up. A prioritised root selector chooses between attacking, investigating and patrolling, driven by perception events I defined: line-of-sight checks, proximity triggers, and last-known player position stored on the Blackboard. Each behaviour is a self-contained branch built from reusable tasks, services and decorators, which made it easy for me to extend and debug throughout the project without regressions.
I implemented a weighted waypoint system that randomises patrol routes each cycle, eliminating predictable movement patterns. I also authored the investigate branch: when an enemy loses sight of the player, it navigates to the last known position, scans the area for a configurable timeout, then returns to patrol — a behaviour loop I tuned to maximise tension without feeling cheap.
I integrated Unreal Engine's Motion Warping plugin into the attack tasks, dynamically warping animation root motion toward the player at runtime. This gave abilities like jump attacks a weighty, committed feel across varying engagement distances — a technical solution I selected to avoid the cost of bespoke per-distance animations while keeping combat reactive and visually convincing.
I led the player controller implementation, owning the movement feel from first prototype to ship. I tuned acceleration curves and camera lag parameters through iterative playtesting, targeting a response curve that felt comfortable for a broad audience without sacrificing the precision an FPS demands. Sam Lloyd supported with save system integration and late-stage polish.
Developed a comprehensive, easy to expand menu system, complete with standard graphics settings as well as display configuration, audio settings and accessibility options. Developed with controller players in mind, providing a smooth UI experience.
Atelier's Key is an FPS adventure game set in a dystopian Victorian city overrun with mechanical-puppet creatures created by a deity known as 'The Carver'. A controlling force called 'The Mother' commands these creatures to prevent you from reaching her and ending her reign. Navigate the twisted city, uncover its dark lore, and fight your way to the truth.
Screenshots captured from a production build of Atelier's Key.
Atelier's Key was built by a team of eleven across programming, design, and art. My roles are highlighted below.