WILDSHOT

Thesis project - Unreal Engine 5 - Team of 3 A low poly cartoon arena shooter where cute, big headed animals settle their differences with guns. Overview: In a post apocalyptic world run by animals, society has found a very healthy way to blow off steam: annual war tournaments between species. Deer, foxes, penguins, crocodiles and even a robot fish step into the arena to prove who rules the wasteland. WildShot was our university thesis project, built in Unreal Engine 5 by a three person team. A full multiplayer shooter with Team Deathmatch, Free for All and Capture the Flag, class abilities (Light, Medium, Tank), and a roster of over 30 animal species across themed maps like a giant forest, an arctic glacier, a beach and a Mars base. This was a student project with a small team and a tight timeline. What exists today is a playable prototype with a wave survival mode, not the full game. I’m proud of what we built, and I’m showing it here because it’s a solid sample of my visual and technical art work. My Role: 3D Art, UI, Trailer & Tech Art: I focused on everything the player sees and feels in WildShot: - 3D asset creation (characters, props and environment pieces) - Texturing and material work - Full UI/UX design and implementation - Logo and branding - Trailer production - Tech art systems (loading screen, visual effects and more) - Real Time Main Menu - Project infrastructure: GitHub repository setup and Unreal Engine project organization Art Direction: The goal was a Low Poly 3D Cartoon style with a goofy tone: readable shapes, saturated colors and characters with personality, all in a world that looks friendly while the everything is chaos. Tech Art & Visual Effects: Beyond static assets, I built several systems that bring the game to life: - Loading screen system - Death effect and death screen - Materials and shaders to keep the low-poly look consistent under UE5’s lighting (Lumen, Nanite and ray tracing were part of the target tech) - Asset optimization and integration for Unreal - Baked build for release Gameplay & Systems (Team Work): While my focus was art, UI and tech art, I worked within a team that delivered the gameplay foundation: - Wave Mode: an endless, replayable survival mode where enemy counts scale each wave - Shooter mechanics: movement, sprint, jump, hip-fire and aim, plus a weapon and ammo system - Enemy AI: a basic patrol and chase behavior system with different weapon types - Game flow: pause menu, stats tracking (damage, kills, deaths) and wave progression - Design scope: class abilities, game modes and species roster planned for future development What I Learned: - Keeping a consistent art style across characters, props, UI and effects - Optimizing assets for real-time use in Unreal Engine 5 - Designing UI that works at gameplay speed - Collaborating with programmers and designers, and integrating art into a live engine project - Scoping realistically: planning a huge game is easy, and shipping a small, solid piece of it is the real skill - Setting up and maintaining a GitHub workflow for an Unreal Engine project, including handling GitLfs - Structuring an Unreal project so multiple disciplines (art, UI, programming) can collaborate without conflicts Tech Stack: Unreal Engine 5.3, Blueprints, UMG, Niagara, Git, GitHub, Git LFS Blender, Substance 3D Painter, And Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere) Status: Early prototype. The wave mode is playable, and the planned multiplayer modes, class system and additional maps remain future work.