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Liminal Detective

Liminal Detective is a Third Person Mystery-Action hybrid where you defeat demons and solve the mystery of who murdered your brother.

It was developed from Janurary 2024 to May 2024 with a team of 9 people on Unreal Engine 5.

Gameplay Image of Liminal Detective. The player is grabbing and throwing an enemy.

Liminal Detective has the player alternating between combat and mystery sections. In the beginning of each room, the player must utlize their special abilities, such as casting energy attacks and grabbing objects or enemies, to defeat the demons that haunt the room and find the clue that is on one of the enemies. Afterwards, they use that item to interrogate other characters on the phone. After discovering all of the clues, they must figure out who commited the crime, and then fight them afterwards.

Blueprint script for grabbing and throwing objects (including enemies)

I worked on creating and implementing the combat design, which involved being able to grab and throw physics objects or enemies themselves to do damage. This implementation was done through Unreal Engine 5’s Blueprints visual scripting system.

Blueprint script for player abilities and attacks.

I also worked closely with programmers to implement the enemy behavior for the game, using Unreal Engine 5’s Behavior Tree system. I worked with the primary AI programmer, Jeffrey, in pair programming sessions in person to implement behavior nodes for the tree and fix any bugs that might come up with the gameplay abilities the player has. When we had to access the project on seperate computers, we utilized SVN version control’s locking system to ensure that merge conflicts wouldn’t occur with the binary file system that Unreal utilizes.

And example of an enemy behavior tree system in UE5.

I collaborated with artists and programmers to help create visual effects and UI elements that were cohesive with the rest of the art style for the game. When we weren’t meeting in person for artistic discussions and feedback for our work, we would utilize Mattermost to get feedback on the work that was done over each work session. We also utilized SVN when artists were in engine, so we wouldn’t run into disruptive merge conflicts.

Enemy Destruction Visual Effect in editor

Working on this project was a great learning experience. The team was made up of a very diverse group of people with various backgrounds, experiences, and personalities. It was also the largest team I had worked in to that point. I learned how to mediate between strong personalities in the group, coordinate between disciplines on a larger team, and communicate ideas effectively and respectfully amongst the team.

You can download and play it here on itch.io.