Mercy for Machines

Team of 13
September 2023 - April 2024
Skills Utilized: C++, Unreal Engine, Tools Programming

Introduction

Our team, consisting of programmers, designers, artists, and sound designers, collaborated to develop a game using Unreal Engine 5.2. Mercy for Machines is a puzzle game with an atmospheric horror theme. My primary role was gameplay programming, and I also developed editor tools for designers and implemented destruction mechanics using Chaos physics.

Showcase

↑ Actor Collector

↑ Chaos Destruction

Technical Highlights

Actor Collector

While observing the map creation process, I noticed that manually maintaining lists of various actors was a frequent and inefficient task. To streamline this, I developed a tool that automatically collects and visualizes actors. Users can intuitively select actors using box and sphere volumes, with additional filtering options based on actor class, interface, or component class. To enhance visibility, I implemented an outline material for collected actors and a material effect that desaturates everything else in the scene. To minimize runtime overhead, the tool only retains the collected actor list in the final build without performing any additional operations.

Chaos Destruction

One gameplay sequence required a staircase to collapse, causing the player to fall. I immediately thought of Unreal Engine 5’s Chaos physics engine and its destruction system. While fracturing the mesh was straightforward, controlling how the pieces scattered proved challenging. I achieved the desired effect by carefully utilizing Anchor Fields and Master Fields to direct the fragments’ movement.

Conclusion

Mercy for Machines was a valuable experience that expanded my understanding of Unreal Engine 5. Developing the Actor Collector tool improved level design efficiency, while implementing Chaos Destruction deepened my knowledge of the engine’s physics system. Through this project, I gained hands-on experience with Unreal’s editor scripting, rendering, and physics features, further refining my ability to develop both gameplay mechanics and engine tools.