Owen Sims

ABERRANT is a work-in-progress online-multiplayer survival horror game built in Unreal Engine 5. Through this project I am gaining practical experience with features of Unreal Engine 5 which I have not previously used, this the aims of eventually releasing this game commercially. Current work-in-progress features are as follows:

• User Interface using Common UI
• Network Replication for online multiplayer
• Gameplay Ability System usage

More information about this project will be posted to my LinkedIn once available.

Peasant Pact is a local co-op action-adventure game developed in Unreal Engine 5. I was the lead of the 8-person tech team for this project, and in addition to directing my team and managing the GitHub repository I worked on:

• User Interface using Common UI
  • Dynamic multiplayer HUD, pop-ups and world space UI
  • Main menu
  • Pause menu
  • Functional settings & controls menus
• Game loop implementation
• Multiplayer functionality
  • Local multiplayer player controller and input setup
  • Multiplayer tracking camera
• Player & enemy animation and dynamic texturing implementation
• Audio sourcing and implementation

This project taught me a lot about leadership roles, strengthening my leadership skills in addition to my communication and teamworking skills.

MWCST (Modular Weapon Component System Tool) is a tool built in C++ for Unreal Engine 5. The tool contains a custom node graph among many other features, making it easy for developers to quickly prototype modular weapon systems. This tool will be developed further soon for a commercial release.

Rod & Ripple is a fishing game developed in Unreal Engine 5. This game is the result of my Junior Collaborative Games Development Module. On this project, I worked on:

• Input handling
• Boat mechanics
  • Boat movement
  • Boat camera movement
  • Boat health
• HUD and UI design, implementation and functionality
  • Boat HUD
  • Casting HUD
  • Shop UI
  • Menus
• Hub area mechanics
• Bait system

This project furthered my knowledge of Blueprinting and UI development in Unreal Engine 5. It also furthered my knowledge about team development, and of the use of GitHub for version control in large groups and collaboration.

Anti-Siege is a work-in-progress procedurally generated tower defence game developed solely by me. The game prototype current only contains a single type of tower to use, but I aim to expand and refine this in future ready for public release.

This project has taught me the importance of aspects of game feel, with audio, camera shake, VFX and animations being used to give the prototype juice.

This tool was built for me to learn and utilize the Procedural Content Generation plugin within Unreal Engine 5.6. It provides a highly-customizable and layered object decoration system; especially designer for, but not limited to, weapons. The tool allows for the weapon base, tiles and pipes to all be customized with different PCG and colour settings.

As of now this project is a proof of concept, and will require a large overhaul to transform it into a developer-ready plugin, but I hope to be able to do this in future.

Railway System Tool is a tool developed by myself in Unreal Engine 5.4 for quickly and easily creating and managing railway systems.

This project has taught me about the use of splines, C++ and Editor Utility Widgets in Unreal Engine 5. I intend to update and continue development of this tool, adding more features and functionality to it. I will release this tool on the FAB Marketplace when it is ready.

Wasted Knight is a first person roguelike sword combat game developed by my team of 5 developers during the first year of my studies at the University of Staffordshire. From this, I learned about the whole games production process, and used agile development within a small team to produce an impressive result in 9 weeks.