Step inside our Real-time department for a community open session, where students and mentors work through a real game project live, in the open, and in public.

In this session, the Real-time team digs into Geigernauts, a project currently in production. You'll see how an art director takes a first pass proposal from concept to a plan that fits what a small team can realistically build, and how the programming side tackles animation replication, data assets, and gameplay utilities in Unreal Engine.

WHAT WE COVER
Aurora Coute's role as Art Director on Geigernauts, including the backstory of how it came about
Reviewing Aurora's first pass work proposal:
Stylized imagery: what to avoid and what to appreciate
Keeping ideas within the scope of our team's capacity
Parallels with existing games like The Last of Us
Game experience and the core gameplay loop, including a possible progression where missed cleanup grows over levels
Practical R&D for creating infection states
Reviewing animation transition changes:
Eric Scruggs solves replication for animations
Michael Lourens explains animation blueprint replication logic
Updating the Animation Blueprint to align with new data assets
Exploring a third-person testing view, with added functionality to look at the camera
Comparing gameplay with Abiotic Factor
Working through the prop controller and prop bone math challenge
Shrink ray utility: the logic challenges, and Eric Scruggs' plan to keep exploring the implementation
Data assets walkthrough with Michael Lourens:
Creating blueprints using data assets
Why the "Get Current Weapon" function needs to be implemented before using it in the Animation Blueprint

WHY WATCH
These open sessions give the public a genuine look at our school's community: real students, real problems, and real collaboration. Whether you're curious about game development, thinking about joining us, or just want to learn how a game team solves problems together, you're welcome here.

KEYWORDS
Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 5, game development, game design, real-time, real-time development, animation blueprint, animation replication, multiplayer replication, data assets, blueprints, art direction, game art, stylized art, gameplay loop, game programming, game dev school, game development community, student game project, live game development, community open session, learn game development, Geigernauts

HASHTAGS
#UnrealEngine #GameDevelopment #GameDesign #RealTime #ArtDirection #Blueprints #GameDev