Glob Smacked

Glob Smacked is a personal project that I have been developing over the last three months. It is my first multiplayer project and was created as a way to learn how multiplayer systems are designed, built, and tested when creating a multiplayer game.

The project was made entirely by myself, including the gameplay design, Blueprint systems, level blockout, UI, and core implementation. A small number of placeholder models, textures, and copyright-free sound effects were used, but the main focus of the project was on designing and developing the gameplay systems.

The game is a 3D tower defence PvPvE experience where players build towers, spawn globs, defend their base, and fight against the opposing team in third-person combat. At this stage, the project is in its Alpha stage focused on testing the design, learning multiplayer development, and building the foundation of the game. Many of the visual assets are temporary and will be improved as the project develops further.

The main goal of this project was to learn how multiplayer games are structured and how to build one myself. I began by researching multiplayer development, especially in Unreal Engine, mainly on how server-side and client-side logic works. I also spent time planning the game’s core systems, including tower building, glob spawning, team-based gameplay, and PvPvE combat.

After the research and planning stage, I started by creating the core gameplay Blueprints. Once the main mechanics were working, I created basic placeholder models and produced an initial blockout of the map. From there, I began connecting the systems together and building towards the first playable test version of the game.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was understanding which parts of the game needed to run on the server and which parts needed to run on the client. This was especially challenging when working with UI and multiplayer interactions. At first, I found this confusing, but as development continued, I became much more confident with replication, server-side logic, and client-side feedback.

Once the first test version was ready, I organised a playtest with five friends. The game ran successfully in multiplayer, and we were able to play, test the systems, and discuss ways the project could be improved. The main issues found during testing were small collision problems, which I fixed afterwards. I was especially pleased that the multiplayer systems worked reliably during the test.

For the first version, I focused on local multiplayer testing rather than integrating Epic Online Services or Steam, as that would have added extra development time. In the future, I plan to continue developing the project and work towards making it a more complete online multiplayer game.

Overall, this project has been a valuable learning experience. It helped me gain a much stronger understanding of multiplayer development, Blueprint systems, testing, and iteration. It was also one of the most rewarding projects I have worked on, especially seeing the systems come together successfully during the first multiplayer test.

Unreal Engine 5.7 - For the main game development, blueprints, level design etc.

Illustrator - UI Design

Blender - Modelling and animation

Substance Painter - for some of the textures

Word - Documentation