For the second major project, Games Engineering students are tasked to create a plugin or tool that enhances the game development workflow. In a previous project, I've built a movement mechanic that depends on many physic variables. Balancing the mechanic while keeping other game systems in mind required a lot of trial and error and time. Inspired by that, we came up with the concept of a plugin that allows the user to balance a game while playing it through the editor. Furthermore, I decided to expand my knowledge about game engines and C++ by going with Unreal instead of Unity.

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My main responsibility was building a user interface based on our requirements for the plugin. One of these requirements was that the UI is always usable, including while playing the game through the editor. Because of this, the user interface was built using the Slate UI Framework instead of UMG or editor utility widgets. The Slate UI Framework utilizes C++ and a declarative syntax and was largely used to build the UI of the Unreal Engine's editor itself. Unreal offers a few tutorials for Slate and recommends learning the framework by studying the engine's code for the editor's UI. This was a challenge but also a large learning opportunity. I've learned to navigate a large codebase and got used to reading unfamiliar code to inform myself about problems.