The Children Are Sleeping

First-person UE5 horror game — hide from an AI stalker and solve puzzles to escape.

A first-person horror puzzle game in Unreal Engine 5. Players navigate a haunted environment, evading an AI-driven stalker while solving puzzles to escape. I led the technical pipeline and built the systems that keep the tension consistent and the game state reliable.

Spearheaded a 4-person engineering team within a 13-person studio; managed technical roadmaps and cross-discipline coordination to ensure milestone delivery.
Engineered a weighted patrol system via Behavior Trees, stabilizing the first-encounter window to 12–48s (previously an inconsistent 30–100s) to enhance game pacing and tension.

Technical Deep Dive

Weighted Patrol & Encounter Pacing

Implemented a Behavior Tree-based weighted patrol system with location biasing and prediction logic. Stabilized the first-encounter window to 12–48s (from a volatile 30–100s), creating a reliable tension curve without scripted rails.

Persistent Save/Load Architecture

Built a unified persistence flow around BP_BaseInteractable and synchronized state through GameInstance + SaveGame. Preserved item positions, door lock/open states, and player stats across level transitions with deterministic restoration on load.

Interaction & Camera Reliability

Addressed edge-case UX failures in hiding/capture sequences by adding runtime rotation correction and camera constraint handling in C++. Prevented wall-clipping captures and reduced disorientation during hide-state transitions.