← Art Lead

Loot Forge

Made with Unreal Engine

A merge game I built solo in Unreal Engine 5, boosted with AI and kept in control with Blueprints

Where
Independent · Solo build
When
2026
Tags
Unreal Engine 5 · UMG · Niagara · Materials · Blueprints · Tooling
Loot Forge · A merge game I built solo in Unreal Engine 5, boosted with AI and kept in control with Blueprints
Merge loot, fill orders before the clock runs out.

Heroes & orders

Six heroes, each with an order and a clock.

The cast.
In context: each card has its request and its clock.
  1. Two items merging on the board with a flash

    1. Merge

  2. The order card lights up with a DELIVER button

    2. Order ready

  3. The item flies from the board to the hero card

    3. Deliver

  4. Coins reward text over the board

    4. Reward

The core loop.
Late orders cost a heart. Lose three and it's over.

Game feel

Every action answers back.

Niagara merge, trail and landing FX in the UI.
The tutorial, one step at a time.

Materials & shaders

No texture where math does the job. Blueprints pass a number, the shader draws the rest.

  • The order stopwatch emptying clockwise and turning red in its last seconds

    M_UI_Stopwatch

    Drawn in HLSL, no texture. Progress empties it, Danger turns it red.

  • A hero framed waist-up inside its order card, clipped to the rounded corners

    M_UI_HeroCard

    Frames each hero in the card and clips it to the rounded corners. One instance per hero.

  • Ring, flash and spark sprite shapes at particle ages 0, 0.3 and 0.6

    M_FX_Ring · Flash · Spark

    Niagara sprites that animate from the particle's age. No curves.

  • A landing ring from the Niagara layer glowing over a crate on the UMG board

    M_UI_FxLayer

    Niagara renders off-screen to a render target, and UMG adds it over the board.

UI

The UI flow: title, tutorial, board, pause and quit screens
Safe-area aware, portrait and landscape.

Merge chains

Five chains, five tiers. Rarity colours show value at a glance.

The board

A painted workbench with a UMG grid measured on the art.

The board asset, as it goes into Unreal.
  1. The painted workbench with an empty hologram grid

    1. Painted board

  2. Tutorial screen highlighting the five generators

    2. Five generators

  3. The board mid-game, full of items

    3. Mid-game

Art, grid, full board.

Guiding the node flow with AI

Node management can be a demanding task, and it gets more complex as the project grows. So I built this tool to guide the process and find the right node for each task, making it easy to pinpoint and change things when needed. Try one:

4 of 100+ guides. Click a step to zoom in.
  1. 01

    Plan & prototype

    Game design, scope limits, early UI and art placeholders.

    Design · Prototype
  2. 02

    Guided wiring

    Screenshot in, wires out.

    Blueprints · UMG
  3. 03

    Look & feel

    AI art for the merge chains, board and characters.

    Gemini · Art direction
  4. 04

    Logic to C++

    Rules in C++, presentation in Blueprints.

    C++ · Live Coding
  5. 05

    Automate the editor

    AI builds materials, Niagara and data.

    Python · MCP
  6. 06

    Test without hands

    Scripted play tests with screenshots.

    PIE automation
Faster with AI, still in control.
AI does the heavy lifting. Blueprints keep me in control.
Go to landing page

More from Art Lead