Project
GO HAM
The FX and systems foundation for a multiplayer hamster party game. Each section below is one system from the demo reel, cut out and broken down on its own.
Houdini HDA Maze Generator
A Houdini Digital Asset that generates a fully random, solvable maze and bakes it out as static mesh geometry for Unreal.
- —Seeded random maze topology generated per match
- —Static mesh export straight into the Unreal level
- —Author-time controls for maze size, corridor width, and wall height
Custom Hamster Mesh & Walk Cycle
The player character — a custom-modeled hamster with a hand-authored walk cycle, plus a backflip animation because why not.
- —Custom mesh modeled and rigged in Blender
- —Hand-keyed walk cycle wired into the Anim Blueprint
- —Backflip animation triggered in-game from the same Anim BP
PCG Distance Culling Scatter
PCG scattering runs after maze generation at runtime, dressing every corridor with foliage while distance culling keeps the frame budget intact.
- —PCG graph executes after the maze is generated, in realtime
- —Distance-based culling keeps far corridors cheap
- —Density and variation driven per maze seed
Power Up Scattering System
Power-ups are placed using maze bounds and traces so nothing ever clips into geometry, then reference a random power-up on overlap.
- —Uses maze bounds and traces to ensure no clipping
- —References a random power up on overlap
- —Tag-driven so new power-ups drop into the pool with no rewiring
Glitch FX — Teleport Power Up
A custom move-to-point teleport with a post process VFX character overlay that shreds the hamster into glitch artifacts and reassembles it downrange.
- —Custom move to point function with tags for teleport
- —Post process VFX character overlay for the glitch
- —Charge, break-up, and reform timed to the teleport travel
Earth FX Power Up
Niagara mesh particles communicating with a Blueprint projectile system to hurl chunks of the maze floor at other players.
- —Niagara mesh particles communicating with the BP projectile system
- —Impact debris and dust reacting to hit surface normals
- —Scales cleanly with multiple simultaneous casters
Growing Vine FX Power Up
A Houdini vine simulation parented to a socket on the hamster mesh, handed off to a Niagara mesh growth system that signals a second emitter to launch spikes and leaves on command.
- —Houdini vine simulation attached as a child to a socket on the main hamster mesh
- —Niagara mesh growth handoff FX driving the vine's on-screen growth
- —Growth emitter communicates with a second emitter to launch spikes / leaves on command
- —Only accessible after overlapping the power-up orb
- —Spikes have collision enabled so they stick to walls and players
Multiplayer Replication
Every system above is built for networked play — each one is replicated with RepNotify and Server RPCs so FX fire correctly for every client.