Technical Designer · Unreal Engine 5 · C++ · AI · RTS Systems
Firefly RTS, in development. Players don't control warriors, they lead light.
A real-time strategy game built fully in Unreal Engine 5 with C++, where players control a swarm of fireflies to push back an encroaching darkness. You manage light as a resource, command units in real time, and construct glowing structures to expand your influence, blending cozy aesthetics with tactical depth.
Fireflies are the player's only defense against shadow monsters emerging from the dark. The role is to gather, protect, and guide them to build structures, defend zones, and explore the world before night consumes everything.
Full unit control system built in C++ with no Blueprints: click-and-drag firefly selection, movement, follow, and action commands. Units respond to terrain, pathfinding, and light-based visibility zones.
Shadow enemies driven by Behavior Trees with modular states for patrolling, chasing, and reacting to player light. Shadows avoid lit zones and coordinate attacks when fireflies overextend, with dynamic threat evaluation that scales as the player expands.
Fireflies build lighthouses and light wells to create safe zones and expand territory. Light is a limited but regenerating resource, and structures dynamically affect AI behavior and strategy.
Reactive VFX for light pulses, enemy vaporization, and low-health flickers, plus ambient light systems that visually communicate territory control and danger.
Fully coded in C++ with modular class hierarchies for units, structures, abilities, and light logic. Data-driven setup for firefly behavior, structure costs, and AI tuning variables.
More screenshots coming soon
The game is quiet but tense: a soft world filled with glowing life, under constant threat by silence and shadow. It's designed to feel fragile, like keeping hope alive one spark at a time.
Hope is an RTS where emotion and strategy meet. Built entirely in C++ and Unreal Engine 5, it blends AI systems, dynamic resource management, and swarm control into a unique, atmospheric experience, built from the ground up, system by system, so that light isn't just a mechanic, it's everything.