In Lux Veritas
Concept: Playing with ray casting
This project was created during a 10-day game jam as a way to explore Unreal Engine 5.
The full timeline covered everything from initial concept to gameplay prototyping and spatial layout design.
The idea started with a desire to play with light as a mechanic. That naturally led to an enclosed, interior space rather than an open landscape. I chose to work in complete darkness, using a flashlight or vision-based tool as the core mechanic with certain objects reacting to light to support progression.
To reinforce exploration, I added a simple key-door puzzle system. The player must locate power sources, absorb their energy, and transfer it to receiver objects to unlock doors and move forward.
Tutorial Video:
Layout pictures:
Gameplay reinforcement
Relying only on the flashlight mechanic felt too flat, so I introduced a layer of mental pressure through a limited energy system. The flashlight now drains a power gauge, with collectible energy sources placed strategically throughout the level. This encourages players to manage their light use carefully, adding tension and decision-making to exploration.
Level mechanics:
Let it be light. Iterating with the use of the flashlight/vision, I created some lights orbs that the player needs to power up. Once they have been touched by the light, they lit the way.
I also created some disappearing and appearing walls that react to the vision to reinforce the exploration.
Simple button door
Moving platform
Jumping obstacles
Secret room
Appearing/Disappearing wall
Floor disappearing
Main Hall Exploration:
What I learned:
Understanding more ray casting
Ray tracing reaction on hit with Blueprints
Rotating a character’s head
creating a battery system and implementing it with a UI
Creating an energy system
Blueprint communication and event dispatchers
Iterate faster with blueprint
Playing with material and timeline updates for player feedback
If I had more time I would have:
Implement sound
Add a timer in the maze with the player locked in the room
create an enemy and a power to hit flying enemies
create a third room
implement more jumping gameplay elements
Maybe have the lights on a timer and have them powering off…maybe