Project / 01
Jalora
An action-adventure RPG vertical slice that moved from an empty project to an investor presentation. As the sole C++ engineer on an eight-person team, Mukund owned the gameplay codebase and technical direction.
Professional work
Galactic Studios / action-adventure RPG
Evidence file / written project record
Public project footage is not included in this case study. The evidence below comes from verified project documentation.
- Role
- Lead Gameplay Programmer
- Type
- Professional work
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5.7
- Language
- C++ / Blueprints
The problem
What had to hold together
The slice needed a continuous gameplay loop across on-foot traversal, combat, a physics-driven vessel, free-climbing, and procedural puzzles—without coupling fundamentally different systems together.
What I built
Ownership, not adjectives
- 01
Gameplay architecture across character, combat, AI, climbing, vessel physics, interaction, puzzles, run state, and tooling.
- 02
A custom climbing movement mode with data-driven holds, reach solving, exertion, first-person camera constraints, and two-bone IK.
- 03
A possession-based handoff between the on-foot character and Chaos physics vessel at the PlayerController layer.
- 04
A C++ / Blueprint boundary, per-system CVar tracing, Architecture Decision Records, and CI-gated headless gameplay tests.
System architecture
Architecture, made legible
The PlayerController owns possession transitions between independent character and vessel pawns. Climbing, combat, AI, interaction, and puzzle systems stay separated through explicit interfaces and C++ / Blueprint contracts.
Control handoff and gameplay domains
Key systems
Inspect the work
01
Climbing
Custom UCharacterMovementComponent mode with data-driven hold selection and unit-testable movement math.
02
Possession handoff
PlayerController-level control transfer keeps the character and vessel independent through transitions.
03
Combat & AI
Weapon-agnostic combat interfaces shared by player and AI, backed by Behavior Trees, EQS, and AIPerception.
04
Quality gates
Headless automation tests, Architecture Decision Records, CVar traces, and explicit C++ / Blueprint contracts.
Result / Delivered a playable vertical slice for investor review. Jalora is discontinued due to internal issues.