top of page

Sneaky Stacks

Unreal Engine 5

For my graduate-level graphics course CIS 5680: Game Design Practicum, I worked alongside 2 of my classmates, Logan Cho and Keyu Lu, to develop an original, first-person, stealth game titled "Sneaky Stacks." In Sneaky Stacks, you play as a stack of small children in a trench coat trying to sneak into a movie. The goal is to grow your stack by enlisting the help of other children located throughout the theater. While sleuthing around the theater, pick up various power ups like popcorn and soda and avoid obstacles like trash cans and adult NPCs equipped with an enemy AI scattered throughout the space.  

 

Below are the game trailer and gameplay demo videos:

My responsibilities included: ​

  • Player movement 

    • Player can move around using the WASD keys.

  • Collision physics 

    • Handling collisions between the player and the theater environment (i.e. walls, floor, obstacles, etc.), enemies, and powerups  ​

  • GUI

    • Stabilization, suspicion, and danger bars​

      • Stabilization bar: a measurement of how much time remains for a player's temporarily stabilized state

      • Suspicion bar: a measurement for how much suspicion the player has accumulated from bumping into obstacles

      • Danger bar: a gauge for how close the player's stack is to falling over  ​

    • Display for the stack height needed in order to meet the level's threshold

    • Counter for the number of children currently in the player's stack (green meaning that the level threshold has been reached, red meaning that it has not)

    • Timer 

  • Obstacles and powerups 

    • Trashcan obstacle:​ 

      • Increases suspicion every time the player collides with it  ​

    • Popcorn powerup:

      • Decreases suspicion whenever collected by the player ​

    • Soda powerup: 

      • Temporarily stabilizes the player for 10 seconds. As the player's stack grows, it becomes much harder to move as the stack begins to wobble. This powerup makes them much less prone to wobbling and/or toppling over while moving, thereby making it easier for the player to move faster. ​

  • Sound/Visual Effects

    • Audio cues for when player wins, loses, gains powerup, or collides with an enemy ​

    • General background music for the game 

  • Environment/map layout

  • Child regeneration 

    • Automatically regenerates children throughout the theater when none are left in the theater​

  • Win/lose conditions

    • Win conditions​

      • Player has reached the goal area with a stack height greater than or equal to the level's threshold. ​

    • Lose conditions 

      • Player's stack gets toppled over, either from wobbling too much while moving or from running into obstacles​

      • Player maxes out their suspicion bar 

      • Time runs out before the player is able to met the win conditions

bottom of page