Drop Zone: Vortis is a top-down sci-fi shooter where squads of elite operatives are deployed via orbital drop to hostile alien planets. Drawing heavy inspiration from Helldivers, the game features brutal, fast-paced combat, randomized mission objectives, and high-stakes extractions—all designed to be played in local multiplayer across multiple clients.

Players fight side-by-side through LAN sessions, coordinating missions, calling in airstrikes, and surviving swarms of alien enemies in a war-torn galaxy. Every mission is a high-adrenaline race for survival where teamwork and timing are everything.

Development & Role

This project was developed solo in Unreal Engine 5. What began as a tribute to Helldivers quickly evolved into a standalone cooperative experience, with support for local multiplayer via LAN and a complete gameplay loop designed around high-intensity co-op missions.

Key responsibilities included:

• Multiclient Local Multiplayer Support:
  Built multiplayer functionality using UE5’s networking system, enabling players to connect via LAN as individual clients. Developed session creation, player spawning, and synchronized gameplay across instances.

• Combat & Weapon Mechanics:
  Designed a responsive shooting system with multiple weapon types, bullet spread, reloading, hit reaction, and damage feedback—all synced across clients.

• Orbital Drop System:
  Created a cinematic drop pod intro where players deploy into the mission from orbit, complete with synchronized visual effects, camera transitions, and spawn logic.

• Enemy AI & Scaling:
  Developed swarm-based AI using behavior trees and environmental queries (EQS), with enemies dynamically scaling based on player count and difficulty.

• Modular Missions & Objectives:
  Implemented a dynamic objective system including destroy targets, capture zones, and defend points. Objectives are randomly assigned at match start for replayability and variety.

• Sound & Feedback Systems:
  Focused heavily on impactful sound design—ensuring gunfire, and explosions all contribute to an intense, immersive combat atmosphere.

Skills Demonstrated

• Unreal Engine 5 multiplayer (LAN-based) implementation

• Client-server architecture and network replication via Blueprints

• AI development using Behavior Trees and EQS

• Dynamic mission generation and difficulty scaling

• Weapon system design with multiplayer syncing

• Audio design for moment-to-moment tension and clarity

• UI elements synchronized across multiple clients

• Complete solo project development from core systems to polish