Project contribution report
Keep Away
Solo-developed audio-reactive arcade survival game built around quick sessions, mode-dependent movement, data-driven obstacle spawning, licensed music-driven visuals, and cosmetic personalization.
Solo-developed audio-reactive arcade survival game built around quick sessions, mode-dependent movement, data-driven obstacle spawning, licensed music-driven visuals, and cosmetic personalization.
Keep Away is an audio-reactive arcade survival game designed around short, repeatable sessions that are easy to understand and difficult to master.
The player selects a game mode, survives incoming obstacle patterns, earns in-game currency, and uses rewards to personalize the playable sphere and visual presentation.
Core loop: Select mode → Enter the arena → Avoid hazards → Survive and score → Earn currency → Unlock or equip cosmetics → Play again.
Audio, materials, visual effects, trails, backgrounds, and environment elements are designed to respond to music and gameplay. The project remains in active development.
- Keep Away is an independent, solo, AI-assisted production developed under Datura Mist Entertainment LLC.
- The project is being built for Windows PC with a planned Steam target and has no current public project, store, trailer, or gameplay link.
- Founder, Game Director & Solo Unreal Developer
- Game design
- Level design
- Systems architecture
- Blueprint implementation
- UI and UX
- Technical-art direction
- Material and shader development
- Cosmetic architecture
- Data Tables and project data
- Testing and balancing
- Production planning
- Documentation
- Creative direction
- Asset selection and integration
- Visual adaptation of licensed assets
- Own the game’s design, implementation, integration, testing, documentation, and creative direction.
- Develop the core loop, game modes, movement, portals, obstacles, UI architecture, cosmetics, data structures, technical-art integration, and testing workflow.
- Select, adapt, integrate, and separately credit commercially licensed content where used.
- Build mode-dependent movement, data-driven obstacle spawning, portal transitions, UI and cosmetics architecture, save-data groundwork, and centralized audio-reactive parameter routing.
Data-Driven Obstacle Spawning
Purpose
Spawn configurable hazards within bounded areas and direct them toward the player according to the selected game mode.
Contribution
- Designed the spawning architecture.
- Created mode-specific obstacle configuration data.
- Implemented randomized spawn positioning.
- Connected spawning to game-rule flags.
- Implemented obstacle movement and lifecycle behavior.
- Tested collision, death-state, and spawn-shutdown logic.
- Iterated on obstacle types, timing, and presentation.
Result
Produced a functional data-driven hazard system supporting configurable obstacles, randomized positioning, mode-specific behavior, and repeatable arcade sessions.
Game Modes, Movement, and Portals
Contribution
- Implemented mode-specific player movement.
- Implemented lateral movement and jumping.
- Implemented expanded directional movement.
- Implemented bolt or dash functionality.
- Built portal transitions.
- Supported multiple playable platforms.
- Added game-rule validation.
- Connected mode-specific spawning.
- Corrected player orientation and start positions.
Result
Created distinct movement experiences within one arcade framework while keeping mode transitions, obstacle behavior, and player controls coordinated.
Audio-Reactive Architecture
Contribution
- Established the audio-reactive manager architecture.
- Captured and normalized amplitude information.
- Prepared low, mid, and high frequency-band values.
- Prepared beat or onset response.
- Designed parameter routing for materials, Niagara effects, portals, player trails, backgrounds, and UI.
- Integrated third-party audio-analysis tooling into the broader project architecture.
- Tested and tuned reactive behavior.
Result
Established a scalable foundation for connecting music analysis to gameplay presentation and visual systems. Final visual connections and polish remain in development.
UI, Cosmetics, and Persistence
Contribution
- Implemented or working foundation: main menu, game-mode selection, inventory, shop, equipped-item preview, ball skins, trail cosmetics, cosmetic Data Tables, ownership state, equipped-state tracking, save-data groundwork, pause and game-over behavior, exit confirmation, and photosensitive warning.
- Incomplete or planned interface work: shop and inventory completion, HUD, settings, tutorial, credits, radio or music controls, remaining save and ownership validation, and final cosmetic population and polish.
Result
Established the working UI, cosmetic, and persistence foundation while clearly retaining the remaining interface, save-validation, content-population, and polish work as active development.
- 01Production goal
- 02System planning
- 03Hands-on Unreal prototype
- 04Functional implementation
- 05Integration
- 06Testing
- 07Player-experience review
- 08Cleanup and polish
- 09Documentation
- 10Next system
- Work generally begins with one clearly scoped system.
- Prototypes are developed directly in Unreal Engine.
- Functional behavior is stabilized before adjacent features are expanded.
- Systems are tested repeatedly as the project grows.
- Naming conventions and organized Unreal folders are maintained.
- Miro and Google Docs support reports, planning, and issue tracking.
- Friends and other developers provide external feedback.
- Player experience guides design corrections.
- Data Tables and reusable structures are preferred where useful.
- Scope is adjusted when a system becomes unnecessarily complex.
- Keep Away is developed by Ruin as a solo founder-led production.
- Friends and other developers provide external feedback that informs usability and player-experience changes.
- Commercially licensed asset packs, licensed audio, and third-party audio-analysis tooling are integrated and credited as external sources rather than presented as original asset authorship.
Problem
Input actions failed to trigger correctly, preventing intended movement behavior.
Solution
Audited input mapping contexts, bindings, controller flow, and event routing, then corrected the malfunctioning connections.
Outcome
Restored functional player controls and verified the behavior through repeated in-engine testing.
Problem
Obstacle overlap events still called an obsolete player-death function, causing incorrect spawning and state behavior.
Solution
Traced the overlap event chain and replaced the obsolete call with the correct player-death event.
Outcome
Obstacle spawning stopped correctly, player input ended, and the game entered the intended death state.
Problem
Audio data needed to drive several visual systems without tightly coupling every asset directly to the analysis plugin.
Solution
Structured a centralized manager and parameter-routing approach for amplitude, frequency bands, and beat information.
Outcome
Created a scalable foundation for materials, Niagara effects, trails, portals, backgrounds, and interface feedback. Some final visual connections remain in development.
Testing and review
- Testing occurs throughout active development.
- Every new system is checked independently and within the full gameplay loop.
- Movement, obstacle spawning, portal transitions, game-state changes, UI, materials, and effects are repeatedly exercised.
- Issues are recorded through Miro and Google Docs.
Iteration
- Feedback from trusted players and developers informs usability changes.
- Obstacle systems, input behavior, and UI have undergone multiple revision passes.
- Performance and visual density are considered for obstacle spawning, materials, and visual effects.
- Final packaging and broader player testing remain future milestones.
Keep Away currently exists as a playable local production with functional movement, game-mode selection, portal behavior, obstacle spawning, player-death flow, and core UI architecture.
- Audio-reactive visual integration
- Cosmetics
- Inventory and shop completion
- HUD and settings
- Tutorial and onboarding
- Remaining UI systems
- Save and ownership validation
- Content polish
- Packaging
- Steam presentation
All Keep Away media must be verified and cleared for public portfolio use before launch. Licensed assets must receive appropriate credit and each supplied item must include contribution context, a caption, and descriptive alt text.
Related public links
No public project, store, trailer, or gameplay link currently exists.
- Engine and software
- Unreal Engine 5.8 · Blueprint · Unreal Engine Material Editor · Niagara · Data Tables · Adobe Photoshop · Autodesk 3ds Max · Miro · Google Docs · Ableton Live · OBS / Streamlabs · Adobe Premiere Pro · ChatGPT
- Asset and integration sources
- Fab marketplace · Licensed audio packs · Third-party Unreal plugins and visual assets
- AI-assisted workflow
- ChatGPT was used as an assistive research and troubleshooting tool for error investigation, implementation planning, and development scaffolding. All design decisions, Blueprint implementation, asset integration, testing, correction, and final validation were performed manually.
- Strengthened scope management.
- Improved solo production planning.
- Learned to stabilize one system before expanding adjacent features.
- Improved data-driven architecture.
- Strengthened Unreal systems development.
- Reinforced that less complexity can produce a stronger player experience.
- Improved obstacle and game-mode architecture.
- Recognized the value of consistent documentation and clearer task organization.
- Learned not to attempt too many new systems simultaneously.
Keep Away demonstrates Ruin’s ability to transform a focused arcade idea into a playable, increasingly polished Unreal Engine production while working across game design, systems, UI, technical art, testing, and creative direction.