Wildlife Warfare

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project
Wildlife Warfare
role
Lead Producer, UI/UX Designer & Gameplay Programmer
timeline
Jun 2023 – Apr 2025

Overview

Led the full development and Early Access launch of Wildlife Warfare, a stylized multiplayer PvP shooter where players battle as either Hunters or Wild Animals across 10 unique biomes. As a solo developer, I owned every stage of production—from concept and UX research to UI design, gameplay programming, technical implementation, branding, and launch—demonstrating advanced proficiency in Unreal Engine 5, UI/UX design, project management, game design, and creative direction.

A major focus of the project was designing a complete user interface that balanced clarity, immersion, and usability within a fast-paced multiplayer environment. I designed, prototyped, and implemented every interface in the game, ensuring players could navigate complex systems with minimal friction while maintaining a distinctive visual identity inspired by the game’s gritty wildlife theme.

Wildlife Warfare title screen with the brush-stroke logo and a Start button
The title screen — the brush-stroke logotype that anchors the game’s visual language.
Main menu with a dark side navigation panel, match options and stacked notification cards
Main menu and navigation, with the notification and confirmation system.

UI / UX Design

I designed the complete UI ecosystem for Wildlife Warfare, including:

  • Main menu and navigation system
  • Multiplayer matchmaking and lobby screens
  • Team selection interface
  • Character selection and in-game store
  • HUD and gameplay overlays
  • Pause and settings menus
  • Scoreboards and post-match results
  • Notifications, confirmations, and modal dialogs
  • Controller and keyboard navigation flows
  • Accessibility and graphics settings

Rather than treating each screen individually, I approached the UI as a connected product experience, ensuring consistent hierarchy, typography, interaction patterns, and visual language across the entire game.

Component sheet of buttons, sliders, dropdowns, brush strokes, skull and trophy icons, and controller and keyboard input prompts
The shared component set — buttons, sliders, dropdowns, icons and brush-stroke plates, with paired controller and keyboard prompts.
Public match screen showing a player slot list, map preview and intermission timer
Matchmaking — player slots, map preview and intermission timer held in one view.

Design Challenges

One of the biggest challenges was presenting a large amount of multiplayer information—players, teams, scores, timers, currencies, statistics, objectives, and settings—without overwhelming users.

To solve this, I:

  • Created clear visual hierarchies using scale, spacing, typography, and contrast.
  • Reduced unnecessary visual noise by grouping related information into logical panels.
  • Used a consistent brush-stroke visual system to reinforce the game’s rugged identity while keeping interfaces readable.
  • Limited the number of competing focal points on each screen so players could immediately identify the most important action.

Another challenge was ensuring menus remained readable against highly detailed 3D environments.

Rather than placing opaque panels over the entire screen, I introduced semi-transparent overlays combined with dark textured containers that preserved the atmosphere of the environment while maintaining sufficient contrast for accessibility and readability.

The multiplayer lobby required players to understand team composition at a glance.

After several iterations, I separated Hunters and Animals into distinct columns, used iconography to represent player status, and simplified navigation so users could quickly switch teams and prepare for matches without unnecessary interaction.

The settings menu presented another usability challenge due to the number of configurable options.

I redesigned it using categorized navigation, scrollable option groups, clear labels, sliders, dropdowns, and consistent interaction states. This reduced cognitive load while allowing players to locate settings quickly regardless of input device.

Pause menu with Resume, Options and Leave Game over a blurred in-game scene
The pause menu — a dark textured panel over blurred gameplay, keeping the environment present without losing contrast.
Return to Main Menu confirmation dialog with Accept and Deny options over a blurred in-game scene
Confirmation dialog — a semi-transparent band rather than a full-screen panel, with the destructive action marked in red.
Video settings screen with category navigation and a brightness calibration preview and slider
Video settings — categorised navigation with a live brightness calibration preview.
Game settings screen showing a scrollable list of options with sliders and stepper controls
Scrollable option groups with consistent slider, stepper and focus states.

Process

My workflow combined UX thinking with rapid iteration:

  • Identified gameplay requirements before designing interfaces.
  • Produced low-fidelity wireframes to validate layout and information architecture.
  • Built high-fidelity mockups in Figma.
  • Implemented the interfaces directly in Unreal Engine using UMG.
  • Tested interactions during gameplay sessions.
  • Iterated based on usability observations and gameplay balancing.

Because I was responsible for both design and implementation, I could rapidly prototype ideas, evaluate them in-game, and refine interactions without relying on lengthy handoff cycles.

Pre-match team selection screen splitting Humans and Animals into two columns over a forest environment
Team selection — Hunters and Animals split into distinct columns, readable over the live environment.

Impact

The project demonstrates my ability to take ownership of an entire product experience, translating complex gameplay systems into intuitive interfaces while maintaining a cohesive visual identity.

It showcases experience in:

  • End-to-end UI/UX Design
  • User Interface Architecture
  • Information Hierarchy
  • Interaction Design
  • Wireframing & Prototyping
  • Design Systems
  • Responsive UI
  • User-Centred Design
  • Figma
  • Unreal Engine 5 UMG
  • Motion & Micro-interactions
  • Multiplayer UX
  • Accessibility & Readability
  • Product Thinking
  • Creative Direction
  • Cross-disciplinary Design & Development
End of match screen reading Animals Win with the Match MVP panel and kill and death totals
The win state — outcome, MVP and headline stats resolved into a single focal point.
Post-match results screen with a Match MVP panel and a ranked scoreboard
Post-match results — MVP panel paired with the ranked scoreboard.
Select an Animal store screen with a grid of animal portraits and a detail panel showing stats and price
Character selection and in-game store, with stats and pricing in a single detail panel.