Neverland: A Peter Pan Adventure

Created by: Second Star Games

Neverland: A Peter Pan Adventure is a studio project developed at Second Star Games, reimagining the classic Peter Pan story as an action-adventure game. The project is developed under an exclusive partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.

Across a multidisciplinary team, I contributed across several engineering disciplines — from UI and audio systems to platform integration, tooling, and quality assurance.

Team Size

  • Team Project

My Roles

  • UI Programmer
  • Audio Programmer
  • Platform Developer
  • QA
  • Tools Programmer
  • Systems Programmer

Duration

  • August 2025 – Ongoing

Tech Stack

  • Unreal Engine 5
  • C++ & Blueprint
  • Wwise
  • GitHub

Context

  • Second Star Games
  • Studio Project

My Contributions

UI Programming

  • Designed and implemented in-game HUD elements
  • Built UMG widget systems for menus and overlays

Audio Programming

  • Integrated dynamic audio using Wwise
  • Managed sound events and adaptive music triggers via the Wwise Unreal integration

Platform Development

  • Handled platform-specific integration and configuration
  • Ensured consistent behaviour across target platforms

QA

  • Conducted playtesting sessions and bug reporting
  • Tracked and verified bug fixes across team members

Tools Programming

  • Built editor utilities to support the team's workflow
  • Automated repetitive content pipeline tasks

Systems Programming

  • Implemented core gameplay systems in C++
  • Designed data-driven systems for flexibility and reuse

Technical Breakdown

UI Systems & HUD

The HUD was built entirely in UMG, using a combination of C++ bindings and Blueprint to keep the presentation layer clean and the logic data-driven. Widget animations were driven by game state changes, keeping the interface reactive without polling each frame.

  • UMG widgets bound to C++ game state for accurate, low-overhead updates
  • Animation driven by state transitions rather than per-frame evaluation
  • Modular widget architecture for easy iteration by the design team

Audio Integration with Wwise

Audio was driven through Wwise, integrated into Unreal Engine via the official Audiokinetic plugin. Gameplay systems communicated with Wwise by posting events and setting game parameters (RTPCs), keeping audio logic decoupled from individual actors and allowing the audio team to iterate in Wwise independently of the game build.

  • Wwise integrated into UE5 via the Audiokinetic plugin
  • Gameplay events posted to Wwise to trigger contextual sounds and music states
  • RTPCs used to drive adaptive audio parameters from gameplay data
  • Audio logic decoupled from actors, allowing independent iteration by the audio team

Editor Tooling

To support the wider team, I built a set of Unreal Editor utilities that automated time-consuming pipeline steps. These tools reduced friction in content iteration and allowed designers to make changes without needing programmer support for routine tasks.

  • Custom editor utilities written in C++ to automate pipeline tasks
  • Reduced iteration time for content creators on the team
  • Tooling designed to be approachable for non-programmers

What I Learned

Technical

  • Working across multiple disciplines in one project deepens understanding of how systems interact
  • Centralised subsystems for audio and UI reduce coupling and make the codebase easier to maintain

Team & Process

  • Clear ownership across roles prevents duplicated effort and integration conflicts
  • QA involvement from early in development catches structural issues before they compound

What I'd Do Differently

  • Establish shared coding conventions earlier to reduce merge friction
  • Invest more in tooling upfront — time saved compounds across the whole team