Third Year Group Project

Assignment Brief:

To enable you to synthesise and practice the entrepreneurial capacities

needed to deal with uncertainty and complexity in the labour market.

Game Engine:

Unreal Engine 5.6.0

Role Played in Team:

Programmer

Timeframe to Complete:

September 2025 - May 2026

Overview:

Poker Purgatory is a retro-inspired arcade shooter where you gamble to get score multipliers, then fight off waves of enemies determined by the cards you played! The gameplay loop starts with the player playing rounds of blackjack. The cards that the player is given represents different enemies that will appear in the fighting arena. The player then defeats all waves of enemies, losing score for any damage dealt and gaining score by collecting chips from eliminated enemies. The player can then use the chips they gained from the fighting to gamble with. This can be used in games like slots, Higher or Lower and even a claw machine.


This game is an unique experience as it applies the the elements of a game like Call of Duty: Zombies or Ultrakill with a gambling game like Balatro, where the player can compete with others to achieve the highest score.


My contributions to the game included programming various mechanics and assisting with integrating the randomised game elements.

Contributions:

I was part of the development team for this project, which allowed me not only to develop new aspects but also to learn off other members of the team. The main aspects I contributed towards the team were:

  • Gun Prototyping

  • Gun Cards Customisation

  • Gun Chip Customisation

  • Gun effects

  • Helped development of the main Blackjack game

  • Created all UI based gambling games

  • Created the physical slot machine

  • Created the claw machine

  • Created UI for the weapon table

  • Created the Trailer in Premier Pro

Reflection:

Following Save Our Selves, I wanted to push further and produce something with real publication potential. This project became one of the most valuable of my development as it allowed me to deepen my C++ knowledge, strengthen my programming confidence and give me my first experience in a genuinely balanced team where I could both learn from others and contribute meaningfully. The group feedback reflected that dynamic well as teammates described me as determined, dependable, and someone who consistently delivered on whatever was asked of me. Before submission, we ran thorough bug testing as a team, resolving every issue we found. The result spoke for itself: the vast majority of players completed their full playthrough post-submission without encountering a major issue.


Final Grade:

[ Overall: -PENDING-] [ Personal: -PENDING-]


Watch the gameplay trailer here:

Access the itch.io page here