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News & Devlogs

Explore our latest tutorials from the StraySpark team.

Apr 29, 20263 min read

From Prototype to Production: When Your Game Jam Project Deserves a Full Release

You built something special at a game jam. Now what? A practical guide to evaluating, scoping, and transitioning a prototype into a commercial game — without falling into the 'second system' trap.

Game JamIndie DevProductionProject Management

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tutorial

Apr 26, 202610 min read

10 UE5 Performance Mistakes That Kill Your Frame Rate (and How to Fix Them)

The most common Unreal Engine 5 performance pitfalls that tank frame rates — from tick-heavy Blueprints to shadow map budgets — with practical fixes you can apply immediately.

Unreal EnginePerformance

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tutorial

Apr 23, 20263 min read

RPG Stat Systems Explained: Designing Character Progression That Feels Rewarding

The game design theory behind RPG stat systems — how to design attributes, leveling curves, and character progression that makes players feel powerful without breaking your game's balance.

Game DesignRpg

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tutorial

Apr 20, 20263 min read

Architectural Visualization with UE5: A Game Developer's Side Hustle

Your Unreal Engine skills translate directly to architectural visualization. Here's how game developers can take on arch-viz freelance work — the tools, workflow, and business side of a growing UE5 market.

Unreal EngineArch Viz

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tutorial

Apr 17, 20265 min read

Building an Inventory and Crafting System Players Actually Enjoy

Most inventory systems are tolerated, not enjoyed. Here's how to design item management and crafting that feels good to use — covering UX patterns, common mistakes, and implementation strategies for UE5.

Game DesignUi Ux

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tutorial

Apr 14, 20268 min read

Procedural Generation vs Hand-Crafted Levels: Finding the Right Balance

When should you use procedural generation and when should you hand-craft your levels? A practical framework for combining both approaches to build better game worlds with less effort.

Game DesignProcedural Generation

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tutorial

Apr 11, 20265 min read

The Complete Guide to Save Systems in Unreal Engine 5

Everything you need to know about building a save system in UE5 — what to save, serialization strategies, async operations, save file management, and how to avoid the most common pitfalls.

Unreal EngineSave Systems

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tutorial

Apr 8, 20263 min read

Designing Dialogue Trees That Don't Suck: Branching Narrative for Game Developers

Why most dialogue trees feel shallow, and how to design branching conversations with meaningful choices, NPC memory, and conditional logic that players actually care about.

Game DesignNarrative

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tutorial

Apr 5, 20267 min read

How to Make a Steam Trailer That Sells Your Indie Game

Your Steam trailer is your game's first impression. Here's how to plan, shoot, and edit a trailer inside Unreal Engine 5 that converts store page visitors into wishlists.

SteamMarketing

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tutorial

Apr 2, 20263 min read

Unreal Engine vs Unity in 2026: An Honest Comparison for Indie Developers

A practical, no-hype comparison of Unreal Engine 5 and Unity for indie game developers in 2026 — covering performance, tooling, pricing, learning curve, and when each engine is the better choice.

Unreal EngineUnity

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tutorial

Mar 31, 20266 min read

The Solo Indie Dev's UE5 Toolkit: What We'd Install on Day One

A curated list of essential Unreal Engine 5 tools, plugins, and resources for solo indie developers — from free community favorites to production-grade plugins that save weeks of development time.

Unreal EngineIndie Dev

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tutorial

Mar 28, 20264 min read

Building Believable Biomes: A Deep Dive into Rule-Based Environment Scatter

Why random scatter looks fake and how rule-based placement systems create environments that feel natural — the game design theory and practical implementation behind believable biomes.

Unreal EngineProcedural Generation

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tutorial

Mar 26, 20265 min read

AI Agents in the Unreal Editor: 5 Workflows That Actually Save Time

Skip the hype — here are 5 practical AI workflows inside the Unreal Engine editor that genuinely reduce development time, with real examples using MCP-powered automation.

Unreal EngineAi

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announcement

Mar 24, 20266 min read

Why We Chose No Subscriptions, No Royalties, and Full Source Code

Our licensing philosophy explained — why we believe game development tools should be one-time purchases with full source access, and how this decision shapes everything we build.

BusinessLicensing

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tutorial

Mar 21, 20265 min read

UE5.7 Nanite Foliage + Procedural Placement: Performance Guide for Open Worlds

Nanite Foliage is finally production-ready in UE5.7. Here's how to combine it with procedural scatter systems to build dense, high-performance open worlds without tanking your frame rate.

Unreal EngineNanite

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devlog

Mar 19, 20266 min read

From Game Jam to Shipped Title: Building an RPG Prototype in a Single Weekend

How we built a playable RPG prototype in 48 hours using pre-built gameplay systems — complete with combat, inventory, dialogue, and quests — and what we learned along the way.

Game JamRpg

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tutorial

Mar 17, 20264 min read

5 Camera Tricks Hollywood Uses That You Can Replicate in UE5

Learn how to recreate iconic Hollywood camera techniques — Hitchcock zoom, crane shots, handheld shake, and more — inside Unreal Engine 5 using spline-based camera systems.

Unreal EngineCinematics

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tutorial

Mar 14, 20267 min read

Blueprint vs C++ in 2026: When to Use Each and How to Bridge the Gap

The Blueprint vs C++ debate is older than UE5 itself. Here's a practical framework for deciding when to use each — and how production-ready Blueprint systems can give you the best of both worlds.

Unreal EngineBlueprints

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tutorial

Mar 12, 20265 min read

MCP + Unreal Engine: The Complete Guide to AI-Assisted Level Design

Learn how to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect AI assistants like Claude and Cursor to your Unreal Engine editor for automated level design, asset management, and more.

Unreal EngineAi

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devlog

Mar 10, 20269 min read

How We Populated a 16 km² Open World in an Afternoon with UE5

A behind-the-scenes look at how we used rule-based procedural scatter to fill a massive open world with forests, rocks, and foliage — in just a few hours.

Unreal EngineOpen World

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devlog

Mar 5, 20267 min read

Procedural Placement Tool v2: What's New

A deep dive into the new features in Procedural Placement Tool v2, including biome zones, density painting, and performance improvements.

Unreal EngineProcedural Generation

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announcement

Mar 1, 202610 min read

Welcome to StraySpark

Introducing StraySpark — a game studio building professional-grade tools for Unreal Engine developers.

StraysparkAnnouncement

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