Carlivery: A Letter for No One

Heartfelt Papercraft Puzzle Game in Unreal Engine 5

Developed as the capstone submission for my official Unreal Engine Certification, Carlivery: A Letter for No One is an original 3D papercraft puzzle game. Created entirely from scratch as a solo indie project, I engineered the gameplay systems, built custom in-editor level design tools in Unreal Engine 5 (Blueprints), and personally created all hand-drawn art, 3D papercraft models, and acoustic guitar sound design.

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The Narrative & Aesthetic Concept

Set on a wooden table where a child's imagination comes to life on paper, players guide a small cardboard car across drawn roads to deliver letters of hope and remembrance. The game blends charming handcrafted visuals with thoughtful spatial puzzle mechanics, encouraging players to reconnect with loved ones.

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Core Gameplay Mechanics

• 4-Directional Inertia Movement: The cardboard car navigates in cardinal directions (Up, Down, Left, Right). Once set in motion, the vehicle travels continuously until reaching a valid stopping point or dead end.
• Active Delivery Mailboxes: Mailbox tiles highlighted in yellow act as strategic stopping points, bringing the car to a halt directly on the tile, delivering a letter, and updating puzzle progression. Non-active mailboxes allow uninterrupted passage.
• Environmental Obstacles: Rocks and dead-ends stop the vehicle one tile prior, requiring players to plan multi-step delivery routes to complete all mail deliveries without getting stranded.

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Technical Architecture & Unreal Engine 5 Systems

Custom Modular Road Editor Tool (Construction Script)

• In-Editor Auto-Tiling Blueprint: Engineered a custom Blueprint tool that proceduralizes level construction. Whenever a road actor is placed or moved in the Unreal editor viewport (or updated via inspector buttons), the Construction Script analyzes adjacent coordinates and dynamically swaps mesh textures and corner connections to create a seamless road network.

Raycast Grid Navigation & Movement Controller

• Directional Line Tracing: Programmed a precise raycast probing system that validates upcoming road tiles, detects obstacle types, and calculates stopping distances before initiating vehicle translation.

Handcrafted Art & Original Sound Design

• Complete Creative Authorship: 100% solo-produced assets from pencil and marker drawings scanned into 3D textures, to an original acoustic guitar soundtrack and organic foley sound effects recorded in my home studio.

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