Gillette Bomber Cup

I was the solo gameplay programmer alongside a 3D environment artist building the official tournament map for Gillette at Milan Games Week 2023, created in UEFN using Verse.

We had 16 competitive teams battling it out live on stage, so the game mode had to be fast, spectator-friendly, and completely stable under event conditions.

The Game Mode: Dynamic Zone Control

Instead of standard deathmatch, matches revolved around dynamic territory control:

• Capture zones spawned and rotated across randomized positions around the arena.
• Teams had to rotate quickly, push opponents off the point, and hold the ground to accumulate points tick by tick.
• When opposing teams occupied a zone at the same time, the zone went into a contested state, halting points until one squad cleared the area.

Systems I built in Verse

• Zone state machine: Handled the full lifecycle of capture zones in Verse: selection, warning alerts, countdowns, and cleanup.
• Timed jump boosters: Placed jump pads that only activated during zone transitions to help squads reposition quickly, automatically turning off during active firefights to prevent movement abuse.
• Dynamic respawn logic: Recalculated respawn positions based on the active zone, cutting down walking time while preventing direct spawn-camping.
• Tournament lobby & scoring HUD: Built pre-match team assignments, synchronized countdowns, and custom in-game UI banners for live scoreboards.
• Live event stability: Tested thoroughly with full 16-player lobbies to make sure match states stayed synchronized without crashes or hitches during tournament rounds.