ANAGI GUNASEKERA
· Creative Learning Experience Designer · Educator · Musician
SAVING HARMONIA
Saving Harmonia is my first game development project, created in Unreal Engine 5 over 12 weeks. I began the project with no experience in game development or Unreal Engine, but with a love of games, playful experiences and the curiosity to understand how they are actually built.
What started as a simple greybox prototype gradually became a short atmospheric exploration game as I learned to work with environmental assets, lighting, sound, UI and Unreal Engine’s Blueprint Visual Scripting. Along the way, I built interactive systems for collecting objects, activating pedestals, triggering environmental mechanisms and providing feedback to the player.
The game invites players to explore a ruined sanctuary, search for three elemental orbs Earth, Water and Fire, and return them to their corresponding pedestals to restore harmony to the environment.
For me, the project was as much about the learning journey as the final game. Over the 12 weeks, I moved from having very little understanding of game development to being able to build, troubleshoot and refine a complete playable experience, while exploring how visual design, interaction, atmosphere and player guidance work together.
From Greybox
to Final Game
_edited.jpg)
_edited.jpg)
What I built
I used Unreal Engine Blueprint Visual Scripting to build the main gameplay systems, including orb collection, pedestal interactions, environmental mechanisms, contextual messages and the final game state.
I also developed the environment from its original greybox form by introducing materials, landscape elements, lighting, ambient music and sound effects. Clues, landmarks and UI feedback were gradually refined to help guide the player through the experience while still encouraging exploration and discovery.
What I Learned
Saving Harmonia was my first experience developing a complete game, and it pushed me beyond designing individual visual elements into thinking about an entire interactive experience.
Throughout the project, I learned how environmental layout, player feedback, interface design, sound, atmosphere and game logic work together to influence what a player notices, understands, feels and chooses to do.
I also learned a great deal through the process of iteration. Some ideas that seemed straightforward initially required several rounds of testing and refinement before they worked effectively for the player. Troubleshooting these systems strengthened both my technical confidence and my ability to approach design problems through experimentation.
Most importantly, the project strengthened my interest in playful and interactive experiences as forms of communication, storytelling and learning. It showed me how design and technology can come together to create experiences that invite people to explore, make decisions and discover meaning for themselves.