Impressed by a fantastic inventory menu in The Game Bakers’ atmospheric exploration adventure Cairn, Gregor Hodinj went on to design and develop a similar one in Unreal Engine 5. This system enables players to collect items throughout the game world, some restoring health or energy, and interact with them directly via a custom-built inventory interface.
Gregor shared that he dedicated significant effort to optimizing every aspect of the system, from UI responsiveness to efficient data storage and real-time updates, while maintaining a clean, modular architecture. “It’s one of those projects I’m genuinely proud of,” he said, “because it brought together design, logic, and polish in a way that just clicked.”
Here’s what it includes:
- Inventory System: Core functionality for collecting, storing, and organizing items, real-time 3D container interface for managing collected objects
- Item Interaction System: Picking up items in the world and assigning behavior to them (defining item types, effects, and use logic)
- Health and Energy System: Implemented HUD elements (health/energy bars), connected gameplay actions (like using an item) to character stats
- UI/UX Gameplay Integration: Created responsive, game-driven UI using UMG, designed inventory UI that reflects game state and allows input
- Gameplay Feedback Loop: Tied in player action (collecting/using items) with visible consequences (health/energy changes), supports moment-to-moment gameplay decisions
- Object Persistence and World-State Management: Items persist after pickup and are visually represented in both the world and UI, storing object data and syncing it between interfaces
