Plan Dedicated Development Time: Having to balance other classes along with this project made it difficult to dedicate time toward development leading to slow progress at the beginning. Overtime I developed a schedule where I would designate specific days and times for the project resulting in an increase of productivity.
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Don't Be Afraid to Ask Questions: This was my first Unreal project I programmed in C++ so I had a lot to learn in a short period of time. At first I would try to learn through tutorials and documentation which helped a bit but was very time consuming. I then leaned toward asking for help from my teammates who had more experience with C++ in Unreal through pair programming, significantly speeding up my learning and work efficiency.
 

Do Your Research: As the UX/UI lead it was important to conduct market research to ensure an optimized player experience. From analyzing similar melee combat games such as Ghost of Tsushima, God of War: Ragnarok, and Hollow Knight, features such as enemy radar, dynamic leveling system, and pop-up tool tips were added in response. These features were positively received through playtesting sessions.
 

Be Wary of Version Control Shenanigans: Unreal can get weird when it comes to version control. Uasset files such as Maps, Blueprints, and Data Tables should not be worked on simultaneously with another teammate as merge conflicts can only be handled by taking one teammates changes and redoing the other's. To navigate this challenge, my team and I communicated whenever we were updating an asset and assigning at least one reviewer to a pull request.