Case Study No. 001
The
Glitch
Witch.
I was an engineering lead on The Glitch Witch, a retro-future puzzle adventure built in Unreal Engine 5. What made it interesting to me was the way its systems, narrative, and visual identity all revolved around the same core idea: restoring broken technology in a world that treats technical understanding like magic.
Repairing old machines is both the puzzle loop and the narrative engine. That is what gives the game its identity.
A game where system repair is not a side mechanic. It is the story.
The Glitch Witch works because its mechanics and fiction are aligned. Rosette is not just solving abstract puzzles. She is restoring devices in a town that no longer understands the infrastructure around it. That gives the game a stronger internal logic than a generic “solve puzzle, unlock next area” structure.
As an engineer, that kind of setup is appealing because implementation decisions carry more meaning. State changes matter. Interaction feedback matters. The transition between exploration and puzzle spaces matters. You are not just building systems that function. You are building the logic by which the world makes sense to the player.
That is also why the project had real production value. It forced the team to solve for coherence across gameplay, UI, art, and narrative. In a project with this much scope, engineering is partly about making things work and partly about making the whole project easier for other disciplines to build on.
The strongest part of the game is that it turns technical literacy into both a mechanic and a social tension.
That is what makes it more than a style exercise.
Technical storytelling
Repairing machines is also an argument about lost knowledge, cultural memory, and who gets to interpret the world correctly.
Systems integration
Exploration, puzzle states, UI language, and progression all had to feel like parts of one game rather than adjacent prototypes.
The premise is easy to grasp and distinctive enough to travel well in trailers and expo settings.
It reflects how I like to build: clear systems, strong internal logic, and technology that supports the meaning of the work.
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Framing
This page is meant to show how I approach engineering in creative work: make the systems strong, make them coherent, and let the technical choices support what the project is trying to say.