🪐 Orbital Invaders

A Space-Invaders-inspired arcade shooter where the player orbits Earth and defends it against waves of space invaders and asteroids.

Built with Unreal Engine 5.7.4 in C++ and Blueprints as a recruitment assignment.

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Gameplay

• The player pilots a ship orbiting Earth in a full 360° circle.
• Waves of invaders approach along concentric orbits, jumping closer each cycle. If any invader breaches the player's orbit, the game is over.
• The player fires projectiles radially outwards toward enemies; invaders fire inwards the same way.
• Asteroids cross the playfield with wrap-around, splitting into smaller pieces when shot.
• A rare Special Invader spirals in from the outer rim toward Earth.
• Bunkers positioned between the player and enemy orbits absorb incoming fire but degrade over time.
• Earth has its own health bar; a direct asteroid impact ends the game instantly.

Endless Mode

The only game mode. Each wave increases enemy count, speed, fire rate, and asteroid frequency. The goal is to achieve the highest score possible.

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Controls

The ship moves along its orbit based on the direction the player pushes toward. Hold a direction to keep moving; release to stop.

Input	Action
A / D	Move along orbit (directional)
← / →	Move along orbit (directional)
Space	Fire
Esc	Pause

Architecture notes

Coupling in overlap handlers - Asteroid::HandleOverlap (and similar) directly casts to concrete classes (AProjectile, AInvader, etc.). If I had more time I'd replace it with IDamageable interface.

Score table as a switch - AOrbitalGameState::AddScoreFor uses switch for mapping score events to point values. If I had more time this would be a UDataTable.

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Clone and build

git clone <repo-url>
cd OrbitalInvaders
git lfs pull

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## Code style — header layout

To keep headers predictable, every `UCLASS` in this project follows this section order. Each access specifier appears **at most once** per class.

```cpp
class ORBITALINVADERS_API AFoo : public AActor
{
    GENERATED_BODY()

public:
    // 1. Constructor
    AFoo();

    // 2. Public API (UFUNCTION BlueprintCallable / BlueprintPure)
    UFUNCTION(BlueprintCallable, Category = "Combat")
    int32 ApplyDamage(int32 Amount);

    // 3. Public delegates (UPROPERTY BlueprintAssignable)
    UPROPERTY(BlueprintAssignable)
    FOnDiedDelegate OnDied;

protected:
    // 4. Virtual overrides
    virtual void BeginPlay() override;
    virtual void Tick(float DeltaTime) override;

    // 5. Components (VisibleAnywhere - protected so subclasses can reach them)
    UPROPERTY(VisibleAnywhere, BlueprintReadOnly, Category = "Components")
    TObjectPtr<USphereComponent> CollisionComponent;

    // 6. Config (EditAnywhere - tunable in BP)
    UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, BlueprintReadWrite, Category = "Combat")
    int32 MaxHealth = 3;

    // 7. SFX / VFX - kept separate from gameplay config for clarity
    UPROPERTY(EditAnywhere, Category = "FX")
    TObjectPtr<USoundBase> HitSound;

    // 8. Runtime state exposed for debugging (VisibleAnywhere)
    UPROPERTY(VisibleAnywhere, BlueprintReadOnly, Category = "Combat")
    int32 CurrentHealth = 0;

    // 9. Virtual hooks for subclasses (protected, not private)
    virtual void OnDeath();

private:
    // 10. Overlap / delegate callbacks
    UFUNCTION()
    void HandleOverlap(UPrimitiveComponent*, AActor*, UPrimitiveComponent*,
                       int32, bool, const FHitResult&);

    // 11. Internal helpers (private non-virtual methods)
    void DoInternalStuff();

    // 12. Pure runtime state (no UPROPERTY - timers, flags, counters)
    bool bIsCoolingDown = false;
    FTimerHandle CooldownTimer;
};