Neon Steel
What Is Neon Steel
Neon Steel is a 2.5D action beat 'em up made at BloodFeather Studios. I worked as Executive Producer and UI/UX Developer, splitting my time between leading production and building the game's interface systems.
I led the team through development and release. I planned milestones, managed scope, tracked blockers, coordinated playtests, and worked with the other leads to keep development moving.
I also organized the HUD information, gave the art team feedback and direction, and built the HUD and menu systems in Unreal Engine with Blueprints.
We released the downloadable Windows build on June 19, 2026. Future updates are planned.
Project Details
- Role
- Executive Producer and
UI/UX Developer - Studio
- BloodFeather Studios
- Team
- 20 people
- Genre
- 2.5D action beat 'em up
- Development
- 11 months
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5.6.1
- Released
- June 19, 2026
- Platform
- Windows
- Status
- Released, with future updates planned
How I Led Production
The project brought together programming, design, art, animation, audio, narrative, and UI. Much of my work came down to making sure each discipline knew what it needed, what was blocking it, and what had to happen next.
I planned milestones, set priorities, tracked dependencies, followed up on blockers, ran reviews, and coordinated four closed playtests with 10 to 15 participants per session. When the scope changed, I worked with the other leads to compare each feature against the time and people we had available.
We protected the features needed for release. The team reached feature complete two weeks ahead of schedule and used the remaining time for marketing, bug fixing, and playtesting.
Scope and Pacing
Story beats board
The Story Beats Board mapped what happened throughout the game, what the player would encounter, and when new elements appeared. I reviewed the pacing and paid close attention to when Kade gained new combat abilities.
Kade begins as an ordinary construction worker, so he does not start with guns or a sword. He gains access to them as the story and threats escalate.
Release scope
The released build included core combat, the final HUD, save and load, grappling, weapons, pickups, settings, hazards, enemy navigation, breakable objects, vertical traversal, a player shield, and ultimate attacks for the sword, gun, and shield.
The game shipped with six enemy types. Three Mantis variants had ultimate attacks.
Production Workflow
I spent more than 20 hours researching, building, and adjusting the Trello automations. I created the development cards and tracked each assigned task daily. I also helped create art cards when I was responsible for supervising or tracking the work.
The automations used each card's label, checklist state, and board location to keep the art and development workflows consistent. This reduced the amount of manual Trello work needed to keep each card current.
Art workflow
An art card moved from To Do to In Progress with the Art label and a priority. Trello then added the Art Progress checklist.
When Finished was checked, the automation moved the card to Art Evaluation and changed the checklist item to Evaluated. The art lead, art producer, and I reviewed the work. Once we approved it, the card moved to Completed.
- 1To Do
- 2In Progress
- 3Art Evaluation
- 4Completed
- 1To Do
- 2In Progress
- 3Testing (Dev)
- 4Completed after an approved and merged pull request
- 5Debugging (Dev) when changes were requested
Development workflow
Each development card moved from To Do to In Progress with the Dev label and a priority. Trello then added the Dev Progress checklist.
When the work was ready, the card moved to Testing (Dev), where the technical director reviewed the pull request. If the pull request was approved and merged, I checked Finished and the automation moved the card to Completed. If changes were requested, I selected the corresponding checklist item and the automation moved the card to Debugging (Dev).
Why The HUD Was Redesigned
The original HUD placed information in several corners of the screen, covering parts of the platforms and pulling attention away from the action.
I wanted the main player information grouped in one place. I decided how the HUD should be organized and gave the Neon Steel art team feedback and direction. The art team created the final visual design, and I built it in Unreal Engine with Blueprints.
Interface Systems I Built
I built the game's interface systems in Unreal Engine 5 using Blueprints. This included the main menu, HUD functionality, settings pages, information panels, controller navigation, and credits.
Main Menu and Navigation
I created the main menu flow and made sure every primary page could be navigated with a controller. This covered moving between menus, selecting settings, and returning to the game without relying on a mouse.
Settings Systems
I implemented the graphics, display, audio, and advanced graphics settings pages. Graphics presets updated the related individual settings, while changing an individual setting switched the preset to Custom.
Gameplay and Information Screens
I built the functional HUD systems, information panels, and credits screen. For the HUD, I worked with the art team to organize the player information into one readable area, then implemented the final design in Unreal Engine.
Results
Neon Steel Links
Play Neon Steel
The downloadable Windows build is available from BloodFeather Studios on itch.io.