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XGrid Framework

Primary Technologies

Unreal Engine

C++

Visual Studio

Overview

XGrid is designed to accelerate turn-based strategy development by focusing on three core goals: rapid content creation, fast level prototyping, and flexible, player-focused UI design. Each of these systems supports modular development and scalable gameplay design. XGrid is availble on the FAB marketplace. View XGrid FAB Page

UI and Player Control Systems

To support meaningful player choices, XGrid offers a customizable UI and player control experience. Players can navigate available actions through a responsive and reversible interface, allowing them to review and backtrack decisions before committing to actions. This supports strategic play while maintaining clarity.

Asset Creation Pipelines

XGrid provides streamlined pipelines for building characters, items, skills, and AI behaviors. These pipelines are built to reduce repetition and accelerate iteration, allowing developers to prototype and expand game systems efficiently. The structure supports scalable asset integration that grows with your project.

Grid Zoning for Level Prototyping

The framework includes a zoning system that allows developers to use overlap volumes to define grid cell properties. This includes whether a cell is traversable, how terrain affects unit behavior, and whether the grid should snap to complex level geometry. This approach enables fast, visual prototyping of levels and mechanics without the need for complex custom logic.

Section is pending image assets.

Technical Discussion

Building XGrid required creating solutions to complex problems that presented themselves throughout development. The problems went beyond simply coding something that worked-- they needed to be solved in such a way that the solutions facilitated future development. This idea of building such that more building could be done easily was a core priority of the framework. Some might call this approach "Modular Development," and I think that is a good name for it. Here are some of the solutions I came up with while making the framework that I believe fulfilled this priority.

Overcoming System Limitations: An A* Pathfinding Predicament

Situation

Pathfinding is critical in a 2D grid strategy game—but pure-Blueprint A* stuttered the main thread, and FAB’s marketplace rules forbid mixed C++/Blueprint frameworks.

Stutters calculating large search areas.
Blueprint algorithm wasn’t modular enough for cost-variation extensions.

Task

Design a dual system that:
1. Provides a pure-Blueprint A* acceptable to FAB.
2. Offers an optional C++ plugin leveraging Unreal’s threading to offload heavy pathfinding.

Action

Blueprint Node UObject: Introduced a UObject class for A* nodes (parent refs), enabling:
- Terrain-based penalties
- Movement-cost adjustments
- Dynamic hazard heuristics
C++ Pathfinding Plugin: Published a GitHub plugin with tutorial:
- Blueprint delegates to C++ (OnOmnidirectionalPathfindComplete)
- Background threads eliminate stutter
- Variations: directional variety, omnidirectional AI, cell-density heuristics
Authored installation guides and tested on UE4.27 & 5.3+ for FAB compliance.

Result

Out-of-the-box Blueprint A* algorithm for medium searches.
Optional free C++ plugin for large searches, complete with multiple heuristics and Blueprint integration.