How did AdHoc studio's BAFTA-winning game Dispatch come to life? By combining the humor of The Office with the fun of superheroes and using Unreal Engine to bring it all together.

The game, a choice-based narrative-driven superhero management experience, was made possible by AdHoc’s workflow, which focused on simple yet deep mechanics. Dennis Lenart, CTO and Creative Director, explained that Blueprints were crucial for their team's collaboration, enabling non-engineers to contribute significantly to the game development process.

While Dispatch didn't require much from Unreal Engine's advanced lighting and environment tools, the studio did use Sequencer for pre-visualization of complex scenes. This tool helped in creating visual timelines that informed key decisions on how characters moved around spaces, ensuring everyone was aligned.

Seth Kingsley highlighted the importance of having access to Unreal Engine's source code, allowing the team to optimize performance and achieve a western anime style with hand-painted backgrounds. For indie developers, he advises leveraging as much built-in functionality as possible before considering third-party plugins or custom builds.