Multiplayer Lobby is a project I developed in Unreal Engine 5 using the Steam online subsystem. Originally called "Blaster", this project was intented to become a multiplayer shooter game, but I ultimately decided to turn it into a Steam multiplayer plugin which I can use for future projects. My main goals for Blaster were to sharpen my multiplayer programming skills and to create a fun, interesting, and competitive experience for players, though this narrowed in scope once I decided to make a plugin out of the multiplayer aspect of the project. I have been studying multiplayer programming in Unreal Engine 5 by enrolling and participating in a Udemy course with this focus called "Unreal Engine 5 C++ Multiplayer Shooter" by Stephen Ulibarri, the link to which can be found below. It is an excellent course, and using the skills I have learned from it, I was able to create a system that creates a new lobby and allows several players on different computers logged into different Steam accounts to connect to it. Once they connect, they are visible to all other players, and a message appears telling everyone that they have joined the game, and it grabs their Steam username from the Steam online subsystem.

 

I have plans to use this multiplayer plugin to create multiplayer projects in the future, which I intend to release on Steam. So, polishing and balancing are two other crucial aspects I have putting a heavy focus on. I will be updating this plugin over time with more content and any necessary bug/performance fixes. Of course, I want it to be a smooth and enjoyable experience for each player, so I will take all feedback from testers and players of those projects and incorporate it into each update.