👻 Ultimate Horror Framework

⚡ Quick Start — Working Horror Game in 5 Minutes

Zero Blueprint work required. Set 4 classes in your GameMode and press Play. Everything auto-creates: HUD, widgets, full player movement with WASD + mouse look, sprint, crouch, jump, interact, flashlight, lean, inventory — all input bindings are built-in.

🧩 All 16 Default Components on HF_HorrorCharacter

These are auto-created in the constructor. You get them all instantly when you use HF_HorrorCharacter as your Default Pawn Class.

❤️ Health & Damage System

Already included on HF_HorrorCharacter with bIsPlayer = true. For custom characters or enemies, add HF_HealthComponent manually.

Dealing Damage

Two ways to deal damage to anything with a HealthComponent:

Properties (Details Panel)

Functions

Events (bind in Blueprint)

Status Effects

HealthComponent manages 10 status effects: Bleeding, Poisoned, Burning, Frozen, Infected, Stunned, Blinded, Slowed, Hallucinating. Each can stack, deal tick damage, and auto-expire.

Multiplayer

MULTIPLAYER CurrentHealth, MaxHealth, bIsAlive, bIsInvincible are replicated. Damage and healing only process on the server (authority check in ApplyDamage and Heal). Clients receive replicated values via OnRep.

😱 Fear & Sanity System

Sanity = long-term mental state. Drains passively in darkness, recovers in safe zones.
Fear = short-term reaction. Spikes from scare events, decays over time. Both drive visual effects, hallucinations, and gameplay penalties.

How It Works

Fear Levels

Properties

Functions

Events

MULTIPLAYER CurrentSanity, CurrentFear, and CurrentFearLevel are all replicated.

🤚 Interaction System

HF_InteractionComponent fires a line trace from the camera every tick. If it hits an actor implementing IHF_InteractableInterface, it shows the interaction prompt on HUD.

Making an Actor Interactable

Built-in interactables that already implement the interface: HF_DoorActor, HF_HidingSpot, HF_GeneratorActor, HF_CombinationLock, HF_LightSwitchActor, HF_WorkbenchActor.

🎒 Inventory System

MULTIPLAYER Slot-based inventory with stacking, weight limit, equip/unequip. Slots array is replicated.

Functions

Properties

Item Data (FHF_ItemData)

Events

⚔️ Weapon System

HF_WeaponComponent handles melee attacks, firearms with ammo/reload, and throwables. Add it to any actor — weapon pickups, NPCs, or the player. It handles cooldowns, stamina cost, noise generation, and sound.

Weapon Types

Properties

Socket Properties (for visible weapon mesh)

Events

MULTIPLAYER CurrentAmmo is replicated. Attack() and Reload() block on simulated proxies.

Weapon Socket System

HF_WeaponSocketComponent attaches a visible weapon mesh to your character's skeleton socket. Already on HF_HorrorCharacter.

Swapping: EquipWeapon() auto-unequips the previous weapon. Events: OnWeaponEquipped, OnWeaponUnequipped.

🔦 Flashlight

Already on HF_HorrorCharacter. Auto-creates a SpotLight if none assigned. Toggle with F key (auto-bound).

Events: OnToggled, OnBatteryLow, OnBatteryDepleted. MULTIPLAYER bIsOn and CurrentBattery are replicated.

🤖 AI Enemy System

No animations or meshes included. This is a C++ runtime plugin — you bring your own character mesh, animations, and sounds. The plugin provides all AI logic, awareness, pathfinding, and behaviors.

Setting Up Your First Enemy

Awareness System (Detection)

HF_AwarenessComponent handles sight + hearing. States progress: Unaware → Suspicious → Searching → Alerted → Chasing → Attacking → LostTarget.

Built-in BT Nodes

Built-in Enemy Classes

AI Events

🚪 Hiding & Safe Rooms

HF_HidingSpot

Place in level (closets, lockers, under beds). Player interacts → enters hiding. AI can search with configurable find chance.

HF_BreathHoldComponent

Already on HorrorCharacter. Hold breath to become nearly silent. Drains over time. Releasing makes a gasp noise.

HF_SafeRoomZone

Place in level as a safe area.

👻 Scare Events

🔑 Doors, Locks & Environment

HF_DoorActor

States: Closed → Open → Locked → Barricaded → Broken. Auto-animates rotation.

MULTIPLAYER DoorState is replicated.

Other Environment Actors

🎥 Camera System

HF_CameraManager auto-finds the CameraComponent and applies effects.

Additional: HF_DollyZoomComponent (Hitchcock vertigo), HF_FixedCameraTrigger (classic RE angles), HF_ForcedLookComponent (force camera at target), HF_PostProcessFearDriver (auto vignette/grain from fear), HF_LeanPeekComponent (lean around corners).

💀 Death & Respawn

HF_DeathManager auto-connects to HealthComponent::OnDeath.

HF_CheckpointActor — place in level, player walks through → respawn point updated.
HF_ConsequenceManager — escalating penalties per death (enemies faster, fewer resources).
HF_InjuryComponent — persistent injuries: Leg (slow), Arm (slow interact), Bleeding (HP drain), Infection (worsens).

💾 Save System

HF_SaveManager is a Blueprint Function Library. Call from anywhere.

What Gets Saved

Custom data: use SaveGame→SetModuleValue(ModuleName, Key, Value) and GetModuleValue() for your own systems.

🔊 Noise System

HF_NoiseSystemComponent on HorrorCharacter. AI hears noise through AwarenessComponent.

WeaponComponent automatically calls MakeNoise(NoiseLoudness) on attack. No extra setup needed.

💬 Dialogue, Notes & Radio

🔨 Crafting & Resources

🤝 Companion & NPCs

🔍 Investigation Tools (Phasmophobia-style)

Ghost-hunting equipment. Each is a separate component — add only what you need.

👥 Co-op Multiplayer

HF_CoopManager — player proximity, isolation detection, shared sanity, revive system.

HF_SpectatorComponent — dead players spectate living teammates. NextTarget() / PrevTarget().

Replicated systems (22 properties): Health, FearSanity, Inventory, DoorState, Flashlight, GameState, CoopManager, LightSwitch, WeaponAmmo.

🖥️ UI / HUD System

Everything is automatic. Set HF_HorrorHUD as HUD Class. It auto-creates 10 widgets on BeginPlay.

🎵 Audio System

⚔️ Difficulty System

5 presets. Change at runtime: GameMode→SetDifficulty(NewDifficulty). All systems update immediately.

📦 Module System (23 Modules)

The ActiveModules bitmask in PluginSettings controls which systems run. Disabled modules auto-deactivate — zero CPU cost.

🔧 Plugin Settings Data Asset

Your master control panel. One file controls everything.

Controls: ActiveModules bitmask, player health/regen, fear/sanity settings, AI defaults, flashlight, inventory, hiding, save, audio, camera, accessibility, and difficulty presets. Without it, all systems use hard-coded defaults.

📡 Event Hub

UHF_EventHub is a GameInstance Subsystem. Central event bus — all systems broadcast through it.

🎮 Cheat Manager

HF_CheatManager — type in the UE console (press ~):

🖥️ Main Menu — Working Menu Without a Single Blueprint Node

New in 1.1. HF_MainMenuGameMode turns any empty level into a working main menu. It creates the menu widget, hands input to the UI, shows the cursor and deliberately spawns no pawn, so nothing drifts around behind the interface.

Setting it up

1. Create an empty level and drop in a PlayerStart.
2. Create a Blueprint child of HF_MainMenuGameMode.
3. Fill in the fields below, above all Start Level Name.
4. Set the level's GameMode Override to your Blueprint.
5. Set this level as Game Default Map in Project Settings, so it is the first thing a player sees.

Use a full level path

Start Level Name takes an FName, and a bare level name relies on the engine searching for it. That search is not something to depend on in a packaged build, particularly for a level that lives inside a plugin's content. Write the full path, /Game/Maps/MyLevel, and it behaves the same in the editor and in a shipped game.

Button behaviour

Every button broadcasts its delegate first and then runs a built-in default underneath. Start opens Start Level Name, Exit quits the game, and the Website button opens the URL. Bind the delegates if you want your own logic; set bUseDefaultActions to false if you want the defaults gone entirely. Existing projects that bound these delegates before 1.1 keep working unchanged.

Leaving Start Level Name empty is a valid choice: the button then only broadcasts OnNewGame, which is the hook for a project that wants to run a cutscene, load a save or pick a difficulty before travelling.

🏚️ Demo Level Builder — Playable Level in One Click

New in 1.1. The plugin ships with a builder that generates a complete, playable demo level from scratch. Drop one actor into an empty map, press a button, press Play. Nothing else to set up.

Getting the demo

1. Place HF_DemoLevelBuilder anywhere in a level.
2. In the Details panel press Build Demo.
3. Set the level's GameMode Override to HF_GameMode (or a Blueprint child of it).
4. Press Play.

Important: the generated actors are ordinary actors saved into your map. Changing builder settings does not update a level that was already built — press Build Demo again. Rebuilding deletes everything tagged HF_DemoGenerated, so hand edits to generated actors are lost on the next build. Your own actors are never touched.

What gets built

Seven rooms on a grid, joined by real doorways, plus a basement reached through a locked door:

      (0,1) Exit ---- (1,1) Workshop ---- (2,1) Office
                                                |
 (0,0) Entrance -- (1,0) Corridor ----- (2,0) Generator Hall
                        |
                  (1,-1) Basement

Doorways are derived from where each room's neighbours sit on the grid, so moving a room moves its doors with it. Openings are cut into the walls themselves, with sill and lintel panels, and the same system cuts window apertures.

Placement rules

The builder never uses hard-coded coordinates. Two rules keep the layout correct when anything changes:

• Positions are anchors. "Against the west wall, centred" is resolved against the room's real size, so resizing a room moves its contents with it.
• Clearances come from measured bounds. After an actor is spawned it is asked for its real size and pushed off the wall by half its own depth. Replace a placeholder with a large custom mesh and it still stands against the wall rather than inside it.

Objects that rest on other objects are attached as children, not positioned separately. A note on a table is parented to the table, so moving, rotating or replacing the table takes the note with it.

Builder API (Blueprint callable)

Wall-mounted objects need a mount height. Pass MountHeight to SpawnInRoom for switches, windows and locks. With zero the object tries to reach the floor, which buries anything whose mesh already sits high in its own constructor.

Size before you seat. Placement is derived from the measured object, so a measurement taken before the object was resized describes something that no longer exists. Configure the mesh first, then call SeatInRoom or PlaceOnTopOf again.

Room settings

Mission director

HF_MissionDirector is spawned with the demo. It seeds the objective tracker, keeps exactly one objective active, and advances as each is completed. Individual actors stay ignorant of the story: they report the objective they closed and nothing more.

It also seeds the data several systems need in order to do anything: crafting recipes, evidence definitions, and the map's world bounds. Each can be turned off independently.

The demo mission runs: read the shift log, restore the power, find the lock code, take the basement key, document three pieces of evidence, get out. The exit is gated on the evidence.

Demo overlay

HF_DemoOverlayWidget shows the full objective list on the left and a live control legend on the right. Key names are read from the player controller, so rebinding a key updates the legend rather than making it lie. Turn it off with bShowDemoOverlay on the HUD for a real game.

Default controls

All of these are FKey properties on HF_HorrorPlayerController and can be rebound in the Details panel.

Fully equipped character

HF_DemoCharacter extends HF_HorrorCharacter with the remaining player-side systems: flashlight, breath hold, objective tracker, map, crafting, examine, endings, EMF, spirit box, thermometer, photo capture, evidence, heartbeat, breathing audio, injury, fear post-process, hallucination, monologue and weapon socket. HF_GameMode uses it as the default pawn.

It is a subclass rather than a change to the base character, so a project that already added these components by hand does not end up with two of each.

📝 Changelog

Version 1.1

New

• Demo Level Builder — generates a seven-room playable demo with one button.
• Mission Director — objective chain, plus seeding for crafting recipes, evidence definitions and map bounds.
• Demo Overlay — objectives and a live control legend on screen.
• Fully equipped demo character with every player-side system attached.
• Central HUD style asset (HF_HUDStyle) with Classic, Minimal, Cinematic and High Contrast presets. Every widget reads from it, so the whole interface re-themes from one Data Asset.
• Six new screens: map, crafting, journal, save slots, photo gallery and investigation tool readout.
• Generic interactable prop (HF_InteractablePropActor) — assign a mesh, type a prompt, tick the reactions. Covers notes, pickups, keys, levers and scenery without Blueprints.
• Examinable and level exit actors, and a placement helper that keeps props clear of doorways while letting doors and barricades stand in them.
• Photo history — the capture component now keeps every photo instead of overwriting one render target, which is what makes a gallery possible.
• Main menu game mode (HF_MainMenuGameMode) — a game mode for a menu level. Add it and the menu appears, takes UI input, shows the cursor and spawns no pawn. Title, tagline, version line, studio line, website button and start level are all fields on it.
• Menu buttons now do something by default. Start opens StartLevelName, Exit quits, and a Website button appears only when a URL is filled in. The existing delegates still broadcast, so projects already bound to them keep working.
• Examine mode rebuilt. The game pauses while an object is held, the object is centred on its own bounds rather than its pivot, and the mouse turns it freely in any direction with no gimbal lock and no dead zone. ResetExamineRotation() returns it to the angle it was picked up at.
• Adjustable eye height (EyeHeight on HF_HorrorCharacter), default 74 above the capsule centre.
• Input actions that need to survive a pause now do. Interact, pause, inventory, notes, map, journal, evidence board and photo gallery all keep working while the game is paused.

Fixed

• The plugin did not compile. HF_WeaponSocketComponent referenced three properties that did not exist on UHF_WeaponComponent.
• Ten interactable actors had no components at all — no mesh, no collision, no interaction volume. Dropping one into a level produced nothing visible or usable.
• Hiding spots and barricades did not implement the interaction interface, so their mechanics were unreachable without custom Blueprints.
• Hiding did not move the player. Entering a wardrobe set a flag while the pawn stayed standing in the open.
• Notes and dialogue displayed placeholder text. Opening a note showed the panel without ever passing the note's contents to it.
• The inventory panel never showed its contents. Nothing connected the component to the widget, and the slot's item name was accepted and discarded.
• Inventory USE and DROP buttons were not connected.
• Batteries did not reach the flashlight. ReplaceBattery existed and was never called.
• The generator could not be fuelled. AddFuel existed and was never called, so a generator requiring fuel could never start.
• Locked doors ignored their key lock component, so keys could not be used.
• Leaning changed a number and nothing else. The component computed an offset that was never applied to the camera.
• The EMF reader only scanned pawns, so apparitions and haunted objects were invisible to it.
• The apparition had no mesh assigned, so appearing revealed an invisible object.
• Six screens had no way to be opened and the investigation tools had no activation key.
• Popups had no close binding. Opening the combination lock left the player with no way back to the game.
• The flashlight spotlight was never attached. SetupAttachment has no effect at runtime, so the light sat at a fixed point in the world instead of in the player's hands. It now attaches to the camera and can be aimed.
• Debug placeholder text was being shown to players through the note reader.
• Clicking an inventory slot crashed the game. The HUD handled the slot-clicked event by calling the very function that had broadcast it, so every click recursed until the stack overflowed. The panel now refreshes instead, and the widget guards against re-entry so no listener can repeat the mistake.
• Combination locks did nothing. The keypad collected the code and broadcast it to a delegate nobody subscribed to, so the lock was never told. It now drives the lock: a wrong code is rejected on the readout, and the right one solves the puzzle and fires its event, which is what makes hidden keys and rewards appear.
• Held objects drifted and shook. The examined object was teleported to a world position once per tick, which lands a frame behind the camera transform used to render. It is now parented to the camera, so it moves with the view in the same frame.
• Held objects could not be put down. Fixed together with the two problems above.
• Looking up and down could stop working entirely. A camera fallback path detached the camera from the spring arm, and since a Character capsule only ever yaws, all pitch was silently lost. The camera now stays on the arm, and the view no longer sinks when the capsule shrinks on crouch.
• Gameplay input was lost when a level was opened from a menu. Mouse capture and lock live on the viewport, which outlives a level change, so arriving from a UI-only menu left the cursor loose and keys unreachable. It read as a dead flashlight and an inventory that would not open. The player controller now claims game input for itself on BeginPlay.
• Full HUD bars looked empty. A bar at 100% was drawn at 15% opacity, which on a dark HUD is indistinguishable from drained. That behaviour is off by default now and stays available as a property.
• Boarded windows built their planks inside the wall and read as if the window had been boarded from outside. They now sit on the player's face of the wall.

Engine support

Built for UE 5.5, 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8. The plugin ships as pure C++ with no content, which is deliberate: a .uasset or .umap can only be opened by the engine version that saved it, so shipping content would tie one download to a single version of Unreal. Code compiles against whichever version you are on, so one product covers all four.

Note for 5.8: TWeakObjectPtr no longer provides operator bool, so validity must be tested with IsValid().

Known limitations

• Single-player first. Most state changes are local and not replicated. HF_CoopManager should be treated as experimental until a full replication pass is done.
• Demo geometry and props use engine primitives as placeholders and are meant to be replaced with your own art.

❓ FAQ / Troubleshooting

HUD doesn't show

Make sure your GameMode has HF_HorrorHUD as HUD Class.

Camera doesn't rotate with mouse

Make sure you're using HF_HorrorPlayerController — it auto-creates Enhanced Input.

AI enemy doesn't move

You need a Nav Mesh Bounds Volume in your level. Build → Build Paths. Press P to visualize.

Systems don't respond to difficulty changes

Call GameMode→SetDifficulty() — it broadcasts through EventHub.

Module disabled but component still runs

Module checks happen in BeginPlay. Restart PIE after changing settings.

Flashlight doesn't toggle

FlashlightComponent is auto-created on HorrorCharacter. Make sure you're using HF_HorrorCharacter as Default Pawn Class.