Welcome to Our Blog
This is where you’ll find our latest company news, insights on what we’ve been working on and we’ve found interesting.
The Tool You Didn’t Know You Needed (Until Your Build Hit 20GB)
There is a particular kind of frustration that only appears late in development. You package your Unreal project. You look at the output folder. And something feels wrong. The build is bigger than you expected. Not dramatically. Not catastrophically. Just…...
Adding an Editor-Only Validator Project in Unreal Engine 5
Sometimes you need an automatic solution for sanity-checking your project content. In our case, we wanted a quick way to make sure none of our maps accidentally included a specific level in their sub-level list — a simple rule, but one that can quietly break builds if...
Building a Flexible Inventory System in Unreal Engine 5: Lessons from the Trenches
As a programmer transitioning from other languages to Unreal Engine's C++, or a designer wanting to understand how robust game systems are built, the inventory system presents a perfect case study. It touches on data management, component architecture, Blueprint...
Unreal Engine 5 Blueprint vs C++ performance
This week, I learned a lesson in UE5. I knew blueprints were slow compared to C++, but I didn't realise how slow. I wrote some functionality that performed sphere casts every x frames. When I integrated it into the game, I lost between 10 and 15 frames. I converted...
How to Show Custom Data Show in Unreal’s Content Browser Columns View
This is a note from our game dev journey. Recently, I found myself deep in Unreal Engine, working on a system using custom C++ data assets. I wanted to display some key properties—like enums with nice, readable names—directly in the Content Browser’s Columns View.I...
Fixing Weird Geometry When Importing Blender Meshes into Unreal Engine 5
This is a note from our game dev journey. Have you ever spent time crafting a beautiful mesh in Blender—only for its topology to look completely wrong in Unreal Engine 5? I recently hit this exact snag: I made a nice, clean bent pipe section in Blender, but when I...
Bitbucket Pipelines, Firebase Functions, and Missing Environment Variables: The Real CI/CD Fix
If Firebase Functions deployment in Bitbucket Pipelines leaves you with cryptic missing variable errors, you’re not alone. Learn the subtle catch—and the simple solution—for robust, secure CI/CD.
Unreal vs Unity for Game Designers: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Key Differences
When it comes to prototyping character-based games, the tools a designer chooses can make or break the early stages of development. In this post, we sit down with Sponger Hammer's very own Game Designer, Nicolas Tonratti, who recently made the jump from Unity to...
Meet The Team: Jessica Kearney, 2D and Concept Artist
Please provide a bit of information about your experience/career background? I'm a 2D and Concept Artist at Sponge Hammer Games, and this is my first job in the games industry. Before starting here, I was working on my illustration degree and working at a supermarket...
Meet The Team: Ewan Owens, Junior 3D Artist
Ewan joined Sponge Hammer Games as a Junior 3D artist to work on our very first game, Flatstone Grove. Now he works on Project Polly (which is a working title for our upcoming game). He joined Sponge Hammer Games because the company’s values and atmosphere were a...
We just turned 8
Sponge Hammer just turned eight and here is Csaba’s summary of where we are and which direction the company will grow.
Coding in the ’80s and ’90s – Part 5
Laszlo summarizes his opinion about game development, looking back to the last 36 years he spent actively developing games.
Contact us
Do you have a question?
We’ll be happy to talk to you. Get in touch with us at info@spongehammer.com.
