Crawl

An open world RC car game built from scratch in Unreal Engine (in just 2 weeks)

Crawl is a small open-world RC car game inspired by rock crawlers—slow, high-torque vehicles designed to roll over terrian with power. Rather than focus on high-speed racing, this project leans into the joy of wandering around, exploring terrain, and experimenting with physics systems.

Originally, the game was going to include objectives and a more traditional open-world experience, but I shifted my focus to the technical side of development. The result is a lightweight sandbox built to explore how far I could push Unreal Engine's systems using only Blueprints.

What’s under the hood:

• The car is actually a platform that raycasts to the ground and applies force—so while it looks like it has wheels, they’re purely cosmetic.

• The vehicle body is attached with a physics constraint to add a subtle, realistic body wobble as it moves.

• All rigging and animation is procedural and done entirely in engine.

• Audio is implemented via Metasounds.

• Built entirely using Unreal Blueprints, no external rigs or plugins.

Controls:

• WASD – Drive

• C – Switch camera

• F – Toggle headlights

• R – Reset

• ESC – Pause

• F10 – Quit the game

This project was made over the course of two weeks as a way to get more familiar with Unreal Engine’s deeper systems. Instead of relying on pre-made assets or standard movement systems, I focused on building everything from the ground up. If you’re into experimental projects or just want to drive a fake RC car with a fake suspension system around a big empty map, check it out.