How did you use Houdini to make your game?
KineFX (so awesome) was used to retarget a bunch of player animations from the UE4 mannequin onto the Erik skeleton (SideFX content library). I've barely scratched the surface on it.

I was able to layer in the head bobbing animation used in the title screen by keyframing changes on top of the idle animation using Rig Pose and Full Body IK in KineFX. It's my first real go at any of this, and I love it!

The enemy bug mesh was made in Houdini. I made a custom skeleton and tried to bind to the bug mesh that for animation - but was unable to get that completed. So the bugs have simple skittering animation added in Unreal, but are otherwise static.

I used HDAs from the Unreal Starter Kit to create the rocks and trees. When fleshing out the map with those and a good dose of foliage also from the kit's HDAs, I started having a lot of editor crashing that left bits in the level, which would corrupt it and fail to cook or be reopened. The game's main level in the final package is rather sparse unfortunately.

Next time around I hope to complete the RBD explosions for things like bugs emerging from the ground that I couldn't finish in time :-)

List everything that was made before the jam. Pre-built, assets, textures, etc
- All music was pulled from the We Love Indies collection.
- The Erik character is from the SideFX Content library.
- The Blaster sounds I had from a paid pack by Imphenzia.
- The Rock and Tree HDAs from the SideFX Labs Unreal Starter Kit were used to create meshes for the map.
- Some Unreal prototype and Starter content was used to get going (including the original player locomotion animations from the UE4 Mannequin), and some bits are still in there.
- I referenced a few shooter tutorials from Unreal to help put together the mechanics of things and better learn how various pieces of Unreal Engine really work.

Which game engine or platform did you use to make your game?
Unreal Engine 5

Besides Houdini, what other tools did you use to make your game?
Audacity was used to trim some of the music files.

List instructions and tips for playing your game here.
This has a top-down twin-stick shooter style control.

For keyboards, use WASD to move around and the Up/Down/Left/Right arrow keys to fire in those directions. Escape key or P to pause.

For Gamepads, the Left stick moves you around while the Right stick fires.