Dynamic Pawn Spawning Debugging Toolkit
TOOL OVERVIEW
Game development requires precision when testing AI behavior, enemy encounters, and player interactions. Manually setting up these scenarios can be time-consuming and inefficient, slowing down iteration and making debugging a tedious process.
To solve this, I’ve developed Dynamic Pawn Spawning Debugging Toolkit, a versatile Unreal Engine tool designed to give developers complete control over pawn spawning, testing, and debugging within a controlled environment. Whether you’re fine-tuning enemy behavior, balancing combat encounters, or stress-testing performance, DPSDT streamlines the process—saving time and improving iteration cycles.
Release Date
TBA
Genre
Debugging, Iteration, Regression Testing
Contributions
Technical Design, Sole Developer
MAIN FEATURES
DPSDT allows developers to adjust and configure the following:
Pawn Configurations:
- Types of Pawns To Spawn
- Quantity of Pawns Per Type To Spawn
- Pawn Effects
- Pawns To Apply Effects To
Spawn Configurations:
- Spawn Orientation
- Spawn Rate Style
- Spawn Timer
- Spawn Radius
- Spawn Location
Dynamic Pawn Configuration
Instantly spawn any pawn type in the game without manually placing actors in the scene. This feature allows developers to quickly test AI logic, movement, animations, and interactions on demand.
Custom Spawn Counts & Effect Application
Apply visual, gameplay, or AI modifiers directly to spawned pawns to test different states, such as:
✅ Buffed/Debuffed Enemies – Modify health, damage, or behavior parameters.
✅ AI State Changes – Simulate aggressive, defensive, or passive NPC behaviors.
✅ Visual & Audio Effects – Attach FX for testing impact reactions, shaders, and sound cues.
Developers can also configure select which pawns they want to apply these effects to, alternatively they can also choose to apply effects to every pawn that will be spawned.
Gameplay Tag Based Effect System allows any aspect of actors to be adjusted as long as a behavior is defined for the possession of such tag. This is also implemented by a Blueprint Interface which means the application of effects can be tailored for each individual actor.
Configurable Spawn Orientation
Fine-tune how enemies appear in your test environment by adjusting rotation, placement, and positioning to match specific gameplay scenarios. Whether you need to test horde mechanics, bullet penetration, or precision AI behavior, this feature provides full control over spawn patterns:
✅ Radius Spawning – Spawn enemies in a circular formation to simulate horde encounters, perfect for testing AOE attacks, crowd control mechanics, and AI swarm behavior.
✅ Row Spawning – Line up enemies in a straight formation to evaluate bullet penetration mechanics, projectile spread, and collision interactions in shooting-based gameplay.
✅ Point Spawning – Generate all pawns at a single & adjustable location for a controlled and repeatable testing environment, ensuring AI spawns correctly for scripted events, boss encounters, or debugging interactions.
By giving developers precise control over where and how enemies appear, this feature ensures gameplay mechanics are rigorously tested in realistic combat scenarios.
Direct
Radius
Row
Direct
Spawning allows developers to utilize a 3D Gizmo to intuitively place their intended location for spawning their actors.
Radius
A 3D Gizmo tied to the X and Y axes allows developers to easily increase or decrease the threshold of which they want Actors to be spawned in
Row
An arrow that represents the direction of spawning actors starting from the “Spawn Location” Gizmo
Use Cases: Batch Testing & Debugging
Quickly generate large-scale test environments to evaluate AI pathfinding, performance, and behavior under different conditions. Instead of manually tweaking AI settings or adjusting game parameters every time, this feature allows for instant, repeatable testing scenarios that streamline the debugging process.
✅ Performance Stress-Testing – Spawn hundreds of AI characters to measure FPS impact and ensure stable performance in large-scale battles.
✅ AI Navigation & Avoidance – Ensure NPCs avoid obstacles, follow paths correctly, and react dynamically to the game environment.
✅ Combat Mechanics Validation – Test enemy reactions to attacks, player input, environmental hazards, and AI combat logic with ease.
✅ Combat Stage Adjustment – Instantly place enemies at a specific phase in their attack sequences, aggression levels, or scripted behaviors to test particular combat scenarios without permanently altering their stats or AI logic. This is perfect for:
- Evaluating mid-fight behavior changes, such as enraged states or special attacks.
- Testing damage resistance mechanics by setting enemies to a near-death state.
- Ensuring AI correctly transitions between defensive and offensive tactics.
With DPSDT, developers can efficiently create realistic, controlled combat tests, reducing iteration time while ensuring AI behaves as expected across different gameplay conditions.
Future Enhancements & Roadmap
🚀 Customizable AI Behavior Controls – Modify AI states directly within the tool.
🚀 Save & Load Presets – Store different spawn configurations for repeatable testing.
