Building responsive UI and dinosaur systems in UEFN for Spino Survival
The hunt is on. In Spino Survival, players drop onto an island with one particularly dangerous objective: track down a rogue Spinosaurus and survive what comes next.
But behind the dinosaur hunt is another challenge—building an experience that feels fast, intuitive, and responsive whether players are exploring on PC, console, or mobile.
Hawk Studios used Widget Blueprints and Verse in UEFN to create custom interfaces and gameplay systems designed to keep players immersed in the action. We spoke with Duuk Balvers, Co-Founder at Hawk Studios, and Lucas Liboiron, Owner at Hawk Studios, about how they approached Spino Survival’s custom shop, connected UI interactions directly to gameplay, and optimized the experience across platforms.
Building a shop that belongs in the world
For Spino Survival, Duuk and the team wanted to move past standard menus and create a shop that felt like a natural part of the experience.
They started by studying UI and UX trends in other leading games and UGC platforms, looking for ways to make their Widget Blueprints feel both polished and intuitive.
The Fortnite In-Island Transaction device template provided a foundation for learning the available tools, but the team ultimately used that knowledge to create its own interface from scratch.
“This ensures our shop isn’t just a generic menu, but actually looks and feels like it belongs in our game,” says Duuk.
That custom approach gave the team greater control over how players navigate the shop and how each interaction connects to the rest of the experience.
Connecting UI directly to gameplay with Verse
Crafting a polished interface was just the start. Duuk and the team also wanted every interaction to feel immediate.
To accomplish this, they used Verse fields to trigger events as players hover over elements, select options, and move between different shop pages.
That direct communication between the UI and underlying gameplay systems enables interactions to provide instant feedback—and, in some cases, immediately affect the world around the player.
One example is Spino Survival’s flying dinosaurs. “The moment a player clicks to buy a flying dinosaur, the system handles the transaction and spawns the mount instantly,” Duuk adds.
By reducing the steps between a player’s decision and its gameplay result, the team was able to make the shop feel like an extension of the experience rather than something that interrupts it.
Designing for PC, console, and mobile
Making the experience work consistently across platforms introduced another set of considerations. Hawk Studios wanted players on PlayStation, PC, and mobile to be able to navigate the interface without UI elements interfering with their controls.
"By setting non-button UI elements to Non-Hit Testable, we made sure the UI doesn't unintentionally block inputs," says Lucas Liboiron. "This allows mobile and console players to use their joysticks to navigate tabs and buttons."
The result is an interface designed around multiple input methods rather than a single platform.
Technical polish wasn’t the team’s only consideration. The team also thought carefully about how its shop would fit into the broader progression of Spino Survival.
“Most importantly, we kept it fair,” Lucas says. “Almost every paid item can also be unlocked through gameplay in a reasonable amount of time. Whether you grind or buy, the experience stays balanced for everyone.”
That means players can choose how they want to progress without creating two fundamentally different experiences for players who purchase items and those who prefer to unlock them through play.
Survive the island
From custom Widget Blueprints to responsive Verse systems and cross-platform input considerations, Spino Survival shows how UI and gameplay systems can work together to keep players immersed in an experience. Now there’s only one thing left to do: survive it.
Drop into Spino Survival, team up with your squad, track down the rogue Spinosaurus, and see if you can make it off the island.
Play Spino Survival: https://www.fortnite.com/@hawkstudios/8464-5780-9092