Shib: The Metaverse

A large-scale multiplayer world built in Unreal Engine 5, spanning dedicated servers, social systems, digital identity, land, avatars, minigames, and cloud streaming.

Shib: The Metaverse is a persistent online world designed for social interaction, exploration, player-owned land, and connected digital assets. The project combines a high-fidelity Unreal client with multiplayer services, a custom launcher, web authentication, backend APIs, and Pixel Streaming delivery.

See the environments and wider production story in the Rebel Art Studios case study. The case study covers the complete program, including its large dedicated-server deployment; this repository focuses on selected Unreal Engine source modules and configuration.

Visual showcase

Engineering scope

• Networked third-person world with client, editor, game, and dedicated-server targets
• Epic Online Services authentication, account linking, matchmaking, sessions, and game chat
• Persistent player inventory, item tiers, vendors, and replicated world interactions
• Land and plot systems connected to metaverse API data
• In-world construction tools with build actors, placement controls, persistence, and history
• Modular avatar assembly, customization UI, animation, save data, and command history
• Replicated fishing and archery minigames with reusable gameplay components
• Pixel Streaming support for browser-based access to the Unreal experience
• Runtime chunk downloading, asynchronous loading screens, and cross-platform configuration
• Water, buoyancy, PCG, motion matching, and Unreal's large-world rendering toolset

Platform architecture

flowchart TB
    Portal["Web portal and identity flow"] --> Client["Unreal Engine client"]
    Launcher["Desktop launcher and delivery"] --> Client
    Client --> EOS["EOS identity, sessions, and chat"]
    Client --> API["Shib platform APIs"]
    Client --> Stream["Pixel Streaming"]
    EOS --> Servers["Dedicated game servers"]
    API --> Data["Users, land, inventory, and ecosystem data"]
    Stream --> Browser["Browser client"]

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Technology

• Unreal Engine 5.4 and C++
• Blueprint-facing gameplay and UI extension points
• Redpoint EOS, Online Subsystem Blueprints, and matchmaking integrations
• Pixel Streaming
• Enhanced Input, UMG, Slate, HTTP, JSON, and runtime settings
• Water, Buoyancy, PCG, Pose Search, Motion Trajectory, and Movie Render Pipeline
• Windows, Linux, Linux ARM64, macOS, iOS, Android, and tvOS configuration

Repository map

Path	Responsibility
Source/ShibMVMain/	Characters, players, chat, inventory, plots, streams, minigames, UI, and world actors
Plugins/ShibMultiplayer/	EOS identity, cross-platform accounts, sessions, matchmaking, and chat
Plugins/ShibAvatarBuilder/	Avatar assembly, customization operations, animation, UI, and persistence
Plugins/ShibPlotBuilder/	Player construction, placement tools, build history, and save data
Plugins/ShibAPIs/	Metaverse, tournament, payment, and connected game API clients
Plugins/ShibChunkingSystem/	Runtime content delivery through Unreal's chunk downloader
Plugins/ShibAsyncLoadingScreen/	Startup and in-session loading experiences
Plugins/ShibUiNavigation/	Shared page navigation and save subsystems
Config/	Engine, platform, input, server, and Pixel Streaming configuration

Repository scope

This is a source-code and architecture showcase, not a complete production distribution. Proprietary Content/, environment assets, service credentials, infrastructure definitions, and licensed third-party plugins are intentionally absent. A fresh clone cannot open as the full experience without the private project dependencies.

Authorized contributors need Unreal Engine 5.4, a compatible native toolchain, the private content depot, production-safe service configuration, and the external plugins declared in ShibMVMain.uproject. Once restored, generate project files, build ShibMVMainEditor, and select the appropriate client or server target for the intended deployment.

Repository checks

Validate Unreal descriptors and confirm that tracked service credentials remain blank with:

python scripts/check_repository.py

Pull requests also run secret scanning, dependency review, and no-build C++ CodeQL analysis in GitHub Actions. A full Unreal build remains intentionally outside public CI because the repository excludes private content and licensed plugins.

Connected repositories

• LapDogs - multiplayer racing title built on related ecosystem services
• ShibPortal-Desktop - desktop library, delivery, settings, and launch orchestration
• ShibPortal-Frontend - private browser identity and streaming-session bridge
• Shib-Backend - private platform APIs for identity, games, land, NFTs, and sessions

Ownership and licensing

Copyright notices in the source identify Shiba Inu Games LLC. No open-source license is included. Unless a separate agreement grants permission, the source is provided for viewing and portfolio reference only.