Ask HN: How would a web developer transition to making games with Unreal Engine

2 points by starstreak 11y ago ↗ HN

Since I was a kid I've always wanted to make computer games. However, for reasons I'm not sure I can explain, I picked up Python and web development, and have been doing this for the last few years. However, recent news about Unreal Engine kind of reignited that spark and now I'd like to learn how to use it and how to build actual games with it. I'm worried about a couple of things: - Could a 25-year old with almost zero experience with C++, Java and the likes realistically expect to be productive and creative with a modern, complicated game engine? To me it appears overwhelming. - I'm mostly interested in doing level design, gameplay mechanics and story - what do I need to learn first? The net is full of information from various sources and I'm not sure where to start. Thanks!

2 comments

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mc_hammer 11y ago ↗

take a quake mod you love and start editing it to a game like the mod you want to build...

im not sure the engines are alike - but the quake source is very very clean. you can start to figure out what entities are and how things mvoe in 3d space. all while getting a lot of bang for your buck seeing your changes come to life from just a few lines of code

you can do the same for an unreal mod of course :) - just find a mod thats open source (like action quake or vanilla quake) and sort of in the direction your game wants to go (fps or top down, realistic weapons/physics or q3 style)

fredophile 11y ago ↗

There are two main ways to interact with UE4, Blueprints or C++. Blueprints are a visual scripting language. You can make a whole game just with Blueprints and never touch C++. Using Blueprints would probably be a good way to get started if you're familiar with programming but not C++. Once you sign up as a developer for UE4 you'll have access to tutorials, sample projects and forums. All of these can be useful learning resources.