Unreal Advice

[Redmoth27]

Hey, John, I'm want to try to develop a game in unreal, and before I start to learning could you give me some advice. Because I watch your development live streams I think you're a pro at unreal, and which do you think is a better way to program, Blueprints or C++? I don't have much coding knowledge so should I learn to program the C++ route or the advanced scratch route? Or should I do a bit of both?

 

[MikeSlugDisco]

Moving this to the off-topic forum and will let John know.

But trust me when I say that John (and the other two) are regularly confused by UE4 and spend a lot of time scratching their heads trying to work it out!

 

[Liam]

You can make a game entirely in blueprint, but it is can become cumbersome and very difficult in some instances (especially on a big project). If you are not a strong programmer, it might be comfortable to try and to as much as you can in blueprint and then introduce yourself to coding in little doses where it is needed.

There is a facebook group where you can ask about approaches and tutorials for unreal (and alternative engines) and you will get loads of good (and bad) advice to pick and choose from:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/IndieGameDevs/

This is also a good place to find resources:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/

 

[JohnSlugDisco]

It is always worth learning a bit of coding. My honest opinion of blueprints is they are essentially coding, everything you call from blueprints in the end is a c++ function.

That said blueprints can get messy in some circumstances. We use blueprints in various areas of EOTU in fact a lot of things are c++ and blueprints (for example the creatures, the resources these have both c++ and blueprints in them).

Those who say blueprints are not real coding do not properly understand blueprints.

The dev streams I have not done in a while. At the moment they would be too much spoilers as the early access campaign is mostly in place now. I think once early access launches I will start them up again and make some none campaign levels so people can see what the whole process looks like now.

So to specifically answer your question: Stat doing blueprints and go through the tutorials, then I would learn some c++ code, even if it is just altering one of the example projects.

 

[Redmoth27]

Thanks! ;D