Hi everyone,
Iv been recommended unreal 4 by a local games design lecturer as the best way to get started putting together a reasonably (imho) simple ; top down, 2d, hi bit, multiplayer, space shooter.
This will act as a prototype for a kickstarter. (i have KS experience, not game related).
I’m totally new to this side of the games industry (im from board and card games) and am in need of a few pointers.
Can anyone recommend where to start, its a little daunting. I have the Art sorted, but the rest of it is magic atm. Maybe specific video/docs etc.
How hard is this? I understand only I know the specs at this point but if i’m looking at a year plus then I think I need another solution.
Are ‘team ups’ between art/designers and programmers a regular occurence ‘long distance’ or is it best to find someone local to myself (as i expect)? Should I just pay a student to do this for me?
Getting into development from nothing is going to be an issue, you can’t expect to be able to produce much for a while so if you would like to have some work done within a year then you’re not going to be able to do it starting from nothing since there’s so much you’ll need to learn.
I would download the editor and check out some of the example projects that are available, but there’s also a lot of tutorials available. You can start with some beginner tutorials just to get acquainted with the editor and how things work, and then you would need to start working on a simple project and look for tutorials and other help when you come to something you can’t figure out.
If you’re experienced in art, then it can be possible to find some other people that have more experience in game development while you do more of the art stuff for the project, but it’s a huge challenge to work with people on a project without paying them, the vast majority of projects like that fail. The best way to succeed is to be able to do much of the work yourself and to either pay people when you need help or to get people who are very experienced and dedicated who aren’t as likely to bail on you.
Maybe darthviper107 is a bit discouraging
Every one here start from nothing one day. The thing you have to keep in mind is time.
Start to answer to the simplest question possible, eg : “how can I put an actor (a space ship) in my level ?”
To answer this very simple question, you will learn about importing mesh, create your first material…
This will be long and perhaps painful but it is also very rewarding when you’ll see your space ship in the level.
Then, ask you another simple question : “how do I make it move ?”
When it moves, ask you how to make it shoot…
Each time you answer a simple question, you will have learn something you will never forget
It’s a time consuming process and it demands works but each step is his own reward !
For every simple question you’ll ask, you will find a lot of example and tutorial.
But you’ll never find a good tutorial answering the question “how do I make a good game ?”.
To start with, what is your long term goals past this game? UE4 is a bit overkill for a simple pure 2D game. You will have your game done faster with a dedicated 2D engine. But if you are also interested in 3D it is a great engine that can handle almost anything.
Thanks for commenting guys,i’ll respond to all of you as best i can.
I am very aware of my lack of skill in this area and this is obviously what i wish to overcome.( I actually have taught music privatly for 20 years now and have been looking for a tutor of sorts in games dev, these seem not to exist, which is very surprising to me actually as 1 on 1 is by far the best way to learn).
Unreal, unity and the like do look like they try to close the knowledge gap allowing people a chance to have a go. So thats why im here. Im happy to fumble around and i have an idea of the basic concepts behind development, but i dont really want to learn stuff im never gonna use again. This Prototype is as much as i wish to learn.
My (lofty) goal is to Kickstart into a small studio setup and go from there. I have a series of great designs that build of each other and in complexity and am confident in their ability to make money and keep a small team fed and watered. I am new to this specific industry, but this isnt my first rodeo. Funding gathered will buy the experience needed!
The ideas are all Hi-bit, 2d multiplayer, Micro transaction, ftp. so if unreal isnt right please let me know. I’m obviously looking for a community for a few answers at the outset.
I agree with in that the best way to get into game development is to start with learning all the small parts.
Set small achievable goals to keep yourself motivated and to minimize the chance of getting stuck. Ex. “Figure out how the movement works” or “Figure out how to jump” etc. (Plan out the basic features of the game you plan, to create a “minimum viable product” (Basic functionality without much polish))
For both UE4 and Unity, there are a lot of first and third party tutorials teaching you most aspects of game development.
If you are not familiar with coding, then I would recommend the blueprint system as one of the first things, that you get familiar with, since this is a way of creating functionality without conventional coding.
You ask for great tutorials to start with. I would recommend looking into the once created by the Unreal Engine team, winch has both great advanced and beginner tutorials on their YouTube page and on the wiki. In general, you can find great tutorials online on most common subjects.
For instance: Hourences has created great tutorials that you can find here & the beginner tutorials from Epic can be found here
