As an individual how far i can go with ue5?

Development Getting Started & Setup
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i just started learning how to use ue5 (through unreal sensei 5 hours tutorial) but I’m curious how far i can go after learning ue5 and it’s blueprint? so here’s some direct quiestions:

1-can games made by ue5 run on low-end PCs?
2-do i need to learn mobile games on their own or are they the same as pc? (regarding tools , navigating, and blueprint)
3-not really a question but i would like to see other peoples’ (solo individuals like me) projects to get an idea of how far i can go

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  1. can games made by ue5 run on low-end PCs?
  • Short answer is yes. Though you will need to study up on how to create performant games (poly count, texture size, efficient code, instance counts, ect). This is a rather large subject but the information is out there and you will want to look for tutorials that help you learn how to use Unreal’s tools to profile your project to figure out what your bottle necks are. After your bottle necks are determined you will then need to research best practices for getting around/eliminating these bottle necks.
  1. do i need to learn mobile games on their own or are they the same as pc? (regarding tools , navigating, and blueprint)
  • With Unreal you will be able to package your project for any platform (with certain certification and licensing restrictions on the sides of the platform you are targeting). However, you will want to once again look into best practice and limitations of the platforms you are targeting. An example of this is that that older mobile phones may not be able to display certain aspects of materials and those materials will need to be created with those limitations in mind. This will also touch on the general performance targets (ever platform will have it’s unique requirements/limitations and I would suggest doing some research into these so that you develop with that in mind)
  1. not really a question but i would like to see other peoples’ (solo individuals like me) projects to get an idea of how far i can go
  • You can go as far as your determination can carry you. Making games is a lot of things. It’s rewarding, fun, exciting, but the one thing it’s not, is easy. If you put in the work you can complete your project.

I hope this answers your questions.

Make it a great day

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Hi Remous,

Oak The Wise awakens from a 2 year slumber to bless us with his presence. :pray:

To see other peoples projects be sure to check out the showcase section of the forums!

Welcome

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I wrote my game from scratch in 2 years, all blueprint ( including learning the engine ).

Definitely no everybody’s cup of tea. But it’s certainly possible.

If I had been inclined, I could have written one of these ‘building’ games that are selling by the bucket load on Steam. But that’s not what I want.

If you strike it lucky with the genre, and are prepared to put some work in, it can definitely be worthwhile.

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i’m a few months away from publishing my first unreal game. It’s taken about 6 months of full time work (50+ hours a week, usually 6 days a week) to get to this point, starting from knowing a bit about game making but no programming or unreal experience.

I came from unity, and I prefer unreal because of the robust tool set and integrated visual scripting system. It makes it simple for a non-technical guy like me to do most everything i need to do.

But, Unity is the worldwide engine of choice for mobile games. I couldn’t tell you why because I have no interest or knowledge in mobile games - but presumably it is for a reason. So if mobile games is your thing it’s probably worth seriously evaluating one engine versus the other.

If you just want to learn how to make games in general I think starting out with unreal blueprints is probably the easiest introduction you can get. But if you are dead set on mobile and have certain hardware/platform requirements, you’ll want to look closely into those details and test to make sure that whatever engine you choose, it can meet your requirements.

I’m not the expert but as far as I understand, the major difference in mobile development is you’ll have less memory to play with, less gpu power, you’ll have more hoops to jump through publishing, and testing throughout your development is going to have more hoops to jump through as well. Basically you have more filters that limit what your final product can be, and of course learning what all those filters are is half the battle for a solo-dev whose service rifle is google and you have little other firepower.

Certainly it is possible to make a game “on your own,” but it’s a mountain of work and you have to be clever about picking the right battles to fight so that you avoid burnout or just digging a hole you’ll never get out from.

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  1. I would like to see other peoples’ (solo individuals like me) projects to get an idea of how far i can go

This is a prototype I made in about a year, completely solo, having zero experience with unreal or any kind of gamedev and working on it only in spare time as a hobby (sometimes weeks would pass without me touching the project):

(the download is free)

(It’s been now more than a year since I started this project, but the iteration that is available in the link is from about a year in)

Of course, it’s very short, it’s only one level, after all it’s a prototype. Even so, it checkes all the boxes of a technically ‘complete’ game: it’s fully functioning, with mechanics, mini-games, challenges, enemies, objectives, power-ups/upgrades and progression.

If you play it, please leave feedback in the comments.

I created, modeled, rigged and animated the character in Blender. I also created and modeled the enemies (an airplane and a robot) and all the environment assets such as the trees, the crates, the landscape, the platforms… I also created and modeled all items (such as the coins, pistol, jetpack, etcetera…). Basically I created, modeled and animated almost every asset model used in the game.

For the dev part I started from the ‘third person character’ template and tried to customize it as much as I could using only blueprints.

Now I am learning C++ and I’m creating my own character class as well as a custom movement component class so I can have it behave exactly the way I want it to. Slowly but steadily, I’m getting there.

There are many indie solo devs much smarter and more talented than me ou there, making amazing games by themselves. Trust me, if I can do it, you can too.

And you don’t need to create every art asset in the game, there are plenty of assets you can buy or even get for free in the unreal marketplace.

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I could work fewer hours but my personality is to focus 100% on one thing at a time. I don’t work out of penitence, I just like to do what I like doing as much as possible, and I like making my game in unreal.

Somebody could do more in less time, or they might do less in greater time. Just adding my experience to the data pool.

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