I am starting to regret even purchasing this. I really want to make a game, but have no idea where to start. I’ve been into music production for over 20 years, and maybe this just isn’t for me? Should I take a course or what? I’ve spent the last week just opening the marketplace content and browsing around in the levels.
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Making a game is by no means easy. Especially if you have no prior experience in this field
Eventually it comes down, how bad you want to make your own games. If you really want that, you shouldn’t give up too early. I know it is quite daunting. But eventually you can get there.
You should start with the video tutorials. These are easy to follow and well done.
Disregarding prodigies like Mozart, who seemed to be born with the natural ability to create and compose music - most people do not learn music by firstly writing musical notation or creating a song. They often learn by understanding what cords/keys/etc. make which base notes, and then maybe move on to playing “Mary Had A Little Lamb”.
Take the same approach with making a game. Instead of trying to make a game right off the bat, learn your keys(UI), then try to reproduce something that you see in example levels - like placing a hardwood floor, or editing a particular material to be more shiny than rough. It will begin to piece together, even if you don’t realize it at first.
Trying to jump in and make a game is way too big of an undertaking. Just my suggestion.
Well I want to start a blank level and build some things. I want to use assets from some of the marketplace content. I just can’t figure out why something that should be as simple as browsing to the other level’s content folder is so hard? When I go to their folders they are empty.
Perhaps this link will help you:
So I need to open each project and import them to my level?
Hi There ColdKiller78,
Have you had a chance to watch the video tutes in the official youtube channel?
This one is probably a good one to start with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMsFxzYzFJ8
Well, you’re just starting out… I’m not sure what you were expecting… I’m just starting out with ue4 as well, it requires some patience… I would recommend beginning at zero and go up from there. Trust me, it’s more satisfying that way. Watch the getting started videos on youtube, and then the blueprint videos and make an extremely simple game where you press a button and a light turns on…then a game where you open a door and get out of a room 
And on and on from there… And ask questions when you’re stuck.
Kinda just building on what everyone else is saying. Unreal is a Godsend in features and other things if you know what your doing. But it is by no means press a button and make the game for me solution. There is still a ton of work to be put into a project, especially if your the only one working on it. But be glad they did 95% of the hard “boring” work for you.
You didn’t became a musician by paying $19, did you?
No, but today’s music production software can do so much for you that you don’t even need to know a thing about music. I appreciate the visual scripting and things like that, but it just seems to me like some of this could be made easier to understand than it is. I’m keeping at it. Here is what I did with cryengine after a couple of days:
No, but today’s music production software can do so much for you that you don’t even need to know a thing about music. I appreciate the visual scripting and things like that, but it just seems to me like some of this could be made easier to understand than it is. I’m keeping at it. Here is what I did with cryengine after a couple of days:
I haven’t used CryEngine myself, I’ve booted it up and that was about it. I will say, however, that I’ve played around with other game engines and there’s no denying the complexity of Unreal Engine compared to others. Epic has moved in the right direction, with UE4, to try and make things much more transparent and take away some of the obfuscation of the engine. By releasing the source code to all public parties, they’ve allowed us to dive deep into the engine components to view how things actually work. Material editing is much more “plaintext” now compared to UE3, and Kismet - now called Blueprint feels like it actually belongs in the engine, and is much easier to get a grasp on. UnrealScript has been thrown away, thank god. Epic has setup a Stack Overflow-like Q&A site called AnswerHub that is great for any specification questions that you have, and have released some great tutorial videos and demos to go along with the release of the engine.
One thing that shouldn’t be downplayed is that UE4 has only been released to the public for about a week now, most everyone is still learning all the bells and whistles that Epic has tucked away within the engine and getting used to it themselves. Community documentation/tutorials will come with time as the community discovers new things. If you look at UE3, you could probably find hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of tutorials created by the community over pretty much every subject.
What the complexity of UE4 is though, is overshadowed by the depth of control that you have over your project compared to other engines. No engine that I’ve seen comparatively gives you that much control, thus UE being more complex.
Epic could’ve done more though, we are in 2014 and there’s no standard materials/shaders for realistic water, realistic day/night cycle with real-time shadows and many other things that are lacking.
Those are crucial for indies and in CE they come out of the box.
Those things will be created over time, from Epic directly or otherwise.
They did just open up their the entire source code of their engine to the public 
Well i don’t know what you bought but the Unreal Engine is free to use & learn on with plenty of free content to use at the Epic Marketplace, you should not have to pay for anything till you actually make money selling content, that being said, Yes the Unreal engine is by no means easy to master, the learning curb is steep & you need to know at least a little about coding, rendering, animation, photography because it’s all about the right lighting & environment effects and knowing how to use cameras with different light sources & angles for shooting the right perspective in scenes or gameplay.
It would be handy if you know physics & advanced mathematics because you’ll need to vector in velocity & understand concepts of gravity & weight/mass to develop truly great blueprints for models & simulations.
You need to know a fair bit about coding when writing widgets for blueprints & connecting up things like animations too game functions like picking up an item and having the character use it some way in the perspective you want 1st or 3rd person.
Creating good games isn’t easy so you can understand why it can take AAA companies upto 10 years to complete a masterpiece like Skyrim or Fallout.
The editor has so much to offer it’s not easy to learn quickly even if you have some experience in computing or using other programs which may have similar functions.
Too truly make an game you need a hell of a lot of skill in many programs including audio so you’re skill set in the music business would help greatly in those areas of products…
It’s probably best if you can find others in you’re local area to help you develop & learn the editor because there is so much too know.
I find Youtube helps me learn many functions & how to use the editor but i would love like a prima guide reference book for the Unreal editor particularly for version 5 that would explain in segments how to use functions, even if they do change with updates over time a hard copy book version explaining the many functions the Unreal editor has would be a great help to new people trying to learn such a complex editor.
One thing i suggest if you’re lacking a particular function in UE is look at the list of plugin’s that will help you develop, everything from bridges to other editors or more tools for modifying static meshes or landscapes, stuff for sculpting meshes & item creations too painting & texturing.
You can download many shaders free, the Megascans shaders are a highly detailed set of textures that cover heaps of environments, you can easily apply decals on anything so you don’t need programs like substance painter or photoshop when using UE.
UE5 has so many functions that even if it doesn’t have one you need you just can create plugins to things that do then export needed stuff into UE.
This post is 8 years old and the engine used to be subscription based.
Well they should remove it from forums if this post is out of date, i didn’t notice it was 8 years old it was on the top of the forum like it was recent.
Cenobite69… been there done that! Sorry, it happens. It does serve as a bit of comedy in an otherwise (sometimes) too serious world!