Hi guys, I wanted to get into programming and try to implement it into the Unreal Engine. The language I would be learning is C++, unless you recommend a different one (It’ll be my first). I’ve found tutorials that are either pure programming or pure UE4. I was wondering if anyone knew any programming tutorials that taught proper programming and then showed how it could be implemented in the Engine. I want to easily understand how I can use the language outside the engine and inside, if that makes sense. I don’t mind if it’s an online class, paid or free, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Of course if it’s better to watch a pure programming tutorial and then a pure UE4 tutorial please let me know. Thank you very much! 
Hi, I’m actually fairly new and inexperienced in unreal so I don’t know if such a tutorial exist, but as a software developer maybe I could help in a way on the programming aspect. Programming in general isn’t really about the syntax, it’s about the ideas and the concepts. If you understand the ideas then you can convert between using it in Unreal or C++ or any other programming language.
It’s important to understand programming concepts. That way, you can apply these concepts in different programming languages later. When developing your own algorithms, it’s important to learn structured programming. This is based on Jackson structured programming which was made by Jackson (Not the singer) :p. You can read about it here:
The idea behind structured programming is that all programs are made from very basic elements or constructs, these are:
- Sequence - natural program flow
- Selection - branching (if-else and switch statements) or doing something different when certain conditions are met. For example: Is player dead? If true the game is over, if not then continue playing.
- Iteration - looping and doing something over multiple times if a condition is met.
By combining those three (3) constructs, you can create any algorithm you can think of. Statements or instructions in programs are normally executed in sequence (with the exception of multi-threading), but if your program always executes the same way then it will be boring and not very interactive. That’s where the importance of variables come in, which I think isn’t given enough emphasis in most programming tutorials. You need variables to create conditions, which will allow you to use either selection or iteration constructs then you can change the flow of the program so it can do things differently based on different values.
Basically, constructing your own algorithms comes down to that. Once you learn how to combine these basic programming constructs then you can make your program do what you want to do. Other concepts like OOP aren’t as crucial, because it’s mostly for organizing your code a better way, but not really necessary to make working programs, especially in languages like C++.
Anyway, I hope that helps you learn programming more easily.
Go to the closest community college near you that teaches programming classes in C++. Generally schools are either Java or C++, some start with Scheme which is fine actually, if the next class is C++.
Take the first 3 classes. Intro to Programming, Programming Principals and then Data Structures. Different schools may call them different things but they are really similar at most schools in the U.S. that I’ve looked at. A lot of comunity colleges now offer 2 year degrees in Programming or Game Development. On it’s own, that isn’t enough to get a job in the Industry normally, but it is enough that you would be able to do your own small games or join up with a group for a royalty project.
Do projects in UE4 on your own using whatever tutorials you find, but you really need the basics of Computer Science to do more than copy someone else’s steps.