First things first : As stated I am extremely new and ignorant to the point of not knowing what I don’t know.
I am looking to get into designing games in the unreal engine for a pretty simple purpose : I love table top/board games/etc but finding people to play and actually meeting up in meat-space is tough for me. I have prototyped some stuff pen/paper (or more accurately warhammer models, spools of thread and cotton balls) but I am so very, very intimidated by the idea of learning how to make an actual game. I have alot of concepts and ideas that work well mechanically but aren’t really “fun” on a table (unless you feel consulting charts and doing math is fun in which case, come on over) but would work nicely if they were an invisible organic part of the world.
I’m really just looking for input and direction on ways to make this feel less like an absolutely insurmountable task, where to start learning, what to learn etc.
Currently I am working my way through the unreal tutorials and I am thinking I am going to put some cash towards Advanced Turn Based Tile Toolkit in Blueprints - UE Marketplace and begin to learn there. Is there a better way? I am really interested in the practical, mechanical bits but don’t even have the vocab to express my ideas so that’s a bit of a stumbling block.
I feel like the best way forward for me would be to spend a bit of cash, spend a bit of time and get some free assets to play around with and treat it more like lego blocks than a real, ground up creation. In this way I could see how things interact without losing myself in a 3d modeling program or animation/etc stuff. Am I better off learning to crawl before I run and just get some basic C++ in my diet before I start any of this?
My ultimate goal would be to have a top down turn based X-com style game with a little more depth and a specific focus on multiplayer. Ideally it would be for PC but I would LOVE to figure out a way to make it feel good on a hand held device. In an absolutely mad-mans dream of a world I would deeply enjoy more than 4 people ever playing it and maybe using it as a stepping stone to get myself out of the factory, out of Canada and into a creative field somewhere warm.
I know these are all obstacles that can be broken down into smaller, easier to digest bits but I am struggling with just how to start dismantling.
As for that toolkit you want to buy, I don’t really have any experience with it. It seems to have very good reviews though and if you look at the forum support page for it, he even has video tutorials to help you use it. You can find the forum support page for the toolkit at:
It’s definitely worth the money if it will get you up to speed and help you save a lot of time in my opinion.
There is absolutely no cure for learning, sadly. I eagerly await our robot overlords so I can download kung-fu but until then I just have to hack away. I do think I will invest in that tile kit, even just to help the learning curve. I’m very uncomfortable with just “using” tools that I don’t really understand the basics of but its probably a good place to start.
I love lists so I have my go to ready:
Download, watch and replay the tutorials at work so I know vaguely what is going on when its time to sit down at home.
Complete the tutorials, specifically the basic UE4 intros.
Re-complete the tutorials without referencing the videos - Fail - Cheat.
Do #3 again, properly without cheating
Repeat steps one through 4 with the Turn based tile Kit
Create a level that is functional within the tile kit using stock pawns/actors and have it work correctly (things die, things attack, game ends and starts without issue)
Come back here and ask more questions.
Repeat 7.
I feel like this encompasses a week or mores worth of “to do” so planning ahead farther probably wont help much.
