How Do You Organize Game Folders and Files?

Development Audio
1

Hi everyone, I wanted to compare my thoughts on how I plan to start organizing my assets now that I know I have a game I can create. Do you see anything wrong with my plan that I may not be considering, and how do you organize yours?

My thought process is to have something like the following (the example is based on if I were to do a game that required shooting:

Content folder:

  • Weapons

  • AK47 – this folder will hold the actual blueprint files to weapon and bullet and other main blueprints and then the folders inside

[LIST]

  • AK47_Bullet – has meshes and related files to AK47 bullet only
    [LIST]

  • Material

  • Texture

  • Mesh

  • AK47_Weapon

  • Material

  • Texture

  • Mesh

SMG

  • SMG_Bullet
  • SMG_Weapon

[/LIST]
Characters

  • Main Players

  • Player_Engineer – blueprints and the below folders

[LIST]

  • Animations
    [LIST]

  • BlendSpaces

  • Material

  • Texture

  • Mesh

Player_Marksman – skeletal and blueprints in folder
[/LIST]
AI_Enemy (computers)

  • Terrorist1 – skeletal and blueprints in folder
  • Terrorist2 – skeletal and blueprints in folder

AI_Hostage

  • Hostage1
  • Hostage2

AI_NonImportantCharacters

  • Character1
  • Character2

Game_Blueprints

  • FirstPersonController
  • FirstPersonGameMode

LevelDesign – Assets like furniture and levels will be placed in this folder

  • Furniture

  • Couches

  • Tables

  • Maps

[/LIST]
[/LIST]

To try and clarify, the BluePrints for the AK47 will be directly in the AK47 folder and not any deeper. That way once I open the folder I can start messing with the main files I need to edit functionality. What are your thoughts?

2

The one thing I would suggest is to add a project folder that holds all of your project’s content. This way if you add external content like the starter pack, it keeps the folder separate and helps with managing assets that you’ve made and assets that you’ve imported.

Example would be:

  • Content Folder

    • Project Name

      • Weapons

      • Characters

      • LevelDesign

    • Starter Content

      • Random Stuff

    • Marketplace Content

      • Random Stuff

Also, here is a style guide that has been really helpful for me when I was looking for way to stay organized which also has a file structure section GitHub - Allar/ue5-style-guide: An attempt to make Unreal Engine 4 projects more consistent

2 Likes
3

Ah, thanks for the tip, forgot about that. Thank you. Appreciate the link as well

4

Our project is weapon driven so our animation tree looks something like

Characters
Animations.
TPP (Third Person Player)
Runs
Walks
Crouch
FPP (First Person Player)
Blueprints

> more or less anything relating to locomotion

Weapons
AK47
WeaponAnimations
1stPersonAnimation
3rdPersonAnimation
Materials
Textures
Blueprints
Audio
ECT …

We then have a custom weapon BP for each weapon that passes on the required unique resource upon possession

5

I think you should have another separate folder for bullets because they are (for particular weapons) interchangeable and also during the project you may add customization for weapons like changing weapon caliber etc or using different types of bullets (tracer bullet) so…

6

Yeah, forgot some weapons can share the same caliber. I guess I will add then into my folder design. Thanks for that point.