I want to make a game but I'm struggling.

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hi guys. I’m new to the forums but I doubt if I will remain for long because when I was in the UDK forums the community felt quite toxic, although it was, like, six or seven years ago, but I’m still doubtful.

Before I get to the questions let me tell you how I got here. I know the story is long and you probably want me banned because I sound like trolling (as a note, I’m not), but thanks in advance for taking the time to read. I have no clue if the big wall of text is against the forum rules because I could not find the rules in this site.

I have always wanted to make my own game, but back when I tried to start I had to look for sources that could teach me how to code, because I couldn’t afford to hire other people, so I ended up struggling just to try tackling this impossible challenge where I struggle just to try to make a multiplayer FPS game on my own, which I knew would be impossible because I didn’t know how to code yet, and Playmaker was too expensive for me at the time (I was a secondary school freshman). I also had to learn how to do things like modelling which I struggled in as well. Back then I was an angry kid that didn’t know a lot of the terminology and made a fool of myself so you can tell how insane I was. I did have some great rough ideas for UI designs but I didn’t even know how to implement even that.

Since then I’ve put that ambition to rest and focused on making music, but then I started to hear that a full version of Unreal Engine is now free for all users, and that it now uses a royalty-only business model. I also heard of this new method of coding known as Blueprint which allows non-programmers to make games on their own, so I wanted to try.

I still really wanted to make a multiplayer FPS game, but I decided to scale my ambition down. Instead of a photorealistic game, I planned to make a game that is bare-bones in graphics and more focused on gameplay. Details on the ideal game can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ePZsJz4KiijmnyKspJOSs7hU_gGFUDFmTn4ySDGLU8o/edit?usp=sharing

Please read the document I linked above. Besides that, the history ends here.

Back in my teenage years I wanted to make an even more sophisticated game than Battlefield 3, so I think I scaled down a lot, but I still think it might seem too unrealistic of a goal. I’m debating whether or not I would be able to set up a game like that on my own with only Blueprints. Even if not, I’m still looking to create a game where I can implement a clan war system in some form.

As for the models I know I’m going to have to hire a modeller or buy models. I don’t have a lot of cash in my debit card and I have a credit card that I don’t even use because I don’t like the interest rate. I was able to find a lot of assault rifle models on the web but I could only find a few sniper rifles in other sites and no sniper rifles at all in the marketplace. I have found some submachine gun models but not LMGs, at least not in fbx anyway.

Right now I’m going back and forth between considering to make the main menu, the lobby, and the waiting room first or making other parts of the game first, such as the level and setting up the characters and the networking, or even modelling for that matter. I found some tutorials regarding how to create a main menu and a lobby, but not a tutorial regarding how to create a waiting room menu like this one. Oh, and I still don’t think I have found a good tutorial on how to build an FPS, make it multiplayer, and link the game and the menus together. Like, I couldn’t find a tutorial that has all of that in one place, and I ended up turning away from a lot of sources because I couldn’t find the features the writers/uploaders had on their version of UE4 (I have Unreal 4.10 and I plan on upgrading to Unreal 4.11 soon; I don’t have room on my computer so I will have to uninstall previous versions), i.e. virtually all of the tutorials are outdated, making them impossible to follow along.

So the question is where to find the tutorials that are going to help me with the things I specified, if the project is even doable (I’ve looked at many Blueprint tutorials and there were too many instances where I couldn’t find the right box or the right drop-down option) with only one person, that is; or if I should consider making a different kind of game altogether. Again, though, I still would like to make a game where I can implement an in-game clan war system.

I’m probably going to get banned for writing this and this thread is probably going to close as soon as I post it, but if I did anything wrong, I apologize in advance.

2

I think it’s very doable, since UE4 comes from originally an FPS background. And as a LAN-only game the multiplayer would be much easier to set up. Though understand, that even with things like Blueprints which can help make things easier, there’s still a lot to try and learn, and if you have coding experience then they make sense as far as what they do and what they make easier vs. doing coding. But you’re still going to have to learn some of the things that you would need to know for coding.

However, I don’t know that the idea is all that compelling, for one as a LAN-only game I think many people wouldn’t be interested in playing. And as an FPS there doesn’t seem to be any features that would draw people to want to play it, like what makes it different from other FPS games?

3

You seem to have created a catch 22 for yourself in wanting to keep up with the latest version of the engine while knowing that the tutorials lag behind, perhaps it would be better to pick an engine version that works with the tutorials that will help you learn what you need for now, then when you have expanded your skillset you can upgrade the engine version and develop your first games on that.
Remember great journeys start with a single step, set realistic goals and avoid the trap of aiming so high you end up disillusioned and give up.
Other than that I hope you can stick at it and find the same positive spirit I see in these forums.

4

Lol, why you should get a ban for that?
Trolls do not use paragraphs, in most cases.

Break down your game in small parts and learn what is easy first.
Then stick with stuff, you have fun with, extend it.
You only need time and a big pile of motivation.
:slight_smile:

5

Dude, first off, you’re being way too pessimistic. Chill dude, this isn’t GameFaqs, we actually have a pretty good community here from what I’ve seen.

Anyways, I’ve been taught that the first 10 games you’re going to make are going to suck, so get them over with quick. Start by making simple games to teach yourself how to code so that when you watch a tutorial, you’ll understand what you’re doing instead of just copying and pasting what you see. That way when you come across an outdated tutorial, you’ll be able to figure out what the modern way of doing something is. If you can’t, you can always just ask for help.

6

A couple of mistakes that rookies make when trying to learn how to use UE4:

  • Trying to run before they walk. The idea is not to go in and start chipping away at some grand design, that’s the fastest way to lose motivation as the size of the task seems to grow bigger as you make progress

  • Becoming dependent on tutorials and/or marketplace assets. It’s unlikely you will find a tutorial or asset for every single part of your game, and you will be frustrated and quit when you keep getting stuck every few days. It is also a bad way to learn because it encourages copy/paste mentality without properly understanding what the code is doing

  • Being impatient. Often people will just try something once, then go to the forums and ask someone to write their code for them. Similar to the other point above, the person becomes increasingly frustrated

My advice is to start small and work on some little projects that you can finish in a few weeks (depending on free time of course). With each project try to learn something new, like user input, camera, AI, weapons and so on.

Use tutorials sparingly, just to understand the basics. For example, rather than looking for a tutorial to produce a complete working weapon, instead look for tutorials on how to do user input, another on how to handle animation and so on. That will then force you to use the knowledge you have gained to make the weapon, rather than copying the code out of a tutorial.

It will take you much longer, but it will pay dividends later on.

Also remember that there is a reason why so many hobbyist projects fail: it takes a long time to make a game, and it’s HARD. Be prepared for it to take years, even with a team behind you. Heck, even the old Half-Life 1 mods took years to reach their final state.

7

Listen to this guy!

8

If you are willing to spend $50, check out Generic Shooter on the Marketplace. Allar has put in a lot of support for his project in his thread and it is 100% blueprints.

If you don’t want to spend $50 and you want to learn straight from Epic, take a look at Shooter Game (a more difficult path for non-coders). It is a combination of Blueprints and C++, with a majority of the working code in C++. The code is very well documented. I can’t remember if Shooter Game is still in the Learn tab in the launcher, or if you will have to download it somewhere on the site. There aren’t any tutorials that I know of that goes over everything in Shooter Game so this would be difficult to learn from.

As far as tutorials go, shootertutorial.com is a good place, but it is only for single player currently.

If you want to just start from scratch, there are some YouTube channels I would recommend. MindlessPursuits, PRDV Entertainment, and UnrealTek are some that I go to as they have tutorials you could use. UnrealTek has a large playlist that is to create a Battlefield clone with multiplayer which I believe is mostly in blueprints. And while the engine version may be older in those tutorials, not much will be different.

has some very good points. Copying and pasting code from tutorials will not work out well in the future. You will need to learn what the code does so you can use it in your own implementation.

I’ve been working in UE4 for a long time now (8+ months), and I still haven’t come close to having even a bare-bones game, so take my advice with a grain of salt, lol.

9

Hi guys. Thanks for your insights. I was hesitant to come back because I was very scared.

If I can find the most updated guide on blueprints maybe I can take it from there.

The reason why I chose the game to be LAN-only is because of what actions tournament officials take when something goes wrong with online play, most notably the rule where the game just continues even if anyone crashes. This is just me, but I just can’t stand that. There are plenty of other ways one team can have an advantage, but it would take too long to explain. In addition, I have my concerns regarding cheats, but if I find a good anti-cheat service that probably won’t be much of a problem. Mostly why I chose LAN-only has to do with advantage issues.

As for what makes the game different, it would be the fact that the heroes have three classifications and not just one. For example, one hero can be a class that takes the front lines, but can also have a support role, and could have the heavy category for weight, making him a heavy support character. There would also be two different leagues, and the official tournament would be set up like MLB where there are leagues and divisions, but how each team would make it to the playoffs would be based on points, which can be won in smaller events that make up the whole tournament. These ideas are not set in stone, and I am looking for various ways to make the game different from others.

Well, I did manage to free up some space so maybe I could risk installing another version of UE4. The problem is I need to find out what version the tutorials use.

Although this is more about whether or not the goals are realistic, those are some great insights. Basically I am looking to make any game where I can implement a clan war system, so maybe I’ll try making a different kind of game instead. I do wonder what others may suggest.

I don’t plan to copy and paste. I do plan on tweaking wherever I can find a window. So I’m looking for tutorials that explain what each block does more than looking for tutorials to copy down. After all, I did learn to aim for the very basics and work my way up back in my first year in college.

Lastly, I don’t know which user said this, but one of you told me something about photorealism, but I’m not really looking to make a photorealistic game, although that would be a nice bonus.

10

If you want something that’s more like a better visual API document than Epic’s own documentation, check out Mathew Wadstein’s WTF is? videos. I can’t even count how many videos this guy has but he goes through nodes and other things one at a time in order to explain their usage.

11

Perfect, I’ll check when I find the time.

I am wondering, though, is it possible to make any part of a game and then piece it together with the other parts?

12

Having a LAN option doesn’t mean you can’t have online multiplayer, the reason many games don’t have LAN is that most multiplayer games these days have player progression and if you’re offline then they can’t manage that and you could cheat. If that’s not something that could be an issue (you have no player progression) then LAN can be something you can consider, and for tournaments that’s definitely appreciated since they can avoid connection issues.
However, that wouldn’t prevent cheating. The way many cheating programs work is by accessing variables that are calculated on the users machine. That’s why Diablo 3 was online only, they took some of the components like enemy AI and damage calculations and put them on the server so that people couldn’t try and cheat those, which was important to avoid cheating when they had the real money auction house. On a LAN you have to have someone as the host, so there isn’t a place you can calculate variables without a user technically having access to it and being able to cheat. Though one would assume that if it’s LAN then you would pretty easily be able to check if the other player is cheating since they should be nearby.
Still, you’re limiting the people you can reach if you’re targetting tournament type stuff, people have to like your game first to consider it at that level and they aren’t going to play it if it’s LAN only.

That’s such a minor difference compared to other FPS games. You need a unique feature that’s easy to understand and gets people excited to play your game. For example, Battlefield is known for high graphical quality and big maps with vehicles.

13

Maybe this site could help you. The author made an FPS game and he documented the process quite nicely.

14

Er, okay, but what actions would be taken in the event of a crash would be my concern. Other than that, once I find out how to make it online without using Steam while implementing an anti-cheat, maybe I could make it online. I don’t know if I should allow online qualifiers in tournaments, though.

In that instance, I could talk about the theme of the game. Unlike most games, the game would be about a sport in the distant future that started out as a training exercise for counter-terrorist raids. I’ve also thought about team customizations where the patterns on one character could be customized and that customization would apply to all other characters on the same team. I’m unable to do colour customizations, however, due to the advantages that certain colours have, as I’ve mentioned before. Eh, what’s the point, it’s only aesthetic so it wouldn’t matter much. I could talk about how simple and arcade-like the game would be, but…

As for the site that was linked a moment ago, the first tutorials may seem to be helpful, but how to make it multiplayer would be the question.

Maybe I should consider making a game about another sport so I don’t have to go through a hassle.

Actually, I have started working on some ideas for a card game. It wouldn’t be like a normal trading card game because it would have cards that generate other cards, but there wouldn’t be RNG in it, either. The major difference would be that I would start the project with a few people and a community, and members of the community would pitch ideas for their own cards as long as the set of rules are met so that all cards are theoretically evenly matched. Once I find the time I could upload some card designs, although they wouldn’t have any artwork yet. Oh, I’ve also thought of a ro-sham-bo mechanic to add to the card game to make it stand out from most other card games. Plus there would be a clan war feature where it’s like 3 members of one clan against 3 members of another clan with one player from one clan facing another from the other clan, effectively making it three 1v1 matches.

Not sure why I’m talking about a card game even though what I talked about at first was an FPS, but I guess that’s a way to walk before running… Sorry for changing the topic so suddenly…

15

Whoah! When I’m reading the OP, I feel like I’m reading about me. Same history :slight_smile:

As I understand properly, I would actually suggest to shelf this project until you learn more basics of UE4 and it’s blueprint system.
Start with a simple game with much less requirements. Just to get the basics in your head. Make a few, and in the mean time start slowly building your MP FPS game with the gained knowledge.

16

To all rookies, I strongly advice to make a simple game first. And by simple game, I mean Pong.
If you can’t make a pong game, how can you imagine making a multiplayer fps one?

17

You’ll find once you are an experienced blueprint user, tutorials being outdated won’t make a difference. But then, you won’t be following tutorials anyways :stuck_out_tongue:

19

That is what I struggled with first as well, I am having a lot of trouble figuring out how to add functionality to my designs (for example a simple weapon I modeled in blender) so I try to spend some time learning that while continuing to practice modeling since that is what I found I can work best at. I am currently focusing on making a simple tech demo of my idea so that things work but figuring out how to make modular weapons (I mean like REALLY modular) is a arduous task.

20

Yeah beware of tutorial sickness. Read documentation or find specific tutorials on things when you get stuck. I believe there is a fps tutorial series out there on the forums, but can’t comment on how helpful that will be / how good it is - you’ll still need to fill in the blanks.