Hi, I am Dow Slain.
I just recently purchased UE4 and Maya LT and plan on hitting the grindstone (and the tutorials) and try to make a game or two.
My development background is limited. I went to school at the devry institute of technology going for a bachelors in interactive simulation programming. But after two years of earning credits not related to anything to do with learning to code, the program was cut in my area and I was given the choice of dropping out or changing majors. Since then I have been perpetually adding to my notes and trying to self teach myself where and when I can. Now that I have a somewhat lapse work schedule, a new pc and motivation I am taking the plunge and going to begin learning how to use the tools provided to me.
I am going to outline the two projects I am interested in working on in the immediate. Really what I am looking for in a response here on the forums outside of the included questions are direction to specific tutorials that may be of interest to me or anything that can help really…
Vague I know. This post is half a questionnaire and half an affirmation to my resolve 
Project 1:
Platform mobile.
The game I am wanting to design, specifically for i phones in mind is basically an on the rails space shooter.
The screen moves from right to left with the ship on the left half of the screen. The Ship moves at the same speed as the screen, moving forward to the right from the left.
You can press on the ship and drag it to move it, with the idea that you can move it anywhere on the screens boundries. But The face of the ship will never change.
Press anywhere but the ship will begin firing lasers from the ship in that direction. You can tap the ship in quick secession to activate power ups.
As you trail across the screen enemies will appear, moving in all manner of direction. Some will stop for a moment but majorally the enemy ships you encounter are moving from one point to another on and off the screen. Some can fire back while some are there as obstacles to fly into.
Questions: I’ve only played one i phone game with dual input commands, even then it was very simplistic. Is it possible to hold and drag the ship while firing?
For making models on Maya; how simplistic should I go? I would like this game to be playable within reason on i phone 4. Still learning how to use that as well so any help with that would be helpful too…
Project 2:
PC/console ports:
This idea is alot more grandiose and will take alot more time to work on. I’d like to develop this specifically for pc, with controller support. And when I get to a point where I feel comfortable enough with it I intend to contact Unreal support and learn how I can eventually have my property ported to playstation 4 and x box one.
The core design concept at work is an arcade racer. Basically I want to take some ideas from alot of different properties and mesh them. The cars will be weaponized, and can specials which can be weapons or power ups. The specials, weapons, wheels, and frame of the car are all customizable from the menu screen. As you race through the level battery canisters will be on the ground, you can hit them with a grapple and re-charge your cars primary special. You can shoot the other cars and if their hp drops to zero they crash and repair. You can also shoot obstacles on the map, but they have tons of health so destroying them without a special takes skill. I’d like the target retticule to be movable, controller with either the mouse or the right analog.
Questions: I was playing around with the driving game tool-set, briefly this morning. I am sure this is covered in tutorials somewhere but I’ll ask anyway. How do I tighten/adjust the physics for the cars drift? The baseline iteration fishtails way too much. I like the idea that inertia effecting the car, but every time i turn i had to adjust for the momentum waaay too much. Secondly, how would i set up my targeting retticule system?
Thanks to anyone who read any of that