Learning Verse From JS/Solidity Background

Development Programming & Scripting
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Hello everyone!

I have decided this week that I really want to learn Verse and create some awesome games in UEFN, and potentially find a career path as a UEFN Game Designer for a niche studios.

I am going through the basics of Verse, with the documentation and the Unreal Engine 2023 Verse talk, but I was wondering if anyone had any additional tips, tricks or documentation I should look at?

I come from a background in JS/TS for front end development and recently learned Solidity for smart contract development. There are some similarities in syntax between Verse and Solidity, but I was wondering if anyone else came from a JS background and is learning Verse.

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Same here, python, js, java. I find verse mind bending and despite resembling golang\c++ syntactically, it’s closer to Haskell\Rust\Erlang IMHO (I just guess about c++, but I’m “average” skill level in go, which is really simple and readable, fast, beautiful language) it includes some innovative concepts, which supposedly helps long term in maintaining a clean code (theoretical benefits, which we’ll see over time if it’s true) but causes you to be unable to perform even the basic game logic tasks normally like you would in a simple imperative language. I find it difficult, but that’s just my IMHO.

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By the way I think the reason for having literally zero community built custom maps of good quality (something really worthy to look at and think “wow that’s kinda cool”) is the difficulty and obscurity of advanced concepts of verse basics. The basics will blow your mind, :laughing: imagine what’s next for advanced users then.

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You’re saying there are literally zero maps of quality that exist? If that’s the case, I think you need to possibly dip more into the community a little bit.

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:heart: JavaScript and TypeScript :heart:

I use docs supplied within the verse project to find out what I can do with the devices and about types. They are searchable in VS Code

Verse errors are handy, they sometimes let you know what you are trying to do is currently not supported.

Take a look at sample/template projects code, there isn’t many code snippets in official docs

For basic information about the syntax etc, use quick or full reference Verse Language Reference

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I think it is not zero, and mostly because there isn’t much you can do with the current state of api. Also there are bugs in devices, so we have to work with a limited subset of devices and sometimes only use specific combinations of settings.

Using and learning Verse might be the best part when creating maps.

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There are a good amount of high quality maps, though of course the quick and easy ones to make are always going to higher in number. There have been exceptional maps made even before UEFN for years, and with it has come some pretty cool experiences as well- even given the limitations. You just won’t find them getting much algorithm love in Discover, you have to know the community and keep an eye out for work from great creators. :man_shrugging:

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hmm, but why good maps are not ‘liked’ by the algorithm, isn’t the algorithm calculating user engagement like any other service of that kind? (netflix, steam, roblox, etc’).
if players discover it and keep returning, constant engagement supposed to keep the map growing until it gets visible, because it’s a good experience and players keep getting back to play it?

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Because what we consider to be “good maps” aren’t always what players engage with, unfortunately. It’s going to take time especially with the new UEFN features that we can offer to get players understanding what is possible and getting them interested in different gameplay mechanics.

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Hey @Peter_Pusher how’s it going so far with Verse, do you enjoy working with it? (were you able to make things work as expected, using it, or it blew your mind like it did for the rest of us lol. I got my brains melting within the first 50 lines of code, and now have a PTSD for that thing, I am afraid to open the editor because I might see Verse again :laughing: )

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Blockquote
“also there are bugs in devices, so we have to work with a limited subset of devices and sometimes only use specific combinations of settings”

This is precisely why you are seeing a limited amount of quality maps. It takes a very long time to parse through the tooling you have available to you and figure out what does and does not work, consistently or otherwise.

There are a lot of restrictions on what we can do. Something as simple as implementing a movement speed debuff in a multiplayer pvp game can require extensive testing and design to achieve.

edit: Just so this doesn’t seem doom and gloom, the challenge of building within limited systems and pushing the boundaries of what’s perceived as possible within UEFN makes it all worth it.