Greetings everyone, i should start off by letting you all know that i’m as new as new can be to the world of game creation. I was wondering if it is possible to build space with planets in it in which you could land on, possibly build, find resources and survive and what not? Think of something like Entropia Online and the way they have it so you can visit other planets. I got some nice ideas that i would love to turn into a game and would greatly appreciate any assistance rendered to help me get moving with this project.
Another question is when it comes to building a ship in which you can freely walk around on and navigate and such, would i make that in blender and import it or just build it through the level designer? I would also like to make the game multiplayer as well. I just dont know where to begin. I have been watching some intro tutorials and videos to get into the swing of things, Will the blueprint coding be sufficient to make a game like im thinking about or will i have to learn myself c++?
Many thanks in advance for anything anyone can help me with. Im really excited to get into the game making stuff
One thing is that you can do that but you’ll have to separate things a bit. creating your space travelling world with like the flying starter kit and search in this forum what people did to help you learn.
doing a fps or 3rd basic project with a level being your spaceship inside (and where you can go to seat in command center to go back to space for example)
and the how to do worlds that you’ll can check in the thread.
Many thanks for the reply Fen, I’m eager to get started as you can imagine me and a friend of mine are gonna try to tackle it. So basically what your saying is to do 3 seperate levels and just swap between them as needed? My aim is to make a spaceship which you can walk around freely while in transit to another planet/galaxy, do some hangin out in the mess hall, basically wondering around the ship repairing things and such… im hoping that this is all possible with this engine or is it? I know its a huge undertaking lol but i got time so i dont mind
First, yes all of this is possible with the engine. Sometimes things seem “not possible” but usually epic staff do is best to change it to : “not possible yet” which is really cool.
This may look boring but this is a vital step on your way to finish your project.
On the other hand, begin to plan how is your game, write all things you think to not forget them. Even in totally chaos look, don’t care, it is for yourself ^^ but when you’ll have enough knowledge with the engine and game creation you may then order all fairly.
And do one thing at at a time with the engine to learn it until you know what it is how it works nd when it’ll be usefull for you.
In fact, i just said you what i do since april, and it is really fun ^^ Once again : good luck and remember, your game looks like a marathon, not like a rush.
We’re happy to give you some advice to get you started but I do want to point out that Bumping a thread less than 12 hours after you made it will more than likely lead to a little bit of flak for doing so. It’s perfectly acceptable with bumping if it’s been a couple of days or moved a page or two deep.
Now for the good stuff!
The first piece of advice I want to give and this has been mentioned nearly anytime someone starts a project and that is to use some form of backup or version control. This will go a long way in preventing issues and making sure that something doesn’t get completely messed up!
For instance, I have my test bed project for testing and prototyping things I would like to use. To make sure I don’t mess something up or destroy my project accidentally I make a copy of the project and keep a log in it with what changes I’ve made and if that was completed or still needs a bit more work. Since my project is not very big at this point this is a good way for me to keep track of what I’m doing especially since there is a lot of Blueprint things I’m doing with it. I’ve messed it up a couple of times and then been able to go back to my previous version instead of losing my whole project or having to do some significant reworking.
Another thing that would probably be good would be to have a simple test bed project for prototyping outside of your main project and then working the feature into your main build.
With regards to building your level using BSP in the level editor for prototyping but it is highly recommended to use static meshes made in an external program for your finished product. BSPs are great for rapidly getting a layout and testing if that works or not. You can see this in action in our Unreal Tournament build and in Jim Brown’s Intro to Level Design video.
With regards to C++/Blueprints, you can do a lot in both. You can make an entire game with only Blueprints, but with the more complex your game becomes you’ll probably need to use coding to get some of the things done that you would like. This will definitely require some research on your part though. Most game mechanics can be done with Blueprints but there will undoubtedly be some things you’ll need to do that require code, probably more so with networking and multiplayer even though you can do a lot in UE4 already.
Be sure to remember that games are not real life and a lot of what you want to do can be faked to look the way you want. If you want to create the world it wouldn’t need to be a 1:1 size scale. (The Outerra Anteworld Game/Engine. There’s is a 1:1) The main point is to make sure you get the idea across of what you want to do. The Mass Effect series (built with UE3) is a good example of how to give the appeal of a large area with levels. You travel to the planets and visit these large environments but they are not the entire world. The levels they built were populated and felt alive and lived in. This is what makes the game fun to play and believable. It’s very difficult to make thousands of assets to populate a large environment. Not impossible, but very hard!
If you have any specific questions or need suggestions feel free to ask!
Thank you very much for all that valuable information guys! Sorry for the bump, just rather excited to get things goin along here. I do have a question for you tho, As you know i want to make a spaceship that you can walk around on during transit and do a few things to pass the time. My question is, Do i make the spaceship in say something like blender and hollow it out from the inside with corridors and what not, or do i create the 3d version of the ship for outside view so to speak and make a level for the inside of the ship such as bridge and what not through the designer? sorry for the weird questions.
The second option is the way to go. To go back to Mass Effect as an example, you would want to have the ship that you’re flying around your system as it’s own mesh. When you want to do an interior shot you would want to have that as another level that loads. This would be the way to keep the FPS more optimized!
No worries about the bump. I can understand the excitement as I get that way sometimes too!
Just to make certain i fully understand, If i made that second level for say inside shots and what not, is it possible to say zoom out to see the full ship? or if your in that level that was created for inside, say on the bridge for example, could you look out the window and see your destination drawing nearer? that kinda thing? sorry i know these are some weird questions but i wanna make sure i got some idea what im doing before starting down the road.
You can do pretty much anything with Unreal Engine 4, the question really is not “If” but “how”.
If you want to make a game you will need a 3D modeler to make game assets. I recommend Blender. I have been using it for about 8 years and its awesome. Great for making Spaceships and Sci Fi assets.
If you havent heard of them already or seen them already, check out these two games for inspiration:
(These two games are made with Inovae Engine and CryEngine respectively. That being said I do not recommend either of those engines over Unreal Engine 4.
UE4 is better in my oppinion, especially for an independent developer or team.)
But of course remember that these are professional projects made by large teams. And even if you are a small team, or just you and a mate, you can still make an amazing and unique game. There is room in on the games market for Indie Space Games with unique and interesting ideas! Hope you can make yours one of them. Goodluck with it!
hey guys, been doin like some said and putting stuff on paper, Took a look at what chris roberts has done so far, I want to have the ability to enter the space ships like that, like stand on the planets surface and see your spacecraft. Im assuming to accomplish this i should build it in say blender for the ship as an asset both internally and externally? Really love and appreciate the help and guidance Also some of those linked vids gave me a fair bit of help in regards to ideas on how to creat multiple galaxies and i thank you guys for that!!
I’m also trying to do a very similar project, if anybody could help. I would like to make it like Star Citizen in the sense that you can enter your ship and walk around and land on planets, ect. If anybody could help or give advice on how to go about doing that it would be greatly appreciated.
Hello, I am also developing the Star Citizen style. I am using Unreal Engine 5. Is this possible? Yes, it is possible. I set out to create countless planets in a wide universe. This works. You still need to understand the system called level flow. And I recommend you to buy the worldscape plugin in the unreal marketplace. It can be created by blending it with many products, these are worldscape-space creator. My only problem is that I cannot find a spaceship flying tutorial or lack of in-ship interaction system information.
