Hi, I’m new here, and I want to start making a game with engine.
The game I want to make is a top down shoot em up game, imagine like a 1942, but with some things in 3D, like your ship, the enemies, etc. Bullets and other FX 2D will do. Picture an Ikarugalike game.
What I’d like to know is, if there are some templates that could help me to get started with , and if UE4 fits my needs.
Thanks.
UE4 is definitely capable of creating kind of game. Your best bet would probably be to start with a paper2d blueprint template.
Have a look on the marketplace for the free games, tear them apart and find out how they put them together in the editor.
There are templates/examples that kind of do everything you need. All you need to do is combine them into one project.
I would say making logic (or prototype) for your game without menu and save system is a weekend project.
Learning blueprints is about 2 weeks of struggling.
Wow that’s really nice to hear!. I thought UE4 was a more first person shooter kind of engine. It’s great that it can adapt to other style of games too.
If I want to write some custom logic for my specific use case, that is all C++ right?, are guru skills level required? or knowing the basics++ would do? (my case).
You can do pretty much anything you need in blueprints now, it is a node-based scripting system that works similar to Lua or C#, except it is all done by chaining nodes together to form expressions.
If you are into C++, then for sure you can do everything that way as well, it’s up to you which you feel the most comfortable with. Blueprints are a great way to learn the engine as you can make a change and instantly try it out, but are also very powerful, they can be used to create your entire game’s logic.
If you want to edit the base engine code, then you will need C++, but blueprints can be used for almost everything else. 
Check out these videos for an intro on how to use blueprints:
and
Amazing… I never thought blueprints had so much potential.
Now I want to quit my job and start experimenting with :p.
going back to the real world