Hi, me and my brother are thinking about starting up a project just for fun, just to have a hobby. Lets say something like minecraft/rust type. We are total beginners, never done much before. My brother has never tried anything, i have made a very very simple flappybirds game in a free game engine. The only coding we know is the use of # on twitter… so. We wanted to know how good Unreal Engine 4 is with use of just blueprint in the beginning (possible forever) and that support some form of collaborative development, so we can do it togehter. I know its kinda stupid to ask in an Unreal forum, but i hope you can be somewhat objective.
Easy to get started, but do not expect fantastic results immediately. UE4 is a huge piece of software for professionals, and making games requires knowledge in a diverse set of areas. Do not begin with your dream project, but start small and work yourself up from there.
You can do almost everything with Blueprints, especially if you add plugins from the marketplace. You can worry about C++ later.
Best way to collaborate is by setting up a versioning server, for example Perforce, and connect UE4 to it. Not that difficult.
I suggest you give it a try!
Start here:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Videos/Basics/index.html
Thank you, no we are not building our dream game, as we know its like ******* in a tornado. But we both like games like minecraft and i saw a guy who made minecraft clone in unreal engine 4 using just blueprints, but i dont know how pro he was.
Lets say we just want to build a small forest (scene). Is it possible to create a small forest with high def with blueprints? or wil that limit me?
Well based on your OP the answer is a factor of time and your willingness, as well as your brothers, to invest the time necessary to understand this beast called Unreal 4.
Being someone of experience and as a [cough cough] pro it took me a good year to figure out how all the nuts and bolts are put together so it’s one of those if I can do it kind of thing. 
If as you say the objective is to have fun!!! then for sure “playing” with blueprints is a lot of fun as it requires little to make a BP respond with “Hello World” and move forward from there with out having to learn the finer complexities of C++.
Being someone with no clue as how to code “period” it is fun to see something just work with out five years worth of learning behind it.
I was right where you’re at not but a few years ago. No clue where to start, not sure if I could manage to even make anything at all. Didn’t even know how to model assets in 3D. Instead of asking other people if I could do it, I just went and tried it for myself. Failed a lot, things broke a lot, and stuff crashed a lot. Few years later, here I am, solo developing an educational based solution for a physics class to teach real world sailing mechanics on a multiplayer (server/client) level.
Anything is possible, it just boils down to how much you want it to be possible. How much time out of your life you are willing to sacrifice to make it possible will also determine a lot. Best advice I can give you, learn. Learn as much as you can, watch others, watch how they do things and absorb it all like a sponge. Try to mimic small things they do. I remember having trouble just making a door open with a box overlap event a few years back. Now I'm having trouble with getting physics to replicate buoyancy on a gerstner based wave system for the boat to multiple clients and persistently store all of that data. A lot can change in just a few short years.
In one of your previous posts you ask about just a simple forest scene. Go for it!!!! There are PLENTY of free assets to at least get you started. Get curious! Take some of those assets and import them into a free 3D modelling package to pick it apart and see how it works! Get amped up! Never know when a major opportunity may pass you by ;)
agreed guys, its difficult to learn, i will tell you that, some of the technical jargon escaped me for quite some time, but there are a ton of tutorials on pretty much anything you could think of, and the community is awesome, post a question to a problem, most likely someone will help you, i had absolutely no experience in 3d modeling/coding/blueprints when i started, some days i looked at it and couldnt wrap my head around it, moved on to something else in the project, went back to it with a fresh start and bingo it clicked.
all i can say is even if you just want to do it for a hobby, dont get discouraged if something doesnt work, ask, look at similar tutorials, you’ll get it eventual.
In so far as collaborating, i would suggest subversion (source control) there is a tutorial on it in the documents section of the unreal 4 webpage, it allows you to have one location as a server that holds everything, then the clients(your copy’s of the servers files) can modify and change things in the project, upload them to the server, and your brother can update his version of the client project and bingo he’s got your changes in his copy 
if you want to set this up and need help beyond what documentation there is, send me a pm i’ll help as much as i can.
I am using Unity right now and even that is incredibly difficult to learn, making a game is VERY hard especially when you know nothing about programming. I am almost at the point of giving up however the documentation for Unity is very well done everytime I feel like giving up there is a documentation that shows me how to do X Y or Z and what I have been doing wrong.
I really want to try UE4 but I am a 1 man solo dev so obviously all the benefits of UE4 is useless to me. You need a team of people who are skilled to actually make use of UE4 cause this is a real AAA engine.
Not true at all.
Unreal has some features that mostly benefits large projects, but there many advantages for small teams or single developers as well
I see, so one of the main problems keeping me back from UE4 is the tutorials and documentation. On Unity site everything is masterfully crafted its well organized and well documented and there are loads more tutorials. I am also somewhat afraid because I am only now learning C# and boy is it hard, programming is tough and takes a lot of time to learn. I shiver when I think about what C++ would actually be like if C# is so complex as it is.
But something keeps telling me to try UE4 I guess its partly the guilt because I have a GTX 1060 FTW GPU and I really feel like this GPU would be better suited for UE4
Here is what I wanna create, I want to create a 2.5D Metal Slug Clone but with additional stuff like melee combat etc
Your thoughts? I keep thinking 3D would be quicker to animate rather than doing pixel art in Unity
Try making the start of your game in both engines and get a feel for which one suits you best.
I think the UE4 documentation is pretty good, apart from C++. But you won’t have to use that for such a simple game, and if you think C# is difficult, blueprints will probably suit you.
ok this sounds good, I wonder though does learning blueprints translate into learning programming? meaning will picking up a language like C# or C++ be way easier afterwards? I hear blueprints is secretly C++ but with a GUI over it to make it friendly but dunno if that rumour is true
Yes, it will be easier (as blueprints is programming, only expressed differently).
I have a next question what are your thoughts on the built in modeling tools in UE4? vs learning something like blender? I saw someone creating environments within UE4 in a video so was wondering why anybody would use blender or maya
You can use the built in tools for making landscapes, and there are simple tools for blocking out geometry. But you will need an external editor for making characters and props.
Thanks!!!
I have another question do you think my idea of a 3D platformer Metal Slug clone will sell?
Looking to make a game that would be able to earn me some money in the end. I will spend 2 years at 13 hours a day on this game I am about to build. But wondering if a 3D 3rd person like Alan Wake Horror would sell or a 3D platformer Metal Slug clone or super metroid clone would sell better
Everything will be done by myself
It all depends on the execution, so impossible to say. But it is rare for a beginners first game to turn out really great.
I see well I suppose for the very least the Metal Slug Clone platformer would be much quicker and easier to make than say a 3rd person full 3D alan wake type of survival horror?
So Havoc you were right, I immediately fell in love with UE4 in a way I never could with Unity. The tutorial by Zack is amazing and doing stuff is so quick and easy on this Engine I somehow work faster and easier in UE4 than Unity, thats really weird.
That’s great and I wish you all luck!