The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. “Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?” he asked.
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
(Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 12)
My process is
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first do a quick placeholder map of just plain boxes in the editor.
I use just either a plain box or BSP if it is a more complex shape. (Enterable Building, Hallway, Etc) -
Then get the gameplay to work like you want it. In the empty level. Don’t bother with artistic assets
until you get the game to behave as you want.
My idea is to keep at that greybox stage until the game is relatively fun without any actual assets.
If it is fun to play with just greyboxes, it should be even better with some custom assets. -
Once the gameplay is done. Back to whatever 3d program you like to use. (Blender in your case)
DEFINITELY take the suggestions above about modularity. Study up on building custom modular assets that will snap to the grid.
Think like you are building a small lego set that allows you to make a huge world. -
Then Photoshop for the first texture pass.
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Then to Quixel Suite or Substance to PBR the textures
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Then back to UE (to snap together your lego set)