Not in terms of what to do in the engine, but what do you do when you want to have a starting point on making a game itself. Do you do the hud, characters, levels, programming, or what? It’s like having a huge sandbox to do anything you want, but there’s nothing that points to where to start and go from there first.
You can start from wherever you want but I do it like this:
First the terrain/landscape, then the foliage, then chars and buildings, then quests, dialogues, etc and then an overall customization to fit my needs
Personally my philosophy is this. It isn’t specific to UE4 either, its just good game design.
Have a game idea
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Prototype the game idea’s mechanics (don’t worry about art so much).
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Get the mechanics working good / to a point where things are comprehensible and working as they should be to a degree. Maybe make a test level to test out all mechanics.
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Start fleshing out levels and art at the same time, to go along with the mechanics and compliment each other overall.
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Keep repeating this, refining, polishing, etc.
The basic idea is to prototype, refine, create art stuff and repeat as you need features and certain systems. It’s not super specific but it gives a general flow of how things could be done. For example I’ve been starting with player character mechanics and AI, then moving on to a test level to test that stuff. Moving from there I’ll produce art and actual levels I want in the final game (or other specific features). Hope this helps!
- create basic gameplay mechanics -> you need them for your level (jump height, walk speed,…)
- start building the assets that you need for the level
- improve the mechanics + build your level
- test everything
play test ideas in editor until you stumble across something that really fun and far better then any pre planned idea you had. then build a game around the secret sauce you’ve found. is a little tongue in cheek but also is ment truthfully, I come from a music background in with bands and most of time the good music comes from a vibe you didn’t plan.once you have something its easy to build on it as you can see /sense what it needs next.
I think a lot of people loose track of the art side and get stuck in technical mindsets, by art side I meen the fun factor,original ideas and gameplay+ unique visuals. art is about emotion and games work on many levels by having interaction,visuals,sound and skill elements.
bro thats the exact method I am taking lol