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#1

Hi, I googled Free Video Game Creation Software and UE4 was highly recommended. I downloaded and installed it and am amazed at its possibilities.

However, it is way too overwhelming and clearly intended for people who have much more experience and knowledge than myself. Can anyone recommend some other free software that is more friendly toward hobbyists? I looked at RPG maker, but it charges a fee. I tried Project Spark on Xbox One and it was kind of fun, I at least was able to create a tiny level after 15 minutes in a tutorial, but the program didn’t feel very interesting or exciting. Any opinion on Corona? Where did you get your start creating Video Games?

Thanks!

#2

No matter what engine you use it is the matter of reading and understanding how the engine works and getting hands on experience.

UE at first can be over whelming but take and do the simple tutorials until you can understand what you are doing would be the best thing. Don’t expect to run full throttle until you have the basics down and that goes for ANY engine.

#3

Well, I will give it another go and work my way through the tutorials, checking back here and through the forums for advice. Cheers!

#4

I’m going to tell you right now. UE4 is the BEST engine for game development, once you get over the learning curve.
Blueprint is helpful for non programmers
The audio, animation, and designing components are top notch.
The split between pawns, controllers, game modes, etc are excellent.

It took me a little over a year to actually get good with it but once I did, I didn’t turn back.

#5

Thank you both for the inspiration! I worked my way through the starting tutorial and I struggled with it a bit but already the camera controls are starting to feel better and I’m starting to eyeball the X, Y and Z axis’ better. I am going to stick with it as best I can, I have had journals and notebooks with video game ideas, characters, storylines, etc. dating back 15+ years that one way or another I am going to turn into an actual game!!

#6

I started in Flash, I didn’t cheat with a game engine :slight_smile:

#7

congratulations!!

#8

Here :slight_smile:
This forum and https://answers.unrealengine.com/ where a big help.
When you know exactly, which sort of game you want to make and its a 2D 8 bit pixelgame then UE4 is to much perhaps.
Sometimes i think “Hey dumbo, why you not started with a 2D game in UE4”, because some things would be much more easy then?

But everytime i learn a bit more, i am a bit more happy. For me it took around 2 frustrating(!) months to understand the very lowest basics and know some bumps ahead.
I use perhaps 2-4 hours a day of learning and reading. I broke down my project into very small steps, like puzzleparts and someday i will be smart enough to connect them all, in a nice way.

I am old and use it only in my freetime, for a younger one i bet the time is divided by half minimum, like my hairs are!
Every “game” i started, ended in a dead end, because of my limited knowledge and “wrong” thinking of things, how games work.
UE4 is so big and every aspect is fun to understand, but not easy at start.

I feel it’s never easy, because when things go well, i expand and have to master the next bump.
And then bugfixxing in movement controls / axis , when your playerbp is a book full of variables.

Sometimes i have to use my freetime only, to clean stuff out in bp, or make more logical folderstructures…
You talked about leveldesign in 15 minutes, that’s very short time, sounds great. Which style, playable?
Do you like that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDsJOFyxMnw
It’s all there. Open it, walk around, start klicking on things.
:slight_smile:

#9

UE4 can be intimidating when first starting out, but the same can be said for virtually any engine. I feel that UE4 is one of the more user-friendly engines out there.

When I first started game development a few years ago, I trialed a bunch of engines (CryEngine, Unity, UDK, etc) and remember feeling the same way. I found UDK was the best choice for me at the time and stuck with it. Then UE4 came around and I naturally switched to that. You’re likely not going to master any engine within a short amount of time, especially when Epic releases new updates frequently, there’s always new things to learn. As you become more familiar with the engine, you’ll become a natural at learning how things work.

Another great thing is the support this community brings. Obviously there’s the message board here, along with the AnswerHub, Slack group, Facebook groups, YouTube (UE4’s channel here is a great resource for getting started: Epic’s YT Channel - among a ton of others whose channels are dedicated towards UE4 tutorials), and many other online communities. Of course, Google will always be a valuable resource as well. The weekly training livestreams help as well.

Best of luck to you and don’t get discouraged. We were all in your shoes at one time. In no time, you’ll be able to help fellow UE4 users who are new to the engine, just like you were! :cool:

#10

Thanks again for the kindhearted and inspiring responses. I had the day off and spent much of my morning going over the tutorials for the material editor and started to tinker with my first Blueprint. Wow, what a cool feature, I’m really excited the more I learn about it, and even though I have tons of stuff to learn, it keeps making me want to learn more.

The one thing I made in 15 minutes was from project spark, a program on Xbox one you can make games with. The tutorial has you make a little character and enemy, give basic movement commands and then sculpt a trail and put some coins around to collect. I suppose it was more like 30 or 45 minutes, oops! It wasn’t bad, just not what I was looking for, more of a ‘game making game’, and not a design engine, if that makes sense.

Regardless, I’m sure I will be perusing the answers forums and watching tutorials on youtube for some time to come, and hopefully will see some of your games in play :slight_smile: