Preface

Many people know what a game is, and a lot of people play games every day. But how many people know how to create a game? Game development using Unreal Engine 4 allows aspiring game creators to develop professional-looking games quickly. Unreal Engine 4 provides very polished game development tools and capabilities that allow vast amounts of customization for almost any game that you can dream of.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, An Overview of Unreal Engine, covers introductory content about what a game engine is, specifically for Unreal Engine 4 and its history. You will get an overview of the features of Unreal Engine 4 and how it can help you to create a game.

Chapter 2, Creating Your First Level, explains how to create your first room using the Box Brush, add materials to texture the walls/floor, and learn how to place static objects to enhance the look of the room.

Chapter 3, Game Objects – More and Move, covers the structure of a simple object type, known as Static Mesh, and how objects in Unreal interact with one another. This chapter also introduces Blueprints, which is the graphical scripting of Unreal Engine 4.

Chapter 4, Material and Light, shows you how to customize your level in greater detail by learning how to create your own basic custom Material and how to use simple lights to light up the interior of the level.

Chapter 5, Animation and AI, covers how animation works in Unreal Engine and how to implement simple AI in your game level.

Chapter 6, A Particle System and Sound, explains how to add visual and sound effects to your level.

Chapter 7, Terrain and Cinematics, shows you how to add the final touches to your level using terrain manipulation and cinematics.

What you need for this book

You will need to create a free account with Epic Games to start using Unreal Engine 4.

Who this book is for

This book is meant for those of you who are new to game development and want to learn how games are created.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "In my case, it will be Chapter2Level."

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "The Modes window gives you the power to create and place objects into the game world."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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