A good foundation and understanding of the tools and programs I am using is fundamental in creating the best version of the game I want to finish. Today I watched about 3 or 4 lectures on what Unreal runs on, C++ and Blueprints. Lots of people say that you can use either to create a game, but both would be best. I began with a 4 hour video on an introduction to C++ with Unreal, but the teacher wasn’t very good and there was not a lot of teaching, more of just copying what he was doing. Then I moved on to a video summarizing C++, it helped that I learned C for my first programming language. The video was quick at an hour long, C++ is definitely not simple enough to learn in that span of time. Though it was enough to get a good overview of it. Once I felt satisfied with a bit of C++ I looked to understanding Blueprints, which is how I’m going to build most of the game. When I was doing the C++ bits Unreal was already having several issues, it wasn’t compiling properly, there were errors, and I had to make sure I had the exact things installed. It was very finicky. No such hassles when using Blueprints. There is definitely more control in the C++ portions, but I’m not at the point where I need to access this power. I have so many video in my Watch Later playlist on YouTube, it’s good to start getting through the list.
Unreal has great videos on Blueprints, especially with their beginner tutorials, and I got more lined up. It’s fun and easy to use. It feels like coding without worrying about whether I missed a semi-colon or I forgot to capitalize the name of a specific variable. Coding is great, but switching back and forth from Blueprint to Unreal feels more natural when putting together game so far. I still have yet to see if I will feel the need to code when I want more complicated mechanics in terms of gameplay. Visual Scripting is a real breath of fresh air after months of coding classes.
The introduction to blueprints by Unreal focused on what blueprints are, how to use them, and create them. I was using them already from the beginning but this tutorial showed me a lot more shortcuts and gave me a better grasp on how to manipulate the BP (blueprint) to my will. All in all it was very simple and straight forward. I was taught how to create lights that would toggle on and off, through collision and input. Also set a bush on fire (so I could speak to Moses).
All of how blueprints works is basically how programming and C++ works. The classes I took definitely helped me understand all these concepts better. I’ll continue to dive deeper into blueprints because there is so much more I can do with them. I’ve barely scratched the surface. Once I’ve felt that I know a good amount of how it works then I can get back to working on the whip. Everything in the game will be centered around the whip. When I start working on it, I want to be able to do it right.
GoldenGratus Games 