Game Development Projects with Unreal Engine: Learn to build your first games and bring your ideas to life using UE4 and C++

About the Book

Learn the tools and techniques of game design using a project-based approach with Unreal Engine 4 and C++ Key Features Kickstart your career or dive into a new hobby by exploring game design with UE4 and C++ Learn the techniques needed to prototype and develop your own ideas Reinforce your skills with project-based learning by building a series of games from scratch Book DescriptionGame development can be both a creatively fulfilling hobby and a full-time career path. It's also an exciting way to improve your C++ skills and apply them in engaging and challenging projects. Game Development Projects with Unreal Engine starts with the basic skills you'll need to get started as a game developer. The fundamentals of game design will be explained clearly and demonstrated practically with realistic exercises. You’ll then apply what you’ve learned with challenging activities. The book starts with an introduction to the Unreal Editor and key concepts such as actors, blueprints, animations, inheritance, and player input. You'll then move on to the first of three projects: building a dodgeball game. In this project, you'll explore line traces, collisions, projectiles, user interface, and sound effects, combining these concepts to showcase your new skills. You'll then move on to the second project; a side-scroller game, where you'll implement concepts including animation blending, enemy AI, spawning objects, and collectibles. The final project is an FPS game, where you will cover the key concepts behind creating a multiplayer environment. By the end of this Unreal Engine 4 game development book, you'll have the confidence and knowledge to get started on your own creative UE4 projects and bring your ideas to life.What you will learn Create a fully-functional third-person character and enemies Build navigation with keyboard, mouse, gamepad, and touch controls Program logic and game mechanics with collision and particle effects Explore AI for games with Blackboards and Behavior Trees Build character animations with Animation Blueprints and Montages Test your game for mobile devices using mobile preview Add polish to your game with visual and sound effects Master the fundamentals of game UI design using a heads-up display Who this book is forThis book is suitable for anyone who wants to get started using UE4 for game development. It will also be useful for anyone who has used Unreal Engine before and wants to consolidate, improve and apply their skills. To grasp the concepts explained in this book better, you must have prior knowledge of the basics of C++ and understand variables, functions, classes, polymorphism, and pointers. For full compatibility with the IDE used in this book, a Windows system is recommended.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents

1. Unreal Engine Introduction
2. Working with Unreal Engine
3. Character Class Components and Blueprint Setup
4. Player Input
5. Line Traces
6. Collision Objects
7. UE4 Utilities
8. User Interfaces
9. Audio-Visual Elements
10. Creating a SuperSideScroller Game
11. Blend Spaces 1D, Key Bindings, and State Machines
12. Animation Blending and Montages
13. Enemy Artificial Intelligence
14. Spawning the Player Projectile
15. Collectibles, Power-Ups, and Pickups
16. Multiplayer Basics
17. Remote Procedure Calls
18. Gameplay Framework Classes in Multiplayer

About the Author :
Gustavo Reis is a self-taught programmer and created his first video game on a ZX Spectrum 128k when he was 12 years old. He graduated in computer science and then earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence. By collaborating with three colleagues at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, he created a Bachelor's Degree in Games and Multimedia. Gustavo worked on several indie game projects and won the 'Best use of Playstation Platform' award at PlayStation Talents for the game Higher Plains. Currently, he is the coordinator of the Games and Multimedia bachelor's degree at Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, where he teaches various topics, such as Game Engines II, Artificial Intelligence Applied to Games, Computer Graphics, and Advanced Game Programming. He is also a senior developer at Sound Particles, where he is working on the integration of the Sound Particles software with popular game engines. Hammad Fozi comes from a gaming background and has been extensively working on Unreal Engine since 2017. He has been part of some very successful AAA projects such as Virtua FanCave (and Metaverse), Unnamed AAA Sci-Fi DJ Experience, Heroes and Generals, and Creed: Rise to Glory VR. Hammad has worked with teams who have had experience working at Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Games, 2K Games, and more! He has successfully helped teams consisting of 10–30 people to scale to 150+ in size over his very short yet impressive career. Hammad currently works as a senior C++ game developer and has extensive experience in working with VR and augmented reality, PC/PS5/Xbox/Android/iOS/macOS game development, and Web3/Metaverse/NFT systems (within Unreal Engine). Gonçalo Marques has been an active gamer since the age of 6. He has been using Unreal Engine since 2016 and has done freelance and consulting work using the engine. Gonçalo also released a free and open source plugin called UI Navigation, which has garnered an extremely positive reception with over 100,000 downloads and is still receiving frequent updates and fixes. Thanks to the development of this plugin, he became an Epic MegaGrant recipient. He is now working at Funcom ZPX, a game studio in Lisbon that has contributed to games such as Conan Exiles, Mutant Year Zero, and Moons of Madness. Gonçalo is currently working on a new Funcom game in the Dune universe. David Pereira started making games in 1998 when he learned how to use Clickteam's The Games Factory. He graduated in computer science from FCT-UNL, where he learned about C++, OpenGL, and DirectX, which allowed him to create more complex games. After working in IT consulting for a few years, he joined Miniclip in Portugal where he worked on popular mobile games such as 8 Ball Pool, Gravity Guy 1 and Gravity Guy 2, Extreme Skater, iStunt2, Hambo, and many others. Since then, he has been the lead developer for MPC in the John Lewis Christmas VR Experience, worked on an earlier version of Mortal Shell, and did volunteer work teaching people with Asperger's how to make games with Unreal Engine 4. Today, he's working on his own game, a soon-to-be-announced first-person action RPG. Devin Sherry is originally from Levittown, NY, located on Long Island. He studied the topics of Game Development and Game Design at the University of Advancing Technology where he had earned his Bachelor of Arts in Game Design in 2012. During his time in college, Devin worked as a game and level designer with a group of students called Autonomous Games on a real-time strategy styled, third-person shooter called The Afflicted using Unreal Engine 3/UDK where it was presented at GDC in 2013 at the GDC Play Showcase. Today, Devin works as an independent game developer located in Tempe, Arizona, where he works on personal and contracted projects. His achievements include the title Radial Impact, which can be found in the Community Contributions section of the Learn Tab of Unreal Engine 4's Launcher, and his work on his YouTube Channel, Devin Level Design, where he educates viewers on game development within Unreal Engine 3, UDK, and Unreal Engine 4.