About the Book
Build real game projects and enhance your skills with step-by-step guidance using Unreal Engine and C++, covering animation, AI, UI, multiplayer, and essential game development techniques
Key Features
Build real games using Unreal Engine and C++ with step-by-step guidance
Learn core topics like animation, AI, UI/UX, multiplayer, and input systems
Solve common dev issues and stay current with evolving tools and workflows
Book DescriptionImmerse yourself in the Unreal game projects with this book, written by four highly experienced industry professionals with many years of combined experience with Unreal Engine. Elevating Game Experiences with Unreal Engine 5 will walk you through the latest version of Unreal Engine by helping you get hands-on with the game creation projects.
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, where you'll learn the concepts of line traces, collisions, projectiles, user interface, and sound effects. You’ll also discover how to combine these concepts to showcase your new skills. The second project, a side-scroller game, will help you implement concepts such as animation blending, enemy AI, spawning objects, and collectibles. And finally, you'll cover the key concepts in creating a multiplayer environment as you work on the third project, an FPS game.
By the end of this Unreal Engine book, you'll have a broad understanding of how to use the tools that the game engine provides to start building your own games.What you will learn
Create a fully functional third-person character and enemies
Implement navigation with keyboard, mouse, and gamepad
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
Polish your game with stunning visual and sound effects
Explore the fundamentals of game UI using a heads-up display
Discover how to implement multiplayer in your games
Who this book is forThis book is ideal for developers and hobbyists eager to build real games with Unreal Engine, deepen their C++ skills, and master key areas like animation, input, AI, UI/UX, multiplayer, and debugging. Prior experience with C++ (variables, functions, classes, pointers) and a Windows system are recommended for the best results.
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
Introduction to Unreal Engine
Working with Unreal Engine
Character Class Components and Blueprint Setup
Getting Started with Player Input
Query with Line Traces
Setting Up Collision Objects
Working with UE5 Utilities
Creating User Interfaces with UMG
Adding Audio-Visual Elements
Creating the SuperSideScroller Game
Working with Blend Space 1D, Key Bindings, and State Machines
Animation Blending and Montages
Creating and Adding the Enemy Artificial Intelligence
Spawning the Player Projectile
Exploring Collectibles. Power-Ups, and Pickups
Getting Started with Multiplayer Basics
Using Remote Procedure Calls
Using Gameplay Framework Classes in Multiplayer
About the Author :
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. 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. 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. 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).
