Learning Unreal Engine in One Month to make a Game!

Unreal Engine is an incredibly powerful game engine that I have wanted to learn for a while now, so I dedicated the month of January to learn Unreal Engine 5 and then make a game with it.
GameDev.tv course: www.gamedev.tv/p/unreal-5-0-c...
To check for a sale, go to the courses page and then click on the course again. For some reason the link isn’t showing a sale.
Learning to make video games with Unreal Engine 5 was tricky at first. Watching Unreal Engine beginners guides on youtube wasn't working out too well for me. Compared to Unity and Godot, UE5 has a lot more things to learn and the amount and quality of the learning resources are much worse in my opinion. What really helped me learn Unreal Engine 5 was a gamedev.tv course on learning unreal with C++. C plus plus is a programing language that Unreal Engine uses. Unreal also has a visual programming language called blueprints.
After making 5 beginner projects with the course from game dev tv, I spent the rest of the month creating my own video game in unreal engine. The game I was going to make is a puzzle horror game where there are spooky statues that only move when they are in the dark and freeze when they are in light. The player has to solve puzzles trying to escape a room while avoiding the statues.
Due to some issues at the end I couldn't quite export the game, but I still had a lot of fun learning unreal engine in a month and would recommend that you learn UE as well if you like game dev.
Subscribe: kzbin.info...
Instagram: / will_hess_yt
TikTok: / will_hess_yt
X: / will_hess_yt
LinkedIn: / will-hess-iii-046159233
Discord: Will Hess(hashtag)9883
If you have any questions feel free to reach out over social media!

[@k3y.mp4]

as someone who has been trying to learn ue5 for a few months, your progress is amazing, keep going! edit: for anyone looking for good learning resources, the official unreal docs are actually amazing

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thanks for watching!

[@Qwiggalo]

The first thing you should do when starting a project is build it, then do daily builds. It's WAY easier to figure out what's wrong before making weeks of progress.

[@WillHessGameDev]

That’s actually really smart lol. Thanks for sharing! You probably just saved me massive amounts of future headaches!

[@bh8763]

Def should come back to this in the future. Such good potential

[@mio-vi2rg]

You know I'm not sure if I'm more impressed by how quickly you picked up UE or your commentary skills haha

[@DavidSchiess]

such a cool idea to have fixed poses for the enemies instead of animations!

[@billyboy1er]

I'm pretty sure he got the inspiration for that game from the Doctor Who angel statues, one of the creepiest and scariest episodes!

[@DavidSchiess]

yes - what I meant is that he chose poses in the first place instead of freezing the animations. In hindsight probably the best and most simple solution, but I wouldn't even have thought of that. Even though it's obvious that they won't ever be seen moving@@billyboy1er

[@QuarzleTheMinecrafter]

I love this channel. The production quality is what you would expect from million subscriber channels.

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thanks I appreciate it!

[@Nunokoiso22]

Dude! Orange box moves! That's insane, I spent 3 hours and I'm not even close. The basic actor is a lousy cylinder

[@Lucas-fl6py]

great video! really engaging and interesting even though I don't do game development at all. also this is a really cool concept for a game I hope you end up going back to it

[@WillHessGameDev]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@SudKalwale]

you deserve more love from youtube.. Sharing, wish you the best

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thank you so much!

[@Drew-Chase]

Most games can be developed without delving into C++. Blueprints offer extensive capabilities, performing tasks nearly as efficiently as C++. C++ becomes essential primarily for tackling advanced or lower-level concepts.

[@finesseandstyle]

Haha, you're not alone in the Unreal failing to export the game. I've had to troubleshoot that 2 seperate times for an entire day and it still wouldn't launch the game.

[@OrangeAceGaming]

We desperately need our own version of Brackeys for Unreal

[@WillHessGameDev]

He came back and is now team godot. Who knows he might do some unreal too

[@NicoparaDEV]

You could use unrealCLR or angel script although you would then get cut out of cutting edge tech like Mass entity

[@ctndev]

Welcome the bare witness about Dunning Kruger effect. Well done gentlemen, you learnt Unreal in 1 month.

[@SamuTheFrog]

My experience learning UE was much different. I found documentation & tutorials to be a dime a dozen on just about any topic I needed to know. Godot and Unity both I feel like I had to dig through a sea of irrelevant information that really tilted my motivation.

[@LaserGadgets]

So if you know Unity, did you make a 3D game in unity too? If now, you should, entertaining and helpful indeed! And very motivating! Good job, really.

[@WillHessGameDev]

I have made a 3d puzzle game with unity. The playlist is on the channel!

[@LaserGadgets]

@@WillHessGameDevCool, thanks. Will check that out for sure.

[@sebay4654]

Currently what im Good at is Narrative, what im Bad at is 3d modelling and anything Art Related, and what im Relatively capable of is Basic Programming (things like Puzzle Logic and interaction Flags ECT but anything to do with Character Movement,Physics and similar topics Are an absolute headache

[@LostSapling]

Nice Video!

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thanks!

[@nyukiland]

The problem with the move function is that, you have a really limited control. So i you want your character to move in a certain way it can make it a lot harder

[@WillHessGameDev]

Agreed, that’s definitely a big trade off. It is really easy to make a character move in a normal human way, but I would have no clue how to go about making a mechanic like horizontal wall running. I remember when I started with unity I wanted to mess around in 3D by making a titanfall portal hybrid and remember making the horizontal wall running pretty easily, but in unreal it seems like a nightmare lol!

[@wclip_central]

What is the name of the second project of the course asset pack with that beautiful character, please i would really like to base a game off of that, thanks!

[@WillHessGameDev]

I believe it is called the unreal learning kit and the is available for free in the marketplace in the epic games launcher

[@WillHessGameDev]

Good luck with your game!

[@wclip_central]

U the only creator that answer, + 1 sub, and thx!!!@@WillHessGameDev

[@amirarshiamirzaei710]

grats for commitment and hard working learning all that just for half and making a real game from other half

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thanks

[@SpiritEconomy786]

Hi I would like a video on interactive games, I like the idea of “heavy rain” I want to build something small and similar

[@sebipopa6964]

can you make a more detailed tutorial on how to do this?

[@WillHessGameDev]

Maybe in the future when I get better at unreal but this was more of a little documentation of the path I took to learn the engine

[@siddhubhai2508]

Hey guy, your suggestion made me think more clear, but a darker thing came in my mind, Can I request something? It may be possible that you won't make a video on my single comment but it also may be possible you will make because you are a pro and experienced guy, so request is can you make a true review on Unreal Engine 5 official docs, will it be best platform to learn UE5? Because soon I gonna choose that but before doing that I prefered to take your advice, please help your little brother 🥺

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thanks for the suggestion but I think there are a lot of ue5 reviews already out there and I don’t have as much experience with it to be able to make a valuable review in the first place.

[@siddhubhai2508]

@@WillHessGameDev Thanks for your reply, I were waiting for, also I will look to another for this, I'm very glad you accepted your level of learning in ue5 and didn't lied, thanks a lot from heart ❤️🤩☺️

[@user-go7em8wm8l]

Can i make +100 levels in a game without any subscription in unreal

[@sangheilizealot5787]

Wow i am learning since half a year and feel like i cant do anything im mostly going from tutorial to tutorial t.t

[@middleagedshred]

strange..your link to the course said over 200 dollars but if you click courses link then find the course in the list its 20 dollars..)

[@WillHessGameDev]

Interesting… I’ll mention something like that in the description

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thanks for letting me know

[@marcapouli7805]

I have more than 40 K hours on UE and still can't make a game. I doubt 1 month is enough.

[@travis2222]

Epic charges 5% if you make over one million and they charge a license to people using UE for non game dev uses

[@MrSkeleton14]

1:37 me when i see anything other than python, gml, or javascript:

[@KillerDudeT19]

When I learned UE I used blueprints. Mage stuff soooo much easier

[@WillHessGameDev]

Some stuff I found only to work in blueprints, like the new enhanced input system but for everything else I just felt c++ was a less clunky way to implement it. I get lost very easily when looking at massive blueprints but to be fair it’s just because I’m not used to it. Literally the same argument can be made in favor of blueprints. That’s the beauty of it, no matter if you like blueprints or c++ you can still get by pretty well.

[@KillerDudeT19]

@@WillHessGameDev that is true. That's why I love UE

[@Sworn973]

lol, who else went over the course thinking it would still be 14?

[@Brasztub]

hi bro i think u have good skills in creating games , i want to make a team with people that have skills in game design ,advertising , and some other valuable skills , i have a vison of making a game based on some right factors that will serve a purpose as i have social median background i understood something something cool about people and online products i wish u i wish i could put that in use , so both us and consumers we can enjoy the process together , as am working i could spend some money on that would be fun to learn some stuff and become friends let me know thx (:

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thanks for the offer but I want to focus more on learning to be self sufficient in game dev rather than working for someone. Besides there are a lot more qualified people than me that you can hire.

[@Brasztub]

well don't u think in order to build your own empire would be better to work with people ? also i will not hire we will work together as friends marketing a project , i would just spend some money on that i could learn some stuff and help out @@WillHessGameDev

[@victoryhero6895]

Hello, any new developers looking to help me with a project? I am using unreal engine and need somebody a little more skilled than I am: at blueprints, scenes, effects, character importing, and pretty much frameworks. I have some basic concepts but the things that I envision for the game just won't translate to my coding and unreal engine skills, probably will be free-to-play

[@WillHessGameDev]

This probably isn’t what you want to hear, and I imagine I’m not the first to tell you, but try to make something you can reasonably do yourself. If you’re new to unreal learn this stuff and get good at it. Make something. Anything. It doesn’t matter what because it will help you get better. Try to not make it too ambitious but even failing at a big ambitious project will be a great learning experience (I struggle a lot with that part myself). It’s better to just fail alone than rope someone else in and be forced to pay them for a project that didn’t meet your expectations, and yeah you are going to need to pay people regardless. People don’t just do that stuff for free. Good luck with your game dev endeavors!

[@victoryhero6895]

yeah I think it is all how much time people are looking to spend on things they already know, if its worth my money I will learn more. don't improve without knowing more about how professionals have done it, that is the basic framework haha@@WillHessGameDev

[@oyentemaniatico]

course is $234 now 😱

[@WillHessGameDev]

It will go back down… eventually…

[@feanixfukari]

Have you heard of Doctor Who's Weeping Angels?

[@WillHessGameDev]

I have not. Is it a similar concept?

[@feanixfukari]

@@WillHessGameDev Yeah they are statue angels that only move when you aren't looking. I have a gut feeling you'll enjoy the related episodes. Their design is super creepy and the episodes feel like a short horror feature.

[@WillHessGameDev]

Thanks for letting me know!

[@middleagedshred]

Haha..yea i was gonna comment this reminded me of an episode of doctor who

[@oglothenerd]

Did you make sure your C++ code had no memory leaks?

[@WillHessGameDev]

I’m still trying to figure out how pointers and references work lol. I would not be surprised if it did!

[@oglothenerd]

@@WillHessGameDev Malloc and free babyyyyyyy!

[@user-ze8pl8to2b]

@@oglothenerd RAII is the true path to enlightenment

[@oglothenerd]

@@user-ze8pl8to2b I really don't understand why. I have a hard time understanding what exactly it is, but from what I have gathered, it is an error prone way to managing memory. I personally love what languages like Rust are doing, where it is a memory safe compiled language, without anything extra like a garbage collector.

[@RamazanKhakimzhan]

Man how old are you interesiting to know is it to old start game dev at 20 yers old?

[@WillHessGameDev]

20 is definitely not to old. I’m 18 and even though I’m new to unreal I’ve been doing game dev stuff for a while now. If you have prior experience coding then it will be super easy if not then don’t worry coding isn’t too bad. Good luck!

[@SamuTheFrog]

As an avid UE5 user, I can say its much easier to do 3d in it than Godot, BUT, ULTIMATELY Godot is as good as the dev is. Js.

[@WillHessGameDev]

Very true

[@SamuTheFrog]

@@WillHessGameDev I follow the philosophy that you should use the tool that best benefits you & stays out of the way of your workflow the most. If you ask me, that is Unreal in a nutshell. It does most of it for you allowing your creative side to really flourish.

[@axzul777]

Try first gd engine

[@User-cn2qj]

You payed 14$ dollars for the course? Haha, i payed 9.99$ for the course 😎

[@WillHessGameDev]

🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑

[@user-qf7zz9yk5m]

unity is best

[@oglothenerd]

Godot 3D is actually quite capable.

[@WillHessGameDev]

I know but UE 5 has got some hard core 3D features that I didn’t mention like lumen and nanite.

[@2dbaddiepostedonmybed]

lol you sound like you 15

[@deviiancee765]

YuHuhurr luh twizzy (did you hear that the creator of choochoo Charles only used visual code?)