6 Months Learning Unreal Engine - My Game Dev Journey

My 6 month journey learning Unreal Engine and building my first game. Subscribe for more ✌️
WISHLIST ON STEAM: store.steampowered.com/app/24...
DISCORD: / discord
TWITCH: / solomongumballtv
UE5 LANDSCAPE TUTORIAL:
• Unreal Engine 5 Beginn...
BLENDER SPIDER WALK TUTORIAL:
• Animate a Character in...
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
0:41 The pains of knowing nothing
1:13 Learn what interests you the most
1:58 My first game & the daily grind
3:06 A change of direction
3:41 Doing things wrong (in a good way)
4:30 Expanding my skillset
5:52 3D Art?
6:45 Workflow is EVERYTHING (Devlog 4 updates start here)
7:26 Blueprint vs C++
7:45 Animations & body proportions
8:37 In with the new (characters)
9:00 Main menu map
9:40 Game Lobby map
10:03 First Wifi playtest & outro
10:57 Bloopers
#unrealengine #devlog #gamedev #indiedev
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/prigida/side-ste...
License code: SKMQTD7OVXIXLEQD
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/kevin-macleod/ba...
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/kevin-macleod/de...
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/poem
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/kevin-macleod/ap...
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/b...

[@Gothicpolar]

Dude if this is all in 6 months.. you have an amazingly bright future ahead of you!

[@blockablockavr]

I agree

[@kpo1233]

He is lying. He had previous experience

[@KartelMichealPeek]

There is no way he could have done it in six months.He had the experience to do it.

[@BootyliciousSWC]

​@@kpo1233literally the first 20 seconds of the video he said "I've been a software developer for a while" How short is your attention span lol

[@rektmaster1749]

My god, this is a lot of dedication for both unreal and blender, I started blender recently but have been doing unreal for 2 years and I still can’t do half the things you’ve done

[@solomon-gumball]

To be fair, when making videos I have the luxury of only showcasing the things I DO know how to do. There's still many panels, tabs and radial menus I haven't even touched 😂. Anyway- thanks for your kind words!

[@douwe4254]

Pick a game you easily spend 1000+ hours on in a year. Then get bored and/or frustrated enough to quit and spend that time on an actual project. For me that game was Barotrauma, when I started to get deeper into their 'blueprint' engineering for submarines I felt frustrated enough with the limitations of the game (and it's lack of stability late-game), that I felt I could spend my time better doing something else. Then compare how impressed people are with my projects and creations within those games. And figure out how long it took you to go from not spending a minute of that game, to building complex things. Spend that same amount of time on a game-engine and surrounding tools. Spend as much time doing research to get the things that have to work to run properly. And in Barotrauma the difference between an in-game engineer and evolving into a submarine designer, was as easy for me as picking a moment where I could have spend 500+ hours designing my favorite submarine in a game that is going to drop performance and ruin a lot of my enjoyment, or... appreciate the logic learning of their blueprint system, and translate it into actual game design. You won't find more dedicated people, than most gamers. They just gotta find their niche and stick to it.

[@muhammadislahuddin]

@@solomon-gumball btw how older you?

[@Tenchinu]

I cannot believe you learned, experimented, and implemented all of these different softwares in just 6 months... that's insane! the progress and speed are so good! double subscribe

[@omaryahia]

same ! wow that is incredible

[@Kharabish]

me 2 wow wow wow

[@LazyAlarm]

Amazing progress for just 6 months! I’m excited to see how far you go.

[@Hippoman19]

Wow amazing progress! I’ve been wanting to learn unreal for a long time, these kinds of videos really give a ton of motivation!

[@WasatchWind]

Great look back! I can't wait to see what you show off next!

[@nicolaymydland1506]

Wow, amazing progress! Keep it up🔥

[@Glorb1]

The progress is amazing and it’s been fun keeping up with the game.

[@pranaypanda5146]

Unbelievable dedication. Great work. That part where you said that boredom is the enemy and doing something you really enjoy I think it is one of the main reason towards your progress.

[@T1duzz]

Heartwarming ending. Love to see you grow. Best to you.

[@Buraasen]

Amazing to see the progress Solomon! 🤩 The game is now added to my wishlist! 😎👍🏻

[@solomon-gumball]

Thanks Buraas 👊

[@brad8803]

Looks great. Very inspiring. Been dipping into unreal and blender as well. Love the look, love the dedication. Congrats on what you've made and learned so far!

[@dbeast270]

I just started my first game project on Unreal Engine and this video really motivates me to keep it going! I really like the way you tackled every stage of the development and how it came out so far. I can see the passion on your video and thank you for sharing your journey with us! You have a talent for it 🔥

[@safeish2958]

I love the starting animation it’s amazingly clean!

[@anytng999]

Huge respect on the progress you have made! Learning UE5 currently and this video sure helps a lot on how to tackle the problem of learning the engine.

[@turingcode]

Epic progress man! Also the characters are かわいい🌝

[@losbopfos5637]

The amount of dedication is unreal! ( Pun intended ) Learning all this stuff in 6 months is crazy and you even didn't mentioned the amount of work, you put in your videos.

[@steve_rico]

This is really inspirational and your learning philosophy to avoid burnout is spot on. Stay interested, stay motivated. The assumption everyone is able to follow a linear learning track is very dated. Best of luck with the game, it's on my wishlist!

[@tdurante_]

These videos are a big inspiration for me as I continue on my own 3D design journey….can’t wait for the next one! Great job!

[@solomon-gumball]

Glad to be of service 🧑‍🔧

[@TalZerAviv.]

This was such an interesting and informative video! As a junior software developer, I completely related to all of the struggles you described in your video about motivation, the optimal way to do something etc, and I gotta say, you definitely hit the spot for me! Sharing my progress isn't something I thought about doing, but I can definitely see how it can build some positive pressure to get something done. The desire to make something the best you can at any given point can immensely hurt your workflow, and I face this with tutorial hell on a day to day basis. As soon as I feel like I'm not educated enough about a certain topic in my programming journey, I immediately go to the extreme and buy a whole course or watch an hour long video just on one small subject. Sometimes jumping in the water is the way to go, and by looking at your progress, I can see where I went wrong because you did such an amazing job. You deserve much more views on this video, such a well rounded approach. GL HF!

[@rigbyb]

Great video. I enjoyed seeing your game's progression and it gave me great motivation.

[@XdPixsel]

I absolutely love your content and mindset towards projects like this, I'd love for this game to possibly be console ported after all of the finishing touches have been made!

[@Cjoudan]

This is awesome, i hope to get to your skill level! Seems like you have great follow through on the game.

[@loop8946]

This is absolutely awesome, glad I ran across your video and channel.

[@Shodan-0101]

Hahaha lovid this video!! Awesome progress on the game! Congrats!!

[@JoonyTv]

6:05 ahahha yes, the illusive glove! keep making amazing videos :D i love watching these

[@MeelsYT]

Great video bro I really appreciate the open and honest advice, Good luck with your game :3

[@lucbloom]

You should be super proud of what you’ve accomplished and keeping it up! Also reaching out for help when needed to get you over hurdles and unstuck. Wish listing now for when I eventually find friends who want to play with me locally ;-)

[@alhusseinali]

Well done , keep the hard work 👏

[@SaltySkip]

The physics look like they are going to be a lot of fun. I'm psyched!!

[@DualityAscend]

Amazing video. You not only have great learning skills but also amazing storytelling. I hope I can make a similar video in... 5.5 months 💪Cheers and gl in all your projects!

[@Munkybunky]

Thanks for the video as it has inspired me to try Unreal and have a go! Your game looks really professional already.

[@ThiagoLaranjeiraZerooneBit]

dont stop plz, this keeps me going as well

[@solomon-gumball]

🤝

[@secondnatures]

well done! Very inspiring story!

[@camileet]

you're awesome!! got me motivated!

[@ArnaldoOrdonezNunez]

It looks awesome dude. Congrats.

[@ammoburgeryoutube]

looking great, bro!

[@Dreyko5893]

6 months? That's A LOT of progress, you're so dedicated. Keep it up!

[@Jonas-kj1ke]

game is on the wishlist amazing work dude

[@REDbird5]

This is great 👍 I wish I could make progress for my stuff like you

[@danisob3633]

this is great

[@KellsTV97]

I wishlisted it!! Can't wait to make a video on it when it drops!

[@cheatedjack5509]

I think you should add an ant character. They could have mini skies on their middle arms/legs, which they use while leaning in turn.

[@salomon_gutierrez]

Bruh, nice work. Great progress! I hope it keeps improving. : ) Perhaps your might like trying 3D Coat for modelling/sculpting/UVs/texturing. It behaves fantastically well with UE5. Cheers!

[@fernandorojo6311]

Awesome work. Thanks for sharing.

[@alexanderkartashov8776]

GJ man, keep on it!

[@Riclaval]

Seeing the robot drop down with the sock, I thought a grappling hook would add 800% value to the fun of the game

[@Dines646]

holy moly all this in 6 months, your going far!!!

[@declan5184]

Awesome. Gives me a lot of motivation to pursue this cause I have almost the same story as you. Right down to making space on my SSD to install Unreal lmao. Subscribed.

[@TOKYEO]

Amazingly well put together script!

[@veeneemaas]

Interesting 🥳👍🏼 let’s goooo!

[@dannypritchett3565]

heck yeah dude this is sweet!

[@aporelly]

great work 👏

[@ayron419]

Immediate follow, great inspiration! I love using substance painter + blender workflow for textures. I'm extremely amateur but that workflow intrigued me enough when starting my gamedev journey to really hook me

[@shwehlaing5880]

Bro, you are gifted.

[@cybercandyman]

Starting the adventure, and it's funny similar, very excited to learn and gain skills

[@sunny99179]

im on 1month and half and i only have learned a lot and i love it! i tryed to make an game for about 3-5 years with no sucess due to don't learn the basics, now i hit the road of learn anything to make my game, im loving it even one day per week i get stressed and stop from time to time but i wont surrender, honestly UE5 is an amazing tool and has a lot of improvements, that video also inspired me but im a huge fan of unreal from very early, i think i couldnt go until that video,nanite is the ''must'' im also having a lot of issues on material export to unreal, after search much and see many videos on youtube i found that the best way to make material is: just export the texture if you hand paint it and setup everything on unreal, i also dedicated sometime learning some ''material'' stuff from unreal,there are some oficial videos that can help you on this from unreal guys. im still thinking about substance painter but there is an guy who did an cabin's video on unreal, he is PRO on these things about film making on blender and he says that unreal dont recognize everything you exported about material,so whats the best way to save time and avoid re-work than setup directly on unreal?? im loving to see your progress and its very very cool and fun as i can see.

[@solomon-gumball]

Awesome to hear. Glad you're getting over the hump and start to enjoy making a game in Unreal Engine. As far as materials go- Blender can only export very basic material setups so in a lot of cases you'll just end up recreating materials in Unreal from scratch. That's just kind of how it is at the moment 🤷. Learning the "Blender to Unreal" workflow is an art in itself I've found.

[@JirehMont]

1:48 this is so true I feel it to my core. The only I improved in Blender is because I searched up what interested me instead of just watching beginner tutorials. Doing that really helped me improve at a much faster pace. I did hit a plateau with lighting which detailed all the momentum I had going though but I will get back into it for sure. 🦆

[@HallowzDev]

Wow this is incredible!

[@cweasegaming2692]

That cheap "mocap" idea is genius! I'll be using this

[@wintsy]

No doubt I’ll be playing this as soon as it releases

[@markcuevas9866]

I hope that this game gets more attention, it looks amazingly fun!

[@Seb.chartrand]

Good job !! 👍👍

[@treeghost45]

love the new edeting style

[@ArekusamaIX]

how do you make the music? (i think im gonna start learning unreal engine)

[@lyomgames]

Amazing dude

[@grimsniper]

I’m at the stage of considering to learn to use UE5 but at 40 it feels daunting as… cheers for the simple advice… “just do what interests you” and see where it goes is probably my best place to start! 🤙 good luck with your game bro!

[@_Cotton]

New solomon gumball upload!!

[@_Cotton]

Thank you KZbin for sending me the notification 8 hours late

[@Vienesko]

Dude i'm jealous... I always wanted to start this journey and started a few times...but i'm 32 and so much stuff is going on that I dond't find the time for all that. But there is a silver lining. I hope to get started once I sorted some thing out in my life. Thanks anyway for the inspiration and keep up the good work.

[@solomon-gumball]

Hey I'm 30 so I think you've still got plenty of time. It's definitely a time consuming thing tho so just get at it when you're ready! Thanks for the kind words.

[@b.delacroix7592]

I feel for you. I picked up UE for a work project and they wanted something fairly quick. October to December and I had a flight simulator. At least I didn't have to do the simulation part, just plugged in one we already had to drive the objects in the display. UE is one of those tools that has so much that it can be overwhelming if you try to take it all in at once.

[@john9908]

That water game looks dope!!!

[@szymonjakub1]

Bro this is so cool

[@PuppyGamerYT]

That deigetic menu is 🤩

[@centripetal6157]

This a crazy amount of progress in 6 months for solo development.

[@djbaker4169]

Bro very proud of you, looks amazing, I wanna design games as well, and I’m trying to get my 10 year old son to start learning coding. For Christmas next year I wanna create my 3 kids an open world game where they’re the main characters and can play as themselves. Please give me ideas for what they can do in the game

[@TheDario64]

BRO WAKE UP NEW SOLOMON GUMBALL VIDEO

[@TheExplorer2K]

You are going to blow up as a game dev I'm telling you

[@lvc1ferr]

Dude it’s awesome. Keep it up man. Btw, what laptop r u using for all these works?

[@gregory6099]

me experience with ue is literally the same, cool vid btw!

[@marcinosgamedev]

would be a great addition to have the character selection be inside a warm cabin

[@arkemal]

Excellent job, well done! 2 questions: - why not using Perforce over Git? - why using Steam instead of Epic Games Store? Thanks

[@solomon-gumball]

1. Because I'm familiar with git already and I'm too lazy to learn perforce right now 2. Steam is just a much more popular store for indie games. Would absolutely give epic games store more thought if it had a larger market share

[@ceg.02]

6months is insane

[@wellingtonribeiro847]

As a wannabe gamedev, all the progress you did in 6 months I would expect to do in 2 years, congratulations.

[@StaxKarratGang]

Wish I was this fast I’ve been at it for a year and haven’t gotten this much done ✅ thanks for the inspiration amigo

[@Deepaksingh-zx1ty]

Brooo.... that start menu looks sick...

[@essomatic]

I cant belive how good its looking

[@theredgoblin562]

Your self scrutiny at your level of skill is both inulting and inspiring lmao

[@ChrisJaydenBeats]

This is next lvl

[@tanama84]

You can be Game Designer, Level Designer or Game Artist. They are in need than gameplay programmer now, since the UE engine is working fine.

[@TurdyTree33]

Maybe you could add something like the blue shell in Mariokart, so you can hit the person in the lead. You could make the penguin fly to the person in the lead and attack him. Also you could do something like the ink, where you partially blind the other players, it could be called “blizzard” or something, and that’s exactly what it would be, a blizzard.

[@MadstonMagic]

can't wait to get into UE myself

[@gunjansarode4803]

Man the failed to compile sound scares me more than ghosts 😂

[@nathanlowry9421]

So I have some ideas for some new items. - I love the snowball idea, but I think it could also work really well as a throwable object, that gains more mass as it travels down the hill, picking up players as it goes down. Furthermore, it could be used as a way to throw a snowball down the mountain and when it catches up to the leader by skipping the curves and heading straight down the mountain, it’ll be huge and it’s hit box will likely knock into the target. -Northern-lights pulls the character along on a pre aligned track so it is hard for the player to fall off when this ability is activated and gives a minor boost to speed but this ability doesn’t last long, meaning its beast used for clutch moments perhaps around difficulty turns or when a mistake is imminent -I believe the item that gives the player the ability to freeze others by contact should be turned into the item that is put on the ground behind the player, and when it comes into contact with any player after that, it will freeze them. I think this balances out the ability to a one time use and as such you can add the ability for it to cause a domino affect and cause a traffic jam which I think could be really cool. I would call this ability Glacier and it would be represented in game by basically a block of ice in the track. -Ice Shell this item could protect you for a very short amount of time from any damage, meant for clutch moments when a player is about to overtake you. -Polar bear could be an item you gain that either is throwable, but the slowest projectile in the game while also being the one with the biggest hit box. Alternatively it could sit down and take swipes at any other player that travels too close to it. -a moose projectile that is fast and has a pretty big hit box but is not targeted I’d also love to see a Arctic Fox Character, a Seal Character and perhaps a Narwhal or Orca Character! I love the idea that Penguins are the only animal that isn’t Anthropomorphic lol I love the game so far and I hope my comment can help it succeed!

[@EhsanShamsi-et7vi]

That's actually hard to believe yet it's amazing. I just have one very important question. Do you have any background in coding or scripting?

[@royadler_]

He's saying in second 13, that he's been a Software Developer for quite some time

[@1xverse859]

Hey dude just wanted to say love your progress but I wanted to ask how did you learn c++

[@treeghost45]

yiiiipiie love ur game

[@thebigheartyradish]

i think it would be cool if the character selection screen was everyone sitting one a snowy hill looking out at the mountains

[@RDD87z]

hi. what wouldu recommend to start learning about the control rig setup . nice progress for 6 months!

[@haverfc]

All that in only 6 months??????? That's amazing good work. I just downloaded UE5 today and found your video looking for a How To Get Started. Ill take your advice and learn a bit at a time. Also if you are ever looking for play testers who give solid feedback, I would love to test...

[@protophase]

I got an idea for the main menu! What if you pick "Join game" or whatever and the OTHER signs fall off the pole and down on the ground (maybe even outside the screen) to indicate what you've chosen before continuing?