Start making 2D Games in Unreal Engine 5 - Paper 2D Basics

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Check out the Paper 2D Basics Playlist:
• Paper 2D Basics
If you've been using Unreal Engine for a while, you've probably asked yourself "Can you make 2D Games with Unreal Engine?"
In this video I'll give you the answer to that question and talk about the most important features of Paper 2D such as Sprites, Flipbooks, Tile Sets and Tile Maps.
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● Twitter: / cobracodedev
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Timecodes:
0:00 Intro
1:03 Paper 2D Project Setup
1:59 Sprites
3:01 Flipbooks
4:38 Tile Sets
5:34 Tile Maps
7:07 The current state of Paper 2D
Unreal Engine 2D Official Documentation:
docs.unrealengine.com/5.1/en-...
Sausy Blog Tile Map Tearing:
saucy.se/blog/gamedev/curse-of...
Mentioned videos:
• How to MAKE A FLIPBOOK
• No Auto Tiling? I'll m...
🎵 Music By:
Osaki - Evergarden
Provided by Lofi Records
Watch: • Osaki - Evergarden 🌱 [...
Used Assets:
Free Warrior Animation Set - clembod.itch.io/warrior-free-...
Icons made by Freepik (www.freepik.com) from Flaticon (www.flaticon.com/)
#cobracode #gamedev #unrealengine #ue5

[@ItsLaro]

You're filling an incredible niche, man! I think these 2D on UE5 videos will continue popping off.

[@CobraCode]

Thank you :D That wasn't the original plan, but once I posted my first couple of 2D videos a lot of people like them, so I decided to double down!

[@ItsLaro]

@@CobraCode I can imagine! But yeah, I predict (and hope) massive growth with the new wave of 2D game devs looking to move away from Unity and into UE5

[@BakinKoljac]

plus, all the Unity-users that are now switching to Unreal might keep making 2D games on Unreal now

[@hdsenevi]

@@BakinKoljac This is literary my plan

[@jellyking69]

Super looking forward to this series!

[@CobraCode]

If you like this series, make sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon so you get notified when the next episode comes out! Get Early Access to all 10 episodes on Patreon: www.patreon.com/CobraCode Check out the Paper 2D Basics Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLEHVxFO1I6ekaCoG3JBR4m3qbhOpPO7V8

[@hasanshafy_]

What are the topics you're planning to cover?

[@ardahanfatihyuksel364]

Are you planing to use paper zd for this tutorial or just paper 2d?

[@CobraCode]

@@hasanshafy_ Hey, so far this is my outline: Getting started with Paper 2D in UE 5 - Unreal Engine 2D Basics How to Find Free 2D Assets Paper 2D - Unreal Engine 2D Basics [43] Importing and using Sprites in Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 2D Basics [44] Using Sprite Sheets in Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 2D Basics [45] Best 2D Project settings in Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 2D Basics [46] Customizing Sprite Materials in Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 2D Basics [47] Simple 2D Character in Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 2D Basics [48] 2D Events and Notifies - Unreal Engine 2D Basics [49] Sprite Sockets - Unreal Engine 2D Basics [50] Tile Sets and Tile Maps in Unreal Engine - Unreal Engine 2D Basics

[@CobraCode]

@@ardahanfatihyuksel364 Most of the videos in this series will be more or less theory lessons rather than code alongs. When I show something where you can choose between using base paper 2d or paperZD i plan on at least mentioning both ways!

[@hasanshafy_]

@@CobraCodeThat's quite the list. You're doing a great work!

[@AvectaInteractive]

So useful and so so well explained! Thanks!

[@TheClumsyChannel]

This is exactly what ove been looking for. Out of all my hours trying to research this you're the only person I've found who actually shows how to make and use tilesets. I subscribed and will be waiting on more for this series.

[@CobraCode]

Awesome, glad the video was helpful! There's gonna be another episode later on that goes into more detail about tile sets and tile maps!

[@brandonjacksoon]

Thanks mate! Really good topic tbh.

[@josiahforbescollege]

yes another video! thankyou i am currently making a 2d game in unreal as a project for school and you are my proper teaching for all things unreal, i would be so stuck without your videos so thankyou so much for every one u make

[@CobraCode]

Awesome :D I hope your project goes well!

[@deuce222x]

I’m here for it lets goo

[@16exodia]

Who else is here after leaving Unity?

[@middlemarv]

Very helpful. Thanks.

[@OwenAlekos-mh7yw]

2d games and making data for board games using just pieces of paper with payroll receipt calculators. Regarding having proof of the outcome of the events of a paper game with simple vector space maps and content. Regarding simple inventory and so forth. Perfect for books of deciding fates and dice games. Logic of each paper/ page coming like a notebook card stack ringed together in a new certified package (untouched/ never opened). It's really fun with intellectuals who like using gambling and risk taking and low money and social work projects while making copyright stories and coffee house philosophy talks about deciding fate. Regarding how it makes the design of the game of communication be like it is personalized. Thus the 3d filter and making a personal copyright dashboard for 2d paper games when having linked a full receipt together. Especially with Mecha/ robots copyrights and inventions...

[@Eftiar]

Discovering you has brought like a tear to my eye. I was loving UE 5.2 but knew that Godot or Unity may be best for what i need but I didnt like them as much. Now know that the options I have for 2d are here in UE, I am so increadibly happy and going to continue my game dev journey with them.

[@CobraCode]

Awesome, really glad to hear that :D

[@arageron]

Thank you 💜

[@angelmesa9530]

Awesome video ❤ , please more videos about 2d.

[@mcdoodlechungus7500]

Yayy he posted 😂😂

[@RockyMulletGamedev]

Hey thanks for the shout out ! Even tho Epic pretty much abandoned Paper2D, the fact that Unreal is so customizable it's why I keep using it ! I really should make the switch to UE5... but as you stated, there's no more 2D template in UE5, which makes it scary.

[@CobraCode]

Yes, I also really love that about UE! I really like the new look of the editor, quality of life improvements, enhanced input system and lumen/nanite for HD-2D games, so yeah you should definitely give it a try. You figured out how to make your own tile map editor, so I think you should easily be able to set up your own 2D template! They are also customizable, so you could make your own! Also something that has been on my TODO list for the longest time 😅

[@funlabsdesignstudio]

Pretty interesting 🤔

[@D0CK201]

hi, I was watching your 2.5D tutorial, and found it difficult as the new Input Axis makes the camera part not work, do you know any guides on what I can do instead or an updated video of sorts?

[@Zero-pl3lm]

continua fazendo videos meu amigo seu conteudo e muito importante

[@TipsyContent]

Yoo That 2d/3d hybrid style looks really good. Any chances that theres gonna be a video on how to change sprite weapons?

[@CobraCode]

Thanks for the suggestion. That one has been requested many times and is on my todo list, however I don't wanna rush it and actually figure out the best way to do it first. I'll also need to find a good free asset to use it with that everybody can download

[@TipsyContent]

@@CobraCode Sounds Amazing looking forward to seeing the adventure with Unreal.

[@MoonrayMurray]

I am having alot of issues with getting my sprites to look the exact same as they do in other programs, it seems whenever I click run on the project it adds a bunch of different filters and lighting effects too the sprite, I have tried turning off all these features but it doesn't seem to help, if you could give me some advice that would be awesome!

[@yudiarsana5383]

You pump me soo much and id like to learn the software. Have you think about to make this into a course for beginner that just start UE5? thankyou

[@CobraCode]

Thank you :D I think absolute beginners are probably better off learning 3D at first when it comes to UE5 because that will actually teach you the proper way of doing things. For many things regarding 2D in unreal engine you have to bend over backwards, so you should at least have some experience before you jump in.

[@kermosrujji9475]

thanks, for indie developers, 2D games are the way to go, and really there is not enough tutorials to get going, so thanks for these videos, but in my opinion don't make single videos with different topics, it should be series that cover at least 2 levels for any game. i mean if you plan to make a series for 2D shooter, at least make 2 levels, and not just one level with boss fight at the end of second level if possible, this way it will be easier for us to follow ...

[@MacetheBlader]

I’m curious, what is the difference between paper 2d and paperzd? Which one would you recommend now?

[@CobraCode]

Hey, it isn't really an either or. PaperZD builds on top of paper 2D, so I recommend learning the ropes of base Paper 2D first. Once you have a decent understanding of that you can move on to adding PaperZD on top of that. PaperZD makes things such as handling your animation state and anim notifies a lot easier and therefore creates a really nice and sustainable workflow. However it might take a bit of time to learn all the features it comes with.

[@nospimi99]

@@CobraCode Good to know. I had heard PaperZD was just a beefed up and better version of Paper2D so I was gonna look for other tutorials on that instead. Didn't even think to realize that learning how Paper2D works better would allow me to have a better understanding on how PaperZD works. Excited to see your future videos on this :)

[@MacetheBlader]

@@CobraCode That makes sense, Thanks!

[@adelmo83]

Great!!!, can you show how import 2d animation of Spine to unreal?, thanks

[@CobraCode]

Hey, since spine is a paid software most users wouldn't be able to follow along, so it's not that high on my priority list right now. If there was a free alternative, I'd definitely look into it.

[@reipalacio]

Very ok

[@weekendyeti5873]

Could u do a tutorial on how to make a character select for a 2d game? Most of the ones i find are for 3d

[@CobraCode]

Hey thanks for the suggestion. I don't think that's something I'll get into though before I start covering fighting games.

[@Adykai]

I love you

[@CobraCode]

💞

[@St34mPunkPrivateer]

could you please do a tutorial on how to do a top down 2d ? I know it can be done with what you explained but I need a video to make it click.

[@CobraCode]

Hey, I already made a video about exactly that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGK1fneDgMiFhbM

[@fajarcau1874]

Hello! very helpful videos! I want to ask, is it possible to make a fighting game like Street Fighter 2 with unreal engine 5? if possible can you make a tutorial on how to make a fighting game? or maybe you have a paid online courses to make a 2d fighting game with unreal engine 5? if there is i will buy it! Thank You

[@CobraCode]

Hey, thank you! There is a project called Unreal Fighter 2D which will probably be of interest to you: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4XNpYWlf799nac This isn't a tutorial, but rather a 'Template/Framework' that helps you make fighting games. I don't use this to make games, but I often look at it for reference on how the developer implemented certain things and then try to recreate those things. I do want to eventually make fighting game tutorials as well, however that requires a lot of preparation and I still have so many other things I'm working on. You can also check out the channel of Shawn the Bro. He makes fighting game tutorials, however they are quite verbose and not that streamline. Still a lot of good information though: kzbin.info/www/bejne/onmmfqKopLasps0

[@mukaluka1]

Would you use an 8-directional movement and the attack sprite sheet for your beat'em up game? Is it more complex compared to the standard one?

[@CobraCode]

I would not use an 8-directional movement sheet for a beat em up. I'd say 90% of beat em ups if not even more only have left and right. There are a few that also have a direction for up and down, such as the recent turtles in time shredders revenge and having 4 directions is something that might be worth considering. 8 directions wouldn't really be that hard from a programming standpoint, but it would increase the amount of sprites you need to draw by a lot!

[@mukaluka1]

@@CobraCode Can you make a tutorial of buildings slowly becoming transparent when your character goes behind the building? For example, Octopath Traveller allows characters to walk around town and when the character walks behind a house, the camera zooms a bit closer and the house becomes transparent.

[@CobraCode]

@@mukaluka1 Hey thanks for the suggestion. That is something I might explore at some point, but rather than it being a one off tutorial it would probably be part of a bigger rpg development tutorial. Still way off in the future though since I have many other things planned right now.

[@godonholiday]

Is the tile map the level (size) or can you have multiple tile maps in one level?

[@CobraCode]

You can have multiple tile maps!

[@elfdude8288]

im trying to make a game in UE5 but keep having issues with the visuals, my textures will look normal but when i turn them into sprites the color changes and i cant seem to find a fix, any suggestions?

[@CobraCode]

Hey, so there are some easy fixes like changing the exposure settings on the camera to prevent it from blowing out. But to get the actual accurate color you need to turn off the tone mapper of unreal engine. So far the only info I can find about this is in japanese, but maybe google translate can help you out a bit. www.hakobuneworks.com/posts/2021/12/04/

[@--Aeon--]

amazing!!! what's the difference between paper 2d and paper zd?

[@CobraCode]

PaperZD is built on top of Paper 2D. Paper 2D provides basic functionality, such as creating sprites and animated flipbooks and the ability to use them in blueprints. You can also switch animations that way, however it's quite annoying. PaperZD solves that problem by providing an animation graph where you can set up the condition to switch between different animations. It also provides a way to trigger events on certain frames of an animation to play footsteps or trigger hitboxes.

[@shark6350]

As a noob. I wanan try this. 😅

[@NicholasSinard]

Is there a way using PaperZD or Paper2D to make an isometric 2D game?

[@CobraCode]

When it comes to setting up the character it's gonna be very similar to how to make a top down game, but you'll need to change the angles for the animations or movement. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGK1fneDgMiFhbM I imagine setting up the collisions for the tile maps will probably be the most annoying and challenging part since you have to set all collisions at an angle.

[@NicholasSinard]

@@CobraCode Ah, alright, thank you. I didn't know if those plugins would allow for those angled tiles or not. I guess they would also allow for things like oveehead bridges, etc. that you could go under or walk on as well

[@CobraCode]

@@NicholasSinard I haven't really played around with things like that too much yet, but the tile map editor is probably the weakest link of Paper 2D, so you might have to do some hacky things. There is a paid asset called pixel 2d which supposedly solves a lot of those issues, so it might be worth looking into. www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/pixel-2d-top-down-engine

[@DayzeXzxR]

If I'm making a 2D game, does it make sense to use UE5? Will I lose something if I stay on UE4?

[@CobraCode]

If you make a game that ONLY uses 2D then I'd say you can just stay on UE4. Nothing about 2D changed with UE5, so you won't be missing out on new features or anything like that. If you wanna mix 2D with 3D though and create a hybrid game, upgrading to UE5 will give you better open world tools, better lighting with lumen and possibly better performance with Nanite, so it might be worth looking at.

[@lukema3645]

any software I can create animation？

[@CobraCode]

I personally use aseprite and recommend that one for pixel art

[@shyn3ss973]

Is there a way to delete multiple selected tiles ? Using eraser to delete one by one tile is too long.

[@CobraCode]

Yeah the tile map editor is really not that feature rich. At this time I haven't really found another way of doing it sadly :(

[@IspyrGameDev]

Hiya Cobra, when I create a Flipbook, the result is very washed out and the framerate is quite slow. I have an 86 frame animation, and it plays like 172... any ideas on this? Thx!

[@CobraCode]

Hey, sorry but I'm not quite sure what you mean by washed out and slow. If the picture is blurry for your sprites you need to right click the texture and 'apply paper 2d texture settings'. If it's only washed out and blurry once you put it in the level you might have to turn off motion blur or set anti aliasing to fxaa. For it being slow you can use the frames per second setting on the flipbook asset to make it play faster. you can also go into the detailed view below and adjust the frame run for each of your sprites. Upcoming videos will go into more detail about that.

[@IspyrGameDev]

​@@CobraCode COmment keeps dissappearing, but yeah thx much! The details panel was hidden by default in the Flipbook so now that's set! Also for the washed out color, with the Paper 2D Texture settings it turned off sRGB, so I selected all of the textures and did Asset Actions> Bulk Edit via Property Matrix and checked sRGB and changed the encoding Override to sRGB as well. Done! :)

[@IspyrGameDev]

@@CobraCode Btw I'm currently using a free plugin to allow me to play Flipbooks on a widget, but do you know of a way natively to do this?

[@CobraCode]

@@IspyrGameDev Awesome, thanks for letting me know bout the sRGB thing. Might need that in the future.

[@CobraCode]

@@IspyrGameDev I think I've seen the plugin you mean on the marketplace. Afaik there is no way of doing that natively, but I also haven't really looked much into that yet. Alternatively you could create a render texture and just record your flipbook, however that is quite resource intensive

[@blasterxt9]

Hey buddy please do complete tutorial of 2d game in unreal engine .

[@CobraCode]

Thanks for the suggestion. Yeah that is definitely on my Todo list, however it takes a lot of time and effort. Currently making a Udemy course in which we have 4 complete but short games.

[@blasterxt9]

do you use blue prints or c++or nim ?

[@CobraCode]

@@blasterxt9 I do use c++ for private projects sometimes, but for the channel it's all been blueprints so far. There might be some c++ stuff coming next year.

[@blasterxt9]

@@CobraCode hey buddy by using blueprint can we make complete game ?

[@CobraCode]

​@@blasterxt9 Yes. I made a full scale VR shooter with just blueprints before which is released on steam

[@FrankJonen]

What size of executable are we talking here?

[@CobraCode]

If you don't do anything special it's about 300MB. From what I've seen you can push it down to about 30~50MB though if you disable unused plugins and mess around with the build settings.

[@kemo_l7350]

How can I put a 2d game on a 3d wall so the player must complete the 2d game to continue the odyssey

[@DailyPaily]

Paper 2D vs PaperZD

[@CobraCode]

PaperZD is built up on top of Paper 2D kind of like typescript is built up on top of javascript. I'd first learn paper 2d without any plugins, just to get the hang of it and a deeper understanding of how things work and then use PaperZD on actual projects.

[@polosteor]

Are you going to stop making videos on paperZD and make videos on paper 2d? Are you going to make a series of tutorials? Vous allez arrêter de faire des vidéos sur paperZD pour faire des vidéos sur paper 2d ? Vous allé faire une série de tutoriels ?

[@CobraCode]

I'll still cover both! Most of the things I cover in this series will apply to both Paper 2D and PaperZD.