Game Release!

Every last working day of the current month I publish a report reflecting on the previous month. These reflections exist to demonstrate my progress, share my experiences and help transfer what I learn to others.

The Past Month

I received my new Alienware 17 R4 laptop, and with it was able to package my pinball game without any hiccups!.

All the freezing and crashing problems I suffered with Unreal have more or less disappeared as well.

Other than that, I wrote the Learning Game Dev guide I promised last month.

My Second UE4 Project: Z’s Pinball

A simulation of a classic pinball machine, made in 4 weeks using UE4’s Blueprints (no C++ just yet).

Things I learned from this:

• How to code using Blueprints
• How to make editable Blueprints of assets using Blueprint Splines and exposed parameters
• How to create basic Materials
• How to use decals
• How to create simple VFX in Unreal Engine’s Cascade Particle System
• How to make a simple UI in Unreal
• How to package and cook games in Unreal
• Basic performance optimization
• Using Git with Unreal

What’s Next

During the making of Z’s Pinball I realized how dreadful my color sense is 😆

So, I’ll be focusing on visual skills during July. Namely color, light, VFX and perhaps some modeling.

This ends this month’s report. Your comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated, so do comment below. 🙂