Five engaging and easy-to-follow Unreal Engine 4 tutorials
Game development is a very vast area. With powerful tools like Unreal Engine 4 offering you the ability to create fully-fledged worlds with working combat, economy, and levelling systems, there’s a lot to take in.
Here are five Unreal Engine 4 tutorials that each depict a different part of the engine and how you can use it in your existing or future game projects.
1. "Save And Load Player Stats - Unreal Engine Tutorial" by Matt Aspland
A feature most games have is the ability to save and load player statistics from previous play sessions. After several hours of levelling one day, you want to be able to return your character to that same state when you next log in so that no progress is lost.
In under 15 minutes, Matt Aspland guides us through the process of adding this feature in Unreal Engine 4 and breaks it down into three sections: setting, saving, and loading.
Matt’s explanations are always easy to understand and relevant to what is currently being shown on screen, which we’d say is the perfect combo for being able to follow along to what’s being explained.
You can find Matt here on Twitter, or browse his YouTube channel if you’re looking for some more high-quality tutorials on anything related to Unreal Engine!
2. "How to Sculpt Landscapes With Unreal Engine 4" by Virtus
Whether you’re developing an exploration game, puzzle game, or something else, you’re almost always going to need to implement a landscape for your character to travel through.
In this tutorial, Luke from the Vitus Learning Hub teaches us how to create a basic untextured landscape. The tutorial covers everything from the sculpting tools and how each of them work, to the Unreal Engine settings that are relevant to landscaping.
This is a tutorial that beginner or junior developers can find use in. At 18 minutes of run time, there’s enough information to gain a cursory understanding of how landscaping works in the engine without it running longer than it needs to.
You can find Virtus on Twitter here.
3. "UE4 Day Night Cycle With Moon" by I See 3D
In order to add depth to your game world, it’s a good idea to implement a realistic climate to your environment. In this tutorial, Joe from I See 3D walks us through how to create a basic day-night cycle using the free Good Sky pack from the Unreal Engine marketplace. From setting suns to starry skies, there’s a lot this video can help you add to your own development.
The tutorial is easy to follow, even if you’re new to Unreal Engine 4. You’ll learn how to add a skybox to your game along with directional lighting so that your day-night cycle is fully fleshed out.
I See 3D doesn’t appear to have any social media to follow, but you’ll find a whole cache of other tutorials on their YouTube channel to continue your learning.
4. "UE4.26 Water System Tutorial - How To Create Oceans, Lakes and Rivers" by Snaplaunch
Snaplaunch has created this quick and easy to follow Unreal Engine 4 tutorial on how to add water to your game and implement it into your landscapes.
At just over 10 minutes in length, the video covers adding water, customising waves (including speed and foam), altering the flow, and changing the landscape around the water. For such a compact tutorial, the amount of information provided is incredible and will definitely help give your game the type of picturesque scenery that is ripe for screenshots!
Snaplaunch doesn’t seem to have any social media to follow, but we highly recommend watching their other videos if you’re interested in learning more about game development.
5. "How To Make A 2D Platformer In Unreal Engine 4 In 8 Minutes" by Unreal University
The title says it all for this one: in just eight minutes, Unreal University teaches us how to create a simple 2D platformer in UE4 with an animated character sprite, backgrounds, and basic movement mechanics.
Unreal University doesn’t touch on anything too high-level in this tutorial, so we wouldn’t recommend it to those of you with advanced Unreal Engine knowledge, but it’s a great video for those new to 2D development or anyone looking for a quick refresher.
All assets used in the video are linked in the description, too, which makes it especially helpful when replicating the development on your own device.
Unreal University unfortunately doesn’t seem to be active on social media, but does produce weekly tutorial videos on YouTube and offers extended learning through Udemy if you’re interested in learning more.
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That’s everything we have for you! Five Unreal Engine 4 tutorials covering a variety of what you can create with this excellent tool.
Check out our other tutorial mashups below to continue building your knowledge as a game developer.
