

Ask HN: How would a web developer transition to making games with Unreal Engine - starstreak

Since I was a kid I&#x27;ve always wanted to make computer games. However, for reasons I&#x27;m not sure I can explain, I picked up Python and web development, and have been doing this for the last few years.
However, recent news about Unreal Engine kind of reignited that spark and now I&#x27;d like to learn how to use it and how to build actual games with it. I&#x27;m worried about a couple of things: 
- Could a 25-year old with almost zero experience with C++, Java and the likes realistically expect to be productive and creative with a modern, complicated game engine? To me it appears overwhelming.
- I&#x27;m mostly interested in doing level design, gameplay mechanics and story - what do I need to learn first? The net is full of information from various sources and I&#x27;m not sure where to start.
Thanks!
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fredophile
There are two main ways to interact with UE4, Blueprints or C++. Blueprints
are a visual scripting language. You can make a whole game just with
Blueprints and never touch C++. Using Blueprints would probably be a good way
to get started if you're familiar with programming but not C++. Once you sign
up as a developer for UE4 you'll have access to tutorials, sample projects and
forums. All of these can be useful learning resources.

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mc_hammer
take a quake mod you love and start editing it to a game like the mod you want
to build...

im not sure the engines are alike - but the quake source is very very clean.
you can start to figure out what entities are and how things mvoe in 3d space.
all while getting a lot of bang for your buck seeing your changes come to life
from just a few lines of code

you can do the same for an unreal mod of course :) - just find a mod thats
open source (like action quake or vanilla quake) and sort of in the direction
your game wants to go (fps or top down, realistic weapons/physics or q3 style)

