11. Unreal Engine 4
11. Unreal Engine 4
If you're not really young you've probably heard of the Unreal Tournament game. It was developed by Epic Game and the company is behind the Unreal Engine 4. The engine is free until you really start earning big bucks from where on you pay a percentage of the earnings or there is a subscription when a company is using it. So for building a simple game the software is completely free and you have a ton of documentation and videos online. Although the software is not originally made for 2d games it has that option while you can also build 2.5d and 3d games. It is said that for those UE4 is the best available program.
Obviously the software is more complex as it's goal is not only building small puzzle or side scroller games, but large interactive environments with many characters and complex story. So learning curve steeper than on other software I've encountered up so far but it does follow the same line. Due to it's blueprint system you're now able to build games with no coding which again is said to be not perfect (obviously by the guys that know coding) and is in some way limiting you in your design. I've heard that before also for other programs where there were both options available.
Game
I made a sidescoller game based on a youtube video and some free graphics available online so anyone can repeat that.
Interface
Interface is complex as the software itself with many options of definition for each component. Immediately you see a big difference between this and other programs with all the additional options you have and clicks necessary to set up something. Needs some time to get used to but nothing critical.
You have several windows inside the program with ...... on the left, additional info and folders at the bottom, left is reserved for definition and options for each component and the center window is there for making the levels and positioning.
Events
All the scripting is done in a separate window where you are defining a character for example and it follows a similar pathway we've seen before. It does offer a lot more in terms of options so you can branch out your event tree to almost infinity.
Score
While the concept is nice there isn't really any customization available. The engine is free and everyone can use it on Windows or Android platforms. So although you can have fun with this program it's not really my cup of tea.
Difficulty: 10
Literature: 5
Cost: 10
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Overall score: 7