New Beginning Of An Old Flame
Okay, so. I have attempted to learn game development, art, 3d modeling, 3d and 2d animation, and digital music composition in the past. On way more occasions than I would like to admit, and I’ve always given up right when I begin to make real progress and get into the swing of learning things. It’s not so much a sense of inadequacy, as it is a lack of discipline and focus.
I struggle with ADHD, bi-polar disorder, and borderline personality disorder, and it makes sticking with tough subjects very difficult. I’ll justify reasonings for pulling up Youtube videos to “take a break”, only to watch 4 hours worth of nonsense and not be productive. Or stop working on a project to go play a video game due to the growing intensity of an insatiable need for mental stimulation that learning or working on a slow project doesn’t provide.
So I’m restarting my journey of learning game development, beginning with a Udemy course on Unreal Engine blueprint development: Unreal Engine Blueprint Game Developer, created by GameDevHQ in collaboration with Epic Games.
I’ve got a decent grasp on the basics of Unity at the moment, at least as far as the editor and basic C# scripting goes. (When it comes to actual game design and development of functional gameplay systems, I have zero clue.)
And so I want to compare what I know about Unity, to how it feels working in Unreal Engine’s editor instead.
(Also, Unreal Engine supports real time illumination through emission materials, and Unity doesn’t.)
It’s my hope that if I start a blog like this, and maintain some level of daily activity here, posting about what I’ve accomplished, (or not accomplished), I can keep myself focused and pressured to maintain some level of discipline with learning this time around.
So here we are, on what I’ll call prequel day. The beginning of learning a new editor, and potentially needing to learn an entirely new programming format using C++ with Unreal.
This is the knowledge I’m beginning this journey with, that I feel will be applicable:
- Knowledge of basic programming logic and concepts (loops, functions/procedures/methods, conditions)
-Basic understanding of PBR materials
-Understanding of digital 3D and 2D spatial coordinate systems.
A quick list of things I already know I will need to work on in the future (Goals?):
-Practical C++ programming, or if direct programming provides cost effective benefits for an indie developer over using Unreal’s visual scripting Blueprints in leu of actual coding.
-The Unreal Engine editor’s interface, hotkeys, menus, and features.
-How to set up emissive illumination, because lighting and the interplay of lights and shadows will be a big factor in my design philosophy later on.
And now I return to my Udemy tab, to watch some of the introduction lessons in this Udemy course.