What this book covers
Chapter 1, Object Interaction with Blueprints, begins the book by covering how to bring new objects into a level to help build the world in which the game will be set. We move on to manipulating materials on objects, first through the object editor, and then by triggering during runtime via Blueprints.
Chapter 2, Enhancing Player Abilities, teaches you how to use Blueprints to generate new objects during gameplay, and link actions in Blueprints to player control inputs. You also learn to create Blueprints that allow objects to react to collisions with our generated projectiles.
Chapter 3, Creating Screen UI Elements, demonstrates setting up a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that will track the player's health, stamina, ammo, and current objective. Here, you learn how to set up a basic user interface using Unreal's GUI editor and how to use Blueprints to link the interface to the gameplay values.
Chapter 4, Creating Constraints and Gameplay Objectives, covers how to constrain the player's abilities, define the gameplay objectives for a level, and track those objectives via Blueprints that interact with the GUI elements created in the previous chapter. We walk through setting up collectible ammo packs that will refill the ammo of the player's gun, as well as utilizing the level Blueprint to define a win condition for our game.
Chapter 5, Making Moving Enemies with AI, is a crucial chapter that covers how to create an enemy zombie AI that will pursue the player around the level. We walk through setting up a navigation mesh on our level, and see how to use Blueprints to get enemies to traverse between patrol points.
Chapter 6, Upgrading the AI Enemies, shows how to create a compelling experience by modifying the zombie AI to have states in order to give the zombies a little more intelligence. In this chapter, we set up the patrol, searching, and attack states for the zombies using visual and auditory detection. Additionally, we explore how to make new enemies appear gradually, as the game is playing.
Chapter 7, Tracking Game States and Applying Finishing Touches, adds the finishing touches necessary to make our game a complete experience, before we finalize our game for release. In this chapter, we create rounds that will make the game increasingly difficult, game saves so that the player can save their progress and return, and player death to make the game's challenge meaningful.
Chapter 8, Building and Publishing, covers how to optimize graphics settings to get our game performing and looking at its best. Then, we explain how to create a sharable build of the game, and share some advice on how to continue progressing past the confines of this book on your way to becoming an accomplished game developer!
