New to Unreal Engine

This page is meant to serve as a guide for beginners to Unreal Engine and Blueprints to point them in a direction to start learning

Advice for Learning Unreal Engine

1. Learn the basics of the Unreal Editor

2. Learn programming fundamentals with Blueprint

   1. Note: I recommend to start with Blueprints because the engine has a lot of Blueprint integration and even if you're planning to use C++ it's still recommended to use Blueprints to some degree for things

3. Learn Unreal Engines Gameplay Framework/Architecture

4. Build games using Blueprints

5. Learn about programming best practices with Blueprints & other programming topics

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Step#1: Learn the basics of the Unreal Engine Editor

• (YouTube) Unreal Engine 5 Beginner Tutorial | Getting Started (2023) by Smart Poly

• (Unreal Learning) Unreal Editor Basics

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Step#2: Learn programming fundamentals with Blueprint

(Optional) Part 1 - Object Oriented Programming

Note: Unreal Engine heavily uses Object Oriented Programming, so it can be good to leanr a bit about it beforehand

• (YouTube) Object-oriented Programming in 7 minutes | Mosh by Programming with Mosh

• (YouTube) Intro to Object Oriented Programming - Crash Course by FreeCodeCamp

• (Article) OOP Meaning - What is Object-Oriented Programming?

• (YouTube) The Flaws of Inheritance by CodeAesthetic

Part 2 - General Overview of Blueprints

• (Documentation) Overview of Blueprint Visual Scripting in Unreal Engine

• (Documentation) Types of Blueprints

Part 3 - Learn the basic syntax of Blueprints, the various Blueprint nodes, and how to use Blueprints

Note: All of the resources below are unlike others that simply show you how to build a game, but instead focuses on teaching what the various Blueprint nodes do

• (YouTube Playlist) Learn to Code in Unreal Engine 5 with Blueprints by Corqui Games

• (YouTube Playlist) Blueprint Essentials | v4.2 | Unreal Engine by Unreal Engine

• (YouTube Playlist) Blueprint Programming - Unreal Engine 4 Course by Virtus Learning Hub

• (Udemy - PAID) Unreal Engine 5: Blueprint Scripting 101 by Greg Wondra

• (Wiki) Blueprint Fundamentals

• (Page) Blueprint Programming Fundamentals Reference

Part 4 - Learn about Blueprint Communication

• (YouTube) Blueprint Communications | Live Training | Unreal Engine by Unreal Engine

• (Unreal Learning) Blueprint Communication

• (Documentation) Actor Communication

(Optional) Part 5 - Follow a tutorial/course building a game to get a feel of Unreal Engine and using blueprints

• (Udemy - PAID) Unreal Engine 5 Blueprints - The Ultimate Developer Course by Stephen Ulibarri

• (Udemy - PAID) Unreal Engine 5 - Gameplay Ability System - Top Down RPG by Stephen Ulibarri

• (Course - PAID) GameDev.TV

Part 6 - How to think like a programmer

• (YouTube) How To Think Like A Programmer by Coding Tech

• (Article) How To Solve Coding Problems

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Step#3: Learn Unreal Engines Gameplay Framework/Architecture

• (Unreal Learning) Begin Play | Gameplay

• (Documentation) Gameplay Framework Quick Reference

• (Documentation) Gameplay Framework

• (Article) Unreal Gameplay Framework Guide for C++

• (YouTube) The Unreal Engine Game Framework: From int main() to BeginPlay by Alex Forsythe

• (Page) Gameplay Framework/Architecture

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Step#4: Build games using Blueprints

• Come up with your own project(s)

• (Website) The 20 Games Challenge - Can be used as a guide to practice building games in Unreal Engine to learn game dev

  • Note: Even though some of the games on the list are 2D games, you can create them as 2.5D or 3D games instead

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Step#5: Learn about programming best practices with Blueprints & other programming topics

Part 1 - Programming best practices with Blueprints

• (YouTube) Blueprints In-Depth - Part 1 | Unreal Feast Europe 2019 | Unreal Engine by Unreal Engine

• (YouTube) Blueprints In-Depth - Part 2 | Unreal Feast Europe 2019 | Unreal Engine by Unreal Engine

• (YouTube) Making Better Blueprints | Unreal Feast 2022 by Unreal Engine

• (Page) Blueprint Best Practices

Part 2 - Other programming topics

• Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

• Data Structures & Algorithms

• Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

• Refactoring & Clean Code

• Design Patterns

• Software Testing

• Debugging

• Version Control

• Database Management & Database Concepts

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Extra Resources

• (Unreal Learning) Unreal Engine Essentials for Games | Onboarding Collection

• (Unreal Learning) BeginPlay

• (YouTube) How Game Programming Tutorials Make You Bad At Programming by Adam Moore

• https://www.reactkeyblog.com/en/posts/[ue5]-unreal-engine-5-%E5%AD%A6%E7%BF%92%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A8%E3%82%81/18d94c53-5fd9-4e17-ba5a-204fdc326c73

• (YouTube) Myth-Busting “Best Practices” in Unreal Engine | Unreal Fest 2024 by Unreal Engine