Within the games industry there is a plethora of different game engines and coding languages that are being used to create a wide variety of games. From open sources engines such as Unity and GameMaker to in-house engines such as CryEngine and Frostbite engine, there are a wide variety of engines that use a wide variety of languages, including C#, C++, Javascript and Lua. However, there is one game engine that is becoming increasingly popular and becoming use more by a wide range of companies. The Unreal Engine is becoming very popular within the games industry, particularly used by larger companies. With over 1.5 million new users since the engine was changed to open source (Takahshi, Epic Games says Unreal Engine added 1.5 million users in past year, 2016) and with games generating more revenue than any other game engine (Takahshi, Game engine CEOs talk past each other when it comes to statistics, 2017), there is no doubt that the Unreal Engine is a popular game engine with the games industry.
Even without these facts, I have seen a lot of evidence that the Unreal Engine and C++ language is quite popular in the industry. When searching online for job applications, many of them asked for experience with Unreal Engine and/or C++ or even just the knowledge of more than one programming language. On top of that, speaking with some local game developers, many of them say that having experience in unreal will offer a lot of opportunities, not just within the games industry but potentially other areas if I so wish to go down other paths. Therefore it makes sense to gain some knowledge on the unreal engine to give me the best chance of getting a job after uni.
Even without all these reasons, it would be great chance to improve my skills to try a new language and game engine. Currently my experience in programming and game development mainly consists of working in unity and C#, with some experience in Game Maker and HTML. Because of this, I want to try and learn both a new language and a new engine. Even if I don’t end up enjoying or favoring unreal and C++, just having that experience and knowledge will serve me well in the future and increase my chances of getting a job. Because of this, the nature of the game that I want to make will probably not be hugely expansive in my repertoire of games in terms of the gameplay, since all the focus will be making sure that I can understand the new engine and language.
The game that I plan to make to expand upon my portfolio is a FPS Rouge-like game that will be built using the Unreal 4 Engine, utilizing the Unreal blueprints and C++ code. The goal of the game is for the player to defeat waves of zombies that spawn on the map. When the game begins, players will have nothing but a pistol and will have to explore the map, finding and killing waves of zombies on the map. When they successfully kill every zombie for each wave on the map, the next wave will commence, with zombies spawning around various points on the map. When the player inevitably dies, they will be able to spend money that they earned for each zombie killed. This can include new weapons, armor or peaks that can help them to progress further through the waves of zombies. When the player defeats every wave on every map, they will have won the game.
I feel that a playable version of this project will be feasible, even with the challenge of learning both a new Engine and code language. The main gameplay loop is quite simple, which consists of the player shooting a wave of zombies, earning money, dying and spending money to purchase upgrades before trying again. The fact that the gameplay loop is simple means that there should be opportunity to add in more content to the game should time allow it. In terms of purchasable upgrades, I plan to have a minimum of two or three guns for the player to purchase, as well as at least one set of armor and one perk. This will be enough to demonstrate the basic mechanics of the game, while still being achievable within the time frame. The game will at minimum will also have one map for the player and one very simple zombie enemy, which will just move towards the player when the player gets within range. Should time allow it, there is the opportunity to create more enemy types (likely playing around with unreal’s behavior tree system) and at an extreme stretch goal, more maps.
On top of the use of the unreal engine and C++ language, creating a rouge-like game will also expand upon the types of games that I have created. Currently I have not coded any gameplay that is commonly used in many rouge-like games. Therefore, the creation of this different type of gameplay will demonstrate my ability to create an even wider range of different gameplay using a variety of game engines and coding languages. All this will expand upon my portfolio and thus will give me the best opportunity in getting a job.
References
Takahshi, D. (2016, March 16). Epic Games says Unreal Engine added 1.5 million users in past year. Retrieved from VentureBeat: https://venturebeat.com/2016/03/16/epic-games-unreal-engine-gains-1-5m-users-in-past-year/
Takahshi, D. (2017, March 1). Game engine CEOs talk past each other when it comes to statistics. Retrieved from VentureBeat: https://venturebeat.com/2017/03/01/game-engine-ceos-talk-past-each-other-when-it-comes-to-statistics/