Following my previous write-up, I am moving my ProjectHack.net game from Unity to Unreal Engine. I have learned a lot, so here are some updates.

Coding with Blueprints

OK, let’s get the touchy subject out of the way first. Everyone has an opinion on this, and all of you are right. That’s the easy answer. However, I’m fine working with Blueprints to program in Unreal Engine; it makes it fast and helps me see what ‘code’ I should be trying to write simply by dragging out from a node.

I'll explain if you don’t know what I’m talking about. When you drag out from a Blueprint node in Unreal Engine, it will give you a list of the most probable things you can do with the output from that node. This is an excellent way of saying, “Don’t try and use that string as a number,” without making you feel stupid. There is also a mountain of great Blueprint plugins in the market, of which a considerable amount are free. So always check before thinking you must make a whole bunch of code to do something.

Cross-platform development: I switch between Mac and Windows depending on my mood and which machine I have to use. Now, yes, Unity also runs on both platforms. However, when it comes to plugins, sometimes they can bite you. What if that plugin is only available on one platform? Unreal Engine makes that easy; it simply doesn’t allow you to try and use it by disabling it in your project or not allowing you to install it on the unsupported platform.

Not everything is great. Using Unreal Engine with a touchpad is not recommended; don’t try. That’s my suggestion.

But! Even worse… try using a mouse that doesn’t have a middle-click button, and good luck with that. On my PC, I use a Razor mouse. Guess what? Thanks to the Razor software, the middle click raises and lowers the sensitivity. So, for once, a basic mouse wins out here.

Publishing and Exporting

Unreal Engine has more than a few options, just like Unity. I have struggled, though, to get used to being able to publish on Mac, iOS, and Android. Even though I have everything I need on my system, there are times that it still complains and fails to export.

This may be a case of me getting used to how it works, but I feel the process could be simplified with some excellent user workflows rather than all the options you have to work through, especially regarding code signing.

Conclusion

So there you have it, a few notables for anyone who is thinking of moving between engines. Overall, the experience is going very well, and I’m pleased with the progress. I am, however, thankful that these are personal projects and not something with a deadline; otherwise, I would be more stressed.