C++ Unreal Engine + AI Tools: Idea to Steam Release Game Dev

Explore using Unreal Engine 5, C++, or blueprints, and free tools like JetBrains Writer, GitHub, ChatGPT, Gemini, Telegram GPT, Canva, and fab to plan, design, and publish a Steam-ready game.

Plan from idea to publishing a game with a design document, class diagrams, and tools like Unreal Engine and AI, then code, test, debug, and publish with version control.

Develop a third-person zombie survival game in a western town using Unreal Engine and C++. Generate ideas with ChatGPT, use free Fab.com assets, and implement day-night cycles and wave-based AI.

Define a third-person zombie survival game set in the Old West, with day and night modes and three zombie types, plus a step-by-step road map to Steam release.

Present a clear game design document roadmap and class hierarchy for Unreal Engine C++, including base character, zombie base, and player character.

Explore a visual class hierarchy diagram and a game design document for a C++ Unreal Engine project. See how game, character, AI, inventory, and world systems connect to guide collaboration.

Create a game design document and process diagram for an Unreal Engine project, mapping class hierarchy—from base character to AI and combat system—and planning assets, components, and a GitHub repository.

Create the project in Unreal Engine and import free assets from Old West Learning or Stylized Egypt, then assemble Deadwood Stand with a wasteland warrior and map.

Set up the writer IDE for Unreal Engine, configure editor preferences, and convert a blueprint project to C++ by adding a test actor and installing the Unreal plugin.

Learn to set up GitHub version control for the C++ side of an Unreal Engine project, create a gitignore, track changes, and push commits without large assets.

Create a base character class in Unreal Engine with health and damage as shared properties, then derive player and zombie characters in a clear class hierarchy, using blueprints.

Set up a custom character by overriding the game mode or using possess, replace the default pawn, and configure the input component for movement and third-person camera control.

Bind enhanced input in the player character for movement and aiming, set up input mapping contexts in BeginPlay, and implement move and look actions with the player controller relationship.

Set up an input mapping context with actions for movement and look using w a s d, using vector 2d values and negate to map forward, backward, left, and right.

Add spring arm and camera components and set the arm length for a better view. Map mouse look, negate pitch for correct up-down, and enable controller rotation.

Learn to implement jumping, sprinting, and crouching in Unreal Engine with C++, including setting walk and sprint speeds, input actions, and integrating a stamina-based sprint system.

Learn to implement a stamina system in Unreal Engine with C++, choosing between a component or the player character class, and manage max stamina, current stamina, drain, and recovery.

Explore practical lighting and fog techniques in Unreal Engine to craft day and night environments, using skylight, sky atmosphere, volumetric fog, post-process volume, and sun flares for dramatic atmosphere.

Add trees to the zombie world by using rural Australia assets in Unreal Engine, migrate assets, enable nanite, and place foliage to enhance night-time visuals.

Learn to create cinematic street lighting for night mode in Unreal Engine by building a reusable blue-tinted light blueprint, configuring a spotlight with intensity, angle, and attenuation for zombie environments.

Add a flashlight to the player, attach it to the camera, and toggle it with the F key using blueprint for day and night modes.

Learn to add fire effects in Unreal Engine using free Epic Games library assets, including Niagara particles and smoke, then place and organize them in folders within your world.

Migrate Lyra animations into your Unreal Engine project, focusing on character and weapon animation sequences and montages for retargeting. Test in play mode, remove unused assets, and fix redirects.

Retarget animations from a Lyra character to a new character in Unreal Engine, export animation assets, test montage sequences, and manage animation blueprints for a seamless gameplay demo.

Learn to implement motion matching in Unreal Engine 5.5 using animation blueprints, pose search schema and database, and motion trajectory to drive idle and locomotion animations.

Build a state machine driven jumping system in Unreal Engine, using start jump, jump loop, and is falling logic, with separate state machines per weapon to ensure correct jump animations.

Learn to implement crouch animations using a pose search database and motion matching, with unarmed and armed crouch states, an is crouching variable, and camera lag for smooth movement.

Set up a custom game mode and player controller in Unreal Engine, using C++ base class and blueprint, configure world and project settings, and enable proper player spawning.

Create and wire a player controller in Unreal Engine, add a C++ class and blueprint, set it in game mode, and prepare for future weapons and HUD features.

Import the military weapon silver pack to add meshes, sound effects, and muzzle effects, and migrate these assets into your Unreal Engine project.

Build a modular interactable system in Unreal Engine by using an interface with focus, unfocus, and can interact, plus pickups, doors, and blueprint native events for extensibility.

Learn to create an interactable interface and a pickup actor in Unreal Engine, wiring blueprint native events, components, and can interact logic to support player interactions.

Build a blueprint-based pickup system in Unreal Engine, set up a center-screen UI to highlight interactable objects, and implement checks against the eye interactable interface for interaction.

Explore how to implement actor tracing in Unreal Engine using a player controller, highlighting interactable actors with a dedicated interface, and managing focus and unfocus logic in a per-frame trace.

Enable the stencil pass and use a post-process highlight asset in blueprints to highlight interactable weapons via custom depth and AI interactable interface, with color options.

create a weapon base class derived from pickup to support attaching weapons to the character's right hand socket, manage reloads and ammo, and differentiate hitscan and projectile weapons.

Connect the player controller and character to interact with weapon pickups, then equip and attach weapons to the player via the weapon base and ai interactable interface.

Explore implementing a current weapon pointer in the player character and a blueprint-friendly weapon type enum, enabling equip logic in C++ and blueprint for modular weapon handling.

Learn to implement pistol animations in Unreal Engine by adding a no weapon option, a current weapon type, and blending weapon-specific animations via the animation blueprint and state machine.

Learn to implement a hitscan weapon in Unreal Engine by extending a weapon base class, adding line trace, damage, muzzle flash, impact effects, fire rate, range, ammo, and camera shake.

Implement a modular reload system in Unreal Engine by extending the weapon base class, managing current, max, and total ammo with timer-based reload and input handling.

Implement reload and fire montage animations with synchronized sounds in Unreal Engine, and dynamically set reload time from montage duration for the weapon base class.

Derive a shotgun from the hitscan weapon and implement plate spread, damage per plate, muzzle flash, impact effects, plus blueprint and C++ integration for ammo, reload, and animations.

Develop a projectile weapon system in Unreal Engine by deriving a projectile weapon from the weapon base class for rifle and grenade launcher, sharing behavior but using distinct projectiles.

Develop rifle and grenade launcher projectiles in Unreal Engine, featuring fast moving hitscan style, point damage, impact effects and sounds, with defined lifespans, destruction on impact, and projectile movement components.

Learn how to add an automatic fire feature to a weapon base class, expose is automatic and fire rate to blueprints, and control fire with start and stop firing.

Develop a grenade launcher in Unreal Engine using a blueprint projectile with bounce and explosion logic. Implement muzzle flash, bounce and explosion sounds, and radial damage after a five-second delay.

Migrate and configure a polished hud ui by importing shootercore assets, building health and stamina bars, crosshairs, and weapon ui, then remove unused data tables and blueprints.

Design a weapon-dependent dynamic crosshair system in Unreal Engine five using UMG widgets, with per-weapon crosshairs, dynamic color and spread, and a modular HUD workflow.

Create a custom hud and crosshair widget using a base hud blueprint, render it in the viewport, and implement centered, dynamic crosshair spread via blueprint logic.

Build a base crosshair system in Unreal Engine by promoting shared brush variables, wiring images, and using widget blueprints to customize rifle and pistol crosshairs while keeping center consistent.

Create a dynamic shotgun crosshair UI in Unreal Engine by building a widget blueprint with overlays and images, adjusting size and spread in response to movement and weapon state.

Create a centered 32 by 32 dot crosshair as the default in the player blueprint, then resize to 16 by 16 and prepare for aim-based spread changes.

Fixes target misalignment by tracing from the camera for hitscan and projectile weapons, using the player controller for reliable muzzle to crosshair hit accuracy.

Implement aiming and crosshair spread in Unreal Engine games, including aim input actions, camera field of view changes, and dynamic spread for aiming and shooting across weapons.

Apply inaccuracy through crosshair spread, linking spread amount to projectile direction so higher spread creates random misses within a spread cone while aiming at the camera center.

Learn to design and implement health and stamina progress bars using C++ and blueprint, with a reusable player stats widget, including initialization, updates, and viewport integration.

Learn to design responsive health and stamina progress bars in Unreal Engine using blueprints, dynamic materials, and percent-based value updates for robust game UI.

Design stamina visuals by customizing stamina and health bars with red and purple glow, using dynamic materials, brushes, and a set fill color event.

Explore building a three-slot weapon bar in Unreal Engine using UI widgets, showing current weapon, ammo counts, and icons while detailing pickup, drop, and layout design.

Implement an extendable blueprint native event to update current weapon information (current ammo, total ammo) in the player stats widget, triggered on equip, fire, or reload to refresh the HUD.

Learn to design and implement a weapon slots UI in Unreal Engine using a widget blueprint, dynamic materials, and visibility rules to support active, empty, and ammo states.

Learn to build an inventory component in Unreal Engine that stores two weapons and ammo, handles pickup, equip, swap, and visibility, and exposes core functions to blueprints.

Implement a three-slot weapon HUD in Unreal Engine by storing weapon data (ammo and icons) in a player stats widget and updating the weapon bar slots with blueprint implementable events.

Update weapon icons across all weapons in Unreal Engine, manage inventory slots with a slot full flag, and refresh the current weapon HUD only when needed, including reload ammo updates.

demonstrates implementing a weapon swap system with three weapon slots, updates to the current weapon, and key-based input mappings, while highlighting best practices for organizing a large Unreal Engine project.

Organize Unreal Engine C++ projects by extracting repetitive code into private helper functions, modularizing begin play and tick logic, and separating concerns across weapon, camera, and input sections.

Implement a shared damage system in the base character class, including max and current health, take damage, and death handling for player and zombies.

Create a zombie base character in Unreal Engine by sourcing free assets from Mixamo and Epic Games, configuring animations, AI perception, and movement and attack logic.

Build a complete zombie AI controller in Unreal Engine that handles movement, patrolling, and attack logic with behavior trees and blackboard, leveraging sight and hearing perception and dynamic target updates.

Create an AI controller using behavior tree and blackboard in Unreal Engine to enable a zombie to perceive, hear, and pursue a target actor with line-of-sight and navmesh.

Learn to implement a hearing system in Unreal Engine that lets zombies detect low noise from running and loud noise from shooting, updating their AI blackboard target automatically.

Explore zombie types and animations in Unreal Engine, implementing screamer, reaper, juggernaut zombies with animation blueprints and Mixamo assets, while handling visibility channel, capsule component for damage and movement.

Learn to source zombie characters and animations from Mixamo, import skeletal meshes, retarget animations, and export ready-to-use assets for Unreal Engine and Steam release.

Create a zombie animation blueprint template in Unreal Engine to share properties, build a state machine for walk, idle, and run, and configure a 1D blend space and hit montage.

Implement headshot mechanics by overwriting the zombie's take damage function to apply head damage via point damage on the head bone, enabling instant death or multiple hits for tougher zombies.

Develop a patrol system for zombies using behavior trees and blackboard keys to patrol random locations, chase the player on line of sight or hearing, and resume patrolling after loss.

Learn to regularly update the AI zombie's target actor using the perception component, blackboard keys, and a behavior tree service, focusing on the player character for real-time tracking.

Discover how zombie AI uses behavior trees, blackboard, and services in Unreal Engine to detect attack range, execute attacks, and apply point damage with an attack montage.

Learn to create screamer zombies in Unreal Engine using blueprints and behavior trees, enabling screech on player detection and stink damage within a radius that attracts other zombies.

Implement reaper zombies with advanced behavior using a base zombie class and a behavior tree AI. Enable melee range checks, attack and dodge montages, and immunity to small arms fire.

Create an animation blueprint for the reaper zombie in Unreal Engine, importing dodge animations from Mixamo and zombie pack, with a blend space and montages for dodge, attack, and death.

Explore implementing melee attack and dodge mechanics for zombies in Unreal Engine using behavior trees, blackboard keys, target actor tracking, attack range checks, and attack montages.

In Unreal Engine lecture, implement a dodge mechanic using a boolean dodging flag, dodge montage, and timer to control dodge cooldown and prevent damage while dodging.

Design juggernaut zombies in Unreal Engine by creating a dedicated BP Jugger, adjusting health, damage, speed, attack range, and animation settings, then refine behavior with animation blueprints and blend spaces.

Learn to implement zombie AI in Unreal Engine by using a behavior tree and animation montage that triggers a bite montage when a zombie enters a sphere around an actor.

Implement a day night cycle in Unreal Engine with a day night cycle manager that rotates the sun, adjusts time of day, and integrates spawners, pickups, doors, and save/load.

Build a spawner actor in Unreal Engine with C++ implementation to spawn a selectable actor with configurable count and interval, controlled by a day night cycle manager.

Learn to implement a zombie spawner in Unreal Engine by validating spawned actors, enabling zombie AI and physics, waking rigid bodies, and controlling night-only spawns with zombie types and weapons.

Apply a sphere overlap check to ensure pickups like rifles spawn only when no other same-class actor exists within 70 units, and reuse this logic for zombies.