Unreal Engine 5: Creating Main Menu

Name: Unreal Engine 5: Creating Main Menu
Rating: 4.6 (101 reviews)

Create Optimized and Professional Menus with Widget Blueprints from scratch (Beginner to Advanced).

Created byVlatko Chankulovski

Last updated 6/2026

English

What you'll learn

Fundamentals for creating Professional and game-ready Main Menus.
UI Animation for Beginners: Hover Buttons, Dialog Boxes and more.
Optimization techniques and best practices that are not shown on Youtube!
Responsive UI for all devices: Mobile/Tablet/PC/Laptop/TV.
Nesting Widgets (in depth explanations).
Import and play Videos and Background Music in game.
Change the Video Settings in game.
Animated Logo Splash Screen.
Game Intro with Video and a Skip Button.
Custom Events, Functions, Variables, Timers.

Course content

6 sections • 50 lectures • 9h 25m total length

Introduction1:48
Welcome to the Course!
Getting Started: Project Setup3:52
In this lesson you will learn how to:
Create a new Project
Create a new Level
Assign the Main Menu in the Project Settings
Download Free Assets3:47
We will download FREE Assets for commercial use:
Videos
Images
Icons
Music
Fonts
Reducing Image Size (Compressing)3:18
In this lesson you will learn:
How to reduce the file size of images ( free )
Converting MP3 to WAV Files4:43
In this lesson you will learn:
How to convert MP3 to WAV files ( free )
Unreal Engine supports WAV files only!
Assets Import and Folder Structure4:20
In this lesson you will learn:
How to import Assets to your Project
How to organize your Project files/folders

Our First Widget Blueprint11:00
In this lesson you will learn how to:
Create a Game Mode Blueprint
Assign Game Mode in Project Settings
Create a Widget Blueprint
Display Main Menu on the Screen
Show Mouse Cursor
Fundamentals: Text,Buttons,Layers24:17
In this lesson you will learn:
How Layers work in Unreal
Fundamentals for TEXT element
How to change Font
Fundamentals for BUTTON element
How to add Text to the Button
Fundamentals: Images9:35
In this lesson you will learn how to:
Add Main Menu Background
Add Image to Buttons
Fundamentals: Progress Bar10:56
In this lesson you will learn:
Adding Progress Bar
How to create different styles of Progress Bars
QUIZ
Fundamentals: Horizontal/Vertical Box13:55
In this lesson you will learn:
How Horizontal/Vertical Boxes work
When you should use Horizontal/Vertical Boxes
Fundamentals: Spacers7:19
In this lesson you will learn:
How Spacers work
When you should use Spacers
Fundamentals: Scroll Box14:45
In this lesson you will learn:
How Scroll Box works
When you should use Scroll Box
Fundamentals: Overlay13:44
In this lesson you will learn:
How Overlays work
When you should use Overlays
Positioning elements inside Overlays
How to use Padding inside Overlays
Fundamentals: Widget Switcher8:43
In this lesson you will learn:
How Widget Switcher work
How to use Widget Switcher to select UI elements
Fundamentals: Nesting20:30
In this lesson you will learn how to (very important lesson):
Add multiple Widgets within a Widget (nesting)
Multiple Widgets like Horizontal Box inside of Overlay etc
Dealing with a lot of items in the Hierarchy
Responsive UI and Anchors15:10
In this lesson you will learn how to:
Add a Background image to the Main Menu
Create a responsive UI for ANY screen size (Mobile/Tablet/PC/TV)
Use Anchors to persist elements on a screen location
Use the important shortcut for Anchoring UI elements
Multiple testing your UI for EVERY screen size

Avoid using Canvas Panel !3:22
In this lesson you will learn:
Why you should AVOID using Canvas Panel
What you should use instead of Canvas Panel
What is a "Draw call"?
Optimizing the UI elements10:38
In this lesson you will learn:
Why and How UI elements can impact game's performance
How to Optimize the UI to improve game's performance
How to reduce unnecessary draw calls
How changing the UI visibility can impact performance
Replacing the Canvas Panel17:36
In this lesson you will learn:
Replacing the Canvas Panel with a better container
Creating a small mockup Menu
Positioning elements in the new container
Adding Background to the mockup Menu
Practical Mini-Assignment0:21
Practical Assignment instructions.
Practical Assignment (Solution)4:59
In this lesson we will do the Practical Assignment.
You will learn Tips and Tricks for precise and faster design.
Quiz

Main Menu Buttons (Design)25:41
In this lesson you will learn how to:
Create Main Menu Buttons Layout
Positioning the Layout on screen
Add a Background Image
Main Menu Buttons Variations14:02
In this lesson you will learn how to:
Create various Layout Designs in a few steps
Iterate and prototype multiple designs
Start Game Button (Programming)8:46
In this lesson you will learn:
Programming with Blueprints
How to Start your game when Button is clicked
Quiz
Mini Assignment0:11
With this mini-assignment you can:
Practice your design skills
Practice essential keyboard shortcuts
Exit Game Button (Programming)1:49
In this lesson you will learn:
Programming with Blueprints
How to Exit your game when Button is clicked
Making the "Settings" Screen (Design)26:58
In this lesson you will:
Design the "Settings" Screen Layout
Test the Design to all screen sizes: Mobile/Laptop/PC/TV
Making the "Settings" Screen (Programming)31:41
In this lesson you will program the Game Settings:
You will learn how to use Custom Events
Switch between Main Menu and Settings Screen
Set Game Shadows Quality
Set Game Textures Quality
Set Game FPS (Frames Per Second)
Set Game Window/Fullscreen Mode
You will learn how to use Comments
Write clean and tidy Blueprints
Enable/Disable Buttons (Functions)25:55
In this lesson you will learn:
How to create Functions
How to use and reuse Functions
How to Enable/Disable Buttons when Clicked
The difference between Custom Events and Functions
Making the "Credits" Screen20:04
In this lesson you will:
Design the "Credits" Screen Layout
Switch between Main Menu and Credits Screen
Making the "Level Select" (Design)16:32
In this lesson you will:
Design "Level Select" popup menu
Making the "Level Select" (Programming)18:32
In this lesson you will learn:
How to Open/Close popup Menu
Create a New Level
Click and Select Level to start
Tidy up our code with Comments
Import And Play Videos8:36
In this lesson you will learn:
How to import videos
How to set Video as a Background (programming)
How to set the video to Loop or not
Fix file path errors for Game Packaging
Replace Existing Video4:35
In this lesson you will learn:
How to replace existing video
Organizing Videos in folders
Practical Task0:09
Polishing Main Menu (Design)23:20
In this lesson you will:
Add and Design Game name (text)
Adding Logo
Add copyright notice on screen
Adding Social Media Buttons (external links)
Adding Sound ON/OFF icons
Polishing Main Menu (Programming)10:37
In this lesson you will:
Add SFX when Hover a Button
Add Background Music
Toggle Background Music ON/OFF
Hide/Show Button when Hover/Unhover
Open External Links (social media or any links)
"Quit Game" Dialog Box10:21
In this lesson you will create:
"Are you sure you want to quit?" Dialog Box
"YES" Quit Game. "NO" Back to Menu
Animating Buttons (Basics)15:15
In this lesson you will learn:
How to Animate Buttons when Hovered/Unhovered
How to easily control the speed of the Animation
"Level Select" Dialog Box (Animated)7:41
In this lesson you will learn:
How to Animate "Level Select" popup
Fix overlapping UI elements

Splash Screen18:45
In this lesson you will create:
New Level
New Game Mode Blueprint
Assign Game Mode to Project Settings
Logo Splash Screen
Animated Fade In/Out Logo
Animation Sequencer Events Trigger
Start Game when animation ends
Game Intro13:05
In this lesson you will:
Create Game Intro (Video)
Learn Custom Events with Timers
Start Game when Video ends (animated)
Game Intro (Skippable)11:45
In this lesson you will:
Learn Custom Events with Timers
Enable/Disable Keyboard Events
Use Boolean Variable for True/False logic
"Press any key to skip" functionality
Start Game when Video ends/skipped (animated)
Reproducing and fixing bugs
Game Intro Background Music3:57
In this lesson you will:
Add Game Intro Background Music
Fade Out Music when game starts
Start Game with "Intro" or Loading Screen4:45
In this lesson you will:
Use Boolean Variable for True/False logic
Create new Widget Index test mockup
Choose to start the Game with Intro or Loading Screen
Loading Screen (Progress Bar)15:59
In this lesson you will:
Create Loading Screen with Progress Bar
Add Circular/Rectangle Loading Throbber
Learn Custom Events with Timers
Start Game when Loading finish
Apply Best Game Settings when game starts
Blueprints cleanup and bug fix12:48
In this lesson you will:
Collapse nodes to Functions
Clean up nodes for readability and perfomance
Fix bugs
Game Intro/Loading Screen final test
Final Lecture (summarise)4:24
In this lesson we will go over the following:
Which Blueprints to Use/Not Use
Which UI elements you should never use
Optimizing UI elements
Optimization and best practices advice

Requirements

No programming knowledge is required, you will learn how to create Menus from scratch.
You must have installed Unreal Engine 4 or 5 (we will start working immediately).
Basic Viewport navigation in Unreal Engine would be beneficial.

Description

In this course you will learn how to create Main Menus for your games, using Unreal Engine 4/5.

The Menus you are going to create will be fully responsive for EVERY screen size, such as: Mobile/Tablet/PC/Laptop/TV.

This means, the Menus you are going to create will look beautiful and organized on every device.

Why this Course is special:

You can use any versions of Unreal, from UE4, UE5 and newer
You will learn Optimization techniques and best practices that are not shown on Youtube
Learn how Canvas Panels are used everywhere, but it should be avoided
This Course is for very Beginners and Advanced users
We are gradually increasing the complexity as we progress
Each and every lesson explained in great detail, in easy to follow and understandable way
The goal for this Course is to ensure that you'll understand each and every UI element and Blueprint we do

By the end of this Course, you will master the following and more:

Widget Blueprint Fundamentals:
- Design captivating, highly optimized, professional and production-ready Menus.
Blueprint Programming:
- Navigate through screens, change Video Settings, UI animation, Loading screens and more.
Blueprints best practices and optimization:
- What can cause unnecessary draw calls and impact performance
- How to optimize UI elements to improve performance
- How to avoid using Canvas Panel and what you should use instead
- Clean, tidy and organized Blueprints for readability and performance

We are going to start from the very beginning with the design first, by learning the most important UI elements:

Layer hierarchy
Learn why you should never use Canvas Panel
Text
Button
Image
Progress Bar
Horizontal Box
Vertical Box
Spacer
Scroll Box
Overlay (most important)
Widget Switcher
Nesting
Responsive UI and Anchors

Next, we are going to learn Blueprints programming, slow paced and well explained:

Buttons: Hover/Unhover, Click Events, SFX and more
Navigating from one screen to another, BACK Buttons etc
Play videos and set to Loop or not
Add background music, Mute/Unmute functionality
UI animation for beginners
Create new Levels and open them
Applying best game settings
and much more!

Who this course is for:

If you want to learn how to create professional Menus from scratch in Unreal 4/5, this is the Course for you.
Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Students will all benefit from this course.
Students who want to learn how to Optimize their User Interface (UI).
Are you switching from Unity , Godot or other Engine to Unreal? This is the Course for you.

Unreal Engine 5: Creating Main Menu

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction and Setup6 lectures • 22min

Widget Blueprint Fundamentals11 lectures • 2hr 30min

UI Optimization (HIGHLY IMPORTANT)5 lectures • 37min

Creating Main Menu (Programming/Design)19 lectures • 4hr 31min

Creating Splash Screen + Loading Screen8 lectures • 1hr 25min

Bonus Lecture1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: