Unreal Engine 2D Game Development Tutorial Series

This tutorial series covers all aspects of creating a 2D game using Unreal Engine.  It is my intention to eventually create an identical series covering Unity, so people can directly compare the workflow of both game engines.  This series is in both text and video form.  All coding is done using Blueprints although I may do a follow up tutorial covering the same material using C++.

Unreal Engine Text Tutorial Series

Getting Started with Unreal Engine

This tutorial is a getting started guide to Unreal Engine. It walks you around the Unreal Editor showing you how to use the more common features.

Your First Application

This tutorial explores creating your very first application. This includes creating a scene, importing assets, placing things in the map, creating a camera, then a simple blueprint to control it.

Working with Sprites

Now we look at using Sprites in your game. This includes importing, using the texture and sprite editors, setting a material and more.

Sprite Animations with Flipbooks

Now we look at creating Flipbooks. Flipbooks are a sequence of sprites used to create an animation. We walk through importing the frames and creating an animation sequence in the Flipbook editor.

Pawns, Character Controllers and Handling Input

In this tutorial we start putting it all together to create a more game-like experience. We create a Player blueprint that controls not only the graphics but also the input.

Level creation using TileSets and TileMaps

This tutorial looks at creating 2D levels by first creating a TileSet then using it to create a multi-layered TileMap.  We also cover setting your tiles up to work properly with collision detection.

Creating a UI using the Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) Framework

This tutorial takes a look at using UMG to create a simple 2D UI for your game and demonstrates the code required to display the UI.

Playing Audio

This tutorial looks at playing Audio in Unreal Engine 4, both using PlaySound 2D, at a location or as a component. Also covers importing audio and creating more complex mixed audio.

Related Articles

Unreal Engine Development on Laptops: Tips to maximize battery life

I do a lot of my development on a laptop, often not plugged in. This guide walks through so tips for maximizing battery life when working with Unreal Editor.

Install a Preview Release build

If you are willing to take a walk on the wild side, you can install a preview development build of Unreal Engine, this guide walks through the process.

Unreal Engine Video Tutorial Series

Series Introduction

This video gives an overview of the two engines, their licenses, strengths, features, etc. We also cover exactly what the tutorial series will cover.

Unreal Engine Part One – Introduction, Overview

In this video tutorial we start by taking a look at Unreal Engine, the editor in general and how the various bits and pieces work. We then create our very first, very simple, game completely from scratch, implementing the classic Hello World application using a blueprint to control the camera.

Unreal Engine Part Two- Sprites and Sprite (Flipbook) Animations

In this second part of our Unreal Engine tutorial series, we take a closer look at importing, creating and using sprites. We then follow it up by importing a spritesheet and creating a flipbook animation. In the video we also take a bit of a brief detour into Blender and TexturePacker, to render and create our spritesheet.

Unreal Engine Part Three – Actors, Pawns, Character Controllers and Input Handling

In our ongoing Unity vs Unreal Tutorial Series, today we look at a tying everything we learned together to start making a gain. We are going to look at the difference between Actors, Pawns and Characters, then go ahead and create a Player class that controllers or players sprite.

Unreal Engine Part Four – Creating 2D maps using TileSets and TileMaps

In this tutorial we look at the process of creating 2D maps. We create a TileSet from an existing sprite sheet, define it’s collision settings, then make a multi layered tile map from the results.

Unreal Engine Part Five – Creating a UI using Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) Framework

In this tutorial we look at using UMG to create a simple widget based 2D UI for your game, as well as the code required to display it on screen.

Unreal Engine Part Six – Playing Audio

In this tutorial we look at playing audio in Unreal Engine. Specifically PlaySound2D, Play Sound at Location and playing sound as a component. Also cover importing wav and creating Audio Cues.

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