Now that Unreal Engine 4 has become one of the most cutting-edge game engines in the world, developers both AAA and Indie alike are looking for the best ways of creating games of any genre using the engine. Upon Unreal's first release, it was known as a great first-person shooter game engine, but with the success of games such as WB's Mortal Kombat, Chair Entertainment's Shadow Complex, and Epic Games' Gears of War, along with highly anticipated upcoming games such as Capcom's Street Fighter 5, Comcept's Mighty No. 9, and Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Remake, Unreal has proven itself to be one of the greatest engines to use when creating virtually any genre of game. This book will lay the foundations of creating a turn-based RPG in Unreal Engine 4.
Chapter 1, Getting Started with RPG Design in Unreal, alerts the reader to the various preparation steps required to make an RPG before jumping into Unreal. In order to avoid potential obstacles to progress, the example content is provided and briefly introduced.
Chapter 2, Scripting and Data in Unreal, walks the reader through using C++ to program gameplay elements in Unreal, creating Blueprint graphs, and working with custom game data in Unreal.
Chapter 3, Exploration and Combat, walks the reader through creating a character that runs around the game world, defining character data and party members, defining enemy encounters, and creating a basic combat engine.
Chapter 4, Pause Menu Framework, covers how to create a pause menu with inventory and equipment submenus.
Chapter 5, Bridging Character Statistics, covers how to keep track of the player's stats within the menu system.
Chapter 6, NPCs and Dialog, covers adding interactive NPCs and dialogue to the game world. The reader will learn how to use Blueprints to define what happens when an object or NPC is interacted with, including using a set of custom Blueprint nodes to create dialogue trees.
Chapter 7, Gold, Items, and a Shop, covers adding interactive NPCs and objects to the game world. The reader will learn how to use Blueprint to define what happens when an object or NPC is interacted with, including using a set of custom Blueprint nodes to create dialogue trees. The user will also be creating items that can be bought in a shop using the gold dropped by enemies.
Chapter 8, Inventory Population and Item Use, covers populating an inventory screen with items and using the items when not in combat.
Chapter 9, Equipment, covers the creation of equipment and equipping weapons and armor from an equipment screen.
Chapter 10, Leveling, Abilities, and Saving Progress, covers adding abilities to the game, keeping track of experience for each party member, awarding experience to party members after combat, defining leveling and stat updates for a character class, and saving and loading player progress.