Book Image

Building an RPG with Unreal 4.x

By : Steve Santello
Book Image

Building an RPG with Unreal 4.x

By: Steve Santello

Overview of this book

Now that Unreal Engine 4 has become one of the most cutting edge game engines in the world, developers are looking for the best ways of creating games of any genre in the engine. This book will lay out the foundation of creating a turn-based RPG in Unreal Engine 4.12. The book starts by walking you through creating a turn-based battle system that can hold commands for party members and enemies. You’ll get your hands dirty by creating NPCs such as shop owners, and important mechanics, that make up every RPG such as a currency system, inventory, dialogue, and character statistics. Although this book specifically focuses on the creation of a turn-based RPG, there are a variety of topics that can be utilized when creating many other types of genres. By the end of the book, you will be able to build upon core RPG framework elements to create your own game experience.

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Building an RPG with Unreal 4.x
Steve Santello
Jan, 2016 | 360 pages
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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Building an RPG with Unreal 4.x
Building an RPG with Unreal 4.x
Credits
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Getting Started with RPG Design in Unreal
Getting Started with RPG Design in Unreal
Tools for game design
The design and concept phase
Describing the game's features and mechanics
Tropes in existing role-playing games
RPG design overview
Choosing the right formula
Summary
2
Scripting and Data in Unreal
Scripting and Data in Unreal
Downloading Unreal
Downloading Visual Studio
Setting up Visual Studio for Unreal
Setting up a new Unreal project
Creating a new C++ class
Blueprints
Using Data Tables to import spreadsheet data
Summary
3
Exploration and Combat
Exploration and Combat
Creating the player pawn
Defining characters and enemies
Party members
Turn-based combat
Summary
4
Pause Menu Framework
Pause Menu Framework
UMG pause screen initial setup
UMG background color
UMG text
UMG buttons
The UMG inventory submenu
The UMG equipment submenu
Key binding
Button programming
Summary
5
Bridging Character Statistics
Bridging Character Statistics
Getting character data
Getting player instances
Displaying stats
Summary
6
NPCs and Dialog
NPCs and Dialog
Creating the NPC Character Blueprint
Interacting with the NPC
Dialog box setup
Creating an NPC welcome box
Adding an NPC talk box
Summary
7
Gold, Items, and a Shop
Gold, Items, and a Shop
Setting and getting gold instances
Item data
The shop screen framework
The item button framework
Linking the item data
Summary
8
Inventory Population and Item Use
Inventory Population and Item Use
Creating the FieldPlayer Booleans
Determining whether the inventory screen is on or off
Logical difference between the inventory and shop items
Finishing the inventory screen
Buying items
Using items
Summary
9
Equipment
Equipment
The weapons Data Table
Setting the weapon and equipment screen variables
Creating the weapon button
Revisiting the equipment screen
Setting the equipment screen Text Blocks
Correcting the character stats when equipping
Summary
10
Leveling, Abilities, and Saving Progress
Leveling, Abilities, and Saving Progress
XP and leveling source code
Data Table starting values
Displaying levels and experience in the pause menu
Applying the correct damage in combat
Setting up the abilities array
Abilities logic
Saving and loading game progress
Summary
Index
Index

Creating the NPC Character Blueprint

To get started, we will need to create a new Character Blueprint class. Since we already have a location for characters, navigate to the character folder located in your Content Browser under Content | Blueprints | Characters (create a new character folder in content/blueprints if one is not there already, just to stay more organized; you can even drag your FieldPlayer Blueprint into the character folder if you'd like), and add a new character by clicking on Add New | Blueprint Class:

The Pick Parent Class window will pop up. This will allow you to pick a common parent class for your Blueprint class or create your own class:

UE4 has a lot of common classes built in, which have a lot of the frameworks of several different types of classes already built for us. One of those classes is Character which allows us to work with a common character framework for use with any type of character pawn we want. So, from this window, select Character.

Once you have selected...

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