The first Unreal Engine was launched in 1998 by Epic Games. A great feature about this engine was that, because of UnrealScript, the engine became quite popular with the community, as it made modding quite easy and accessible. Then, in 2002, Epic released their next engine, Unreal Engine 2, which was a great improvement over the first engine. It came with something called UnrealEd 2 (and later, UnrealEd 3), which was essentially a level editor that you could use to create levels for Unreal. This, along with UnrealScript could be used to create entirely new games. The engine offered better rendering, better physics, and better collision than its predecessor. It also supported the then current generation consoles, namely PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. In 2006, Epic released their next, and, probably, their most popular and widely used engine, Unreal 3. It was a giant leap in terms of technology. This is where Unreal Engine started picking up steam. However, perhaps the most significant feature offered by Unreal Engine 3 was Kismet. Kismet is an extremely powerful visual scripting tool. The way it works is that there are various nodes, which can be connected to form a logical sequence, kind of like a flowchart. The best part about Kismet is that you do not require any programming knowledge. You can make an entire game without writing a single line of code using Kismet. It is an extremely handy tool for artists and designers, since they can make quick prototypes or experiment with a certain feature on their own and not have to rely on programmers.

We now come to a more present time. In February 2012, Epic unveiled Unreal 4, which was finally released on March 19, 2014. Unreal Engine 4 had been in the works since 2003. This Engine was a huge step up from the previous one. For one, it totally removed UnrealScript and replaced it with C++. In earlier versions of Unreal, if you wanted to modify the engine to develop your game, you had to do so using UnrealScript, which meant learning a new language. But now, if you wish to modify the Engine, you can do so with C++. This was a huge improvement for engine programmers, since this meant they could modify and tweak anything they wish using a language they already know and love.

Not only that, the engine's source code is also available for developers and can be downloaded from the GitHub repository. This means that developers have full control over the engine and can tweak virtually anything, including the physics, rendering, and UI.

It also offers something called the Hot Reload function. Normally, when you want to make changes in the code of a game, you have to stop the game, make the desired change, and then run it again to see how it affects the game. However, with the hot reload function, you can make changes in the game without having to stop or pause the game. Any change you make in the game's code is instantly updated and you can see its effect in real time.

You can also develop games for a wide variety of platforms on Unreal 4, including Xbox One, PlayStation 4 (including Project Morpheus), Windows PC, Linux, Mac OS X, HTML 5, iOS, and Android. It also offers support for Oculus Rift.

Another major change made by Epic is the licensing model, aimed at smaller, indie developers. To be more specific, to license Unreal Development Kit (UDK), which was the previous version of Unreal Engine, the developers had to pay a $99 licensing fee and 25 percent of the royalties made after the company had earned at least $50,000 from sales. In Unreal 4, however, they have changed the structure. As of early 2015, Unreal Engine 4 is now completely free to download and use. No licensing fee, no subscription, nothing. You can download it, develop a game on it, and publish it, without spending a single penny on the engine. You only pay 5 percent of the royalties after you have earned more than $3000 in revenue.

Another great feature that Unreal 4 provides is the Marketplace. The Marketplace is a great place to buy and upload assets. These assets can be Animations, 3D Models, Materials, Sound Effects, Premade Games, and so on. This is also good news for aspiring developers, who do not have the resources or manpower to develop these assets. They can simply buy the required assets from the Marketplace and use them in their game. Developers can also upload their own work onto the Marketplace and earn some money.

This book is aimed at beginners who have little to no knowledge regarding Unreal Engine 4, and it covers how to develop games for Android using it. This book will cover all that you need to know in order to get started. From the very basics, such as how to download and install the engine, to the more advanced, such as how to upload your finished product on to the Google Play Store, are going to be covered. We will do this by making a game of our own using UE4, step-by-step. Each chapter can be thought of as a step in making our game. The book has been structured in such a way that each subsequent chapter is a continuation of the previous chapter to give a sense of flow to the readers.

This book will also not use any other software (apart from the Android SDK), so that the readers do not have to first download dozens of software in order to get ready, and focus solely on the engine. All of the assets, such as materials, static meshes, and so on, will be the ones available in the Engine itself.

keytool –genkey –v –keystore -*name of your project*.keystore –alias *alias_name* -keyalg RSA – keysize 2048 –validity 10000