My Journey into Game Development with Unreal Engine 5

"Every great journey begins with a single step—or in my case, a very long Newegg wish list of PC parts."

The Hesitation to Start Something New

The decision to venture into Unreal Engine 5 development wasn't an easy one. My aging PC, with its last upgrade dating back more than five years, simply wouldn't cut it.

I found myself at a crossroads:

• Invest in an entirely new build

• Or abandon the idea altogether

Adding to my hesitation was the nagging uncertainty of whether I'd actually follow through with game development, plus the daunting prospect of having to learn the engine.

Despite these reservations, I took the plunge—ordered the parts, assembled the PC, and installed Unreal Engine 5.

That was three months ago, and I haven't looked back since.

Why I chose Unreal Engine 5

I came for the visuals, stayed for everything else.

Graphics That Sell

Unreal Engine 5's Nanite and Lumen technologies meant I could create something that looked really good without need a team of experienced 3D artist. While I knew the learning curve would be steep, the prospect of achieving high-quality graphics with minimal tweaking was too appealing to pass up.

Visual Programming

The Blueprint system sealed the deal. Instead of getting lost in code syntax, I could focus on game logic and design. It's like the difference between pseudo code and having to actually write the code in a language that's 3 languages ago—Blueprints let me concentrate on what matters: making the game fun.

A "Bright" Future

I started in UE 5.4, and while the journey hasn't been without its challenges, the rapid prototyping has kept me motivated. With 5.5 and its MegaLights feature released and begging me to try it out, I'm excited of the prospect of surrounding Cherry with MegaLight powered lights of every and all kinds. Certainly worth the effort of migrating my project (I'll let you know how that pans out).

The Magic of Epic's Marketplace

Back in the day, creating a 3D game world have meant either being a 3D artist or hiring one—both paths leading straight to an empty wallet.

Epic's marketplace changed all that. The quality of assets available is mind-blowing, and while they should have put me out on the street given how many I've bought, the prices are surprisingly reasonable. My only complaint? It might be a little too easy to hit that "Add to Cart" button.

And the fact that I can drop in an asset from the marketplace from within my project? Dangerous.

But since I'm supporting fellow creators and developers, I sleep at night.

Great Performance

While my fancy new PC does play a role in this, I have to say I've noticed a marked improvement in Unreal 5 over Unreal 4 (I only dabbled in 4, but I can still tell).

UE5 definitely performs better, is cleaned up, is more consistent, has less bugs, and actually builds! I tried UE4 back in the day, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but could never get anything to build without putting in way more effort than I was willing to.

But my experience with UE5 is night and day from UE4. I was shocked when my first build actually just worked, even with the myriad of marketplace assets I had thrown in there.

But speaking of hardware, I thought I'd share my build specs in case you're curious about what's powering Our Little Town behind the scenes.

My Build

Let's talk about Casey (I know... very original).

The Case for Beauty

The heart of the looks department is a Corsair iCUE 5000X RGB case.

I started with the 4000X, but quickly discovered that I'd sort of have to cram the RTX 4080 in there and I didn't want that. So I returned the 4000X (without a hitch thanks to Newegg's easy return process), and got the 5000X. It put a dent in my wallet twice the size that the 4000X did, but the result has been very much worth it.

Now that I've mentioned the RTX 4080, I can hear you saying—why not the 4090?

Well, to make a long story short, the 4090 just didn't seem worth the cost difference over the 4080 given the nominal performance improvements observed in benchmark tests. It was around mid-2024 when I made the purchase and I think there was at least a $400 difference.

Since I wasn't even fully committed to this new endeavor, that just seemed like too much of a difference.

Thankfully the 4080 is performing wonderfully, so... so far, so good.

Casey's Guts

Inside the belly of my beautiful beast, is the:

• Intel Core i7 12th gen Alder Lake

• Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite motherboard

• Corsair iCue H150i Elite cooling

• Samsung M.2 storage and

• 64GB of DDR5 RAM

I've put Casey through the wringer—opening massive demo projects, importing asset pack after asset pack with no rhyme or reason, and Casey hasn't even blinked.

Initially, I only had the fans that came with the 5000X, and the fans on the liquid cooler, so she would definitely get louder when Unreal was active.

But I've since added just one rear fan and now she's whisper quite.

For Our Little Town, which is intentionally designed to be less demanding, I think I'm set for the development adventures that await.

Conclusion

I haven't regretted making the investment required for Unreal Engine, financial or otherwise. And I'm actually looking forward to a long partnership with the engine.

I feel confident that I'll be able to do everything I have a mind to do, and then some... and that's exciting.

Thanks for reading!