My First Game Dev Journey: Week 10

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year!

It’s been a little while since my last blog post, but I wanted to share some screenshots from my game as I’ve been focusing on developing the environment and overall world design.

Over the winter break, I took some time to work on other projects, and I’ve now returned to this one with fresh energy. While there are still some finer details to refine, such as materials, textures, and environmental polish, this is how the world is shaping up at this stage.

Click any image to view the full gallery.

My current focus is on testing how the character moves through the environment, with the aim of creating a short demo where the character can walk through the world and interact with the space. This will help me evaluate scale, navigation, and the overall feel of the environment.

Alongside this, I’ve been teaching myself Unreal Engine Blueprints through a combination of documentation and YouTube tutorials.

Interestingly, I’ve found some clear similarities between Blueprints and MAX/MSP, which I worked with last year. Having that prior experience with node-based systems has definitely helped me get to grips with Unreal’s logic workflows more quickly.

There have been some technical challenges along the way, particularly around rendering and system performance when working with Blueprints and animation. However, these challenges have been part of the learning process, and I’ve been steadily refining my workflow and problem-solving skills as I go. Unreal Engine’s built-in Blueprint systems have been especially helpful in allowing me to prototype and test ideas efficiently while continuing to build my understanding.

My next goal is to share a short demo video of the character moving through the environment, which will mark an important milestone in this project.

Thanks for reading, more updates soon!