My First Game Dev Project: Week 8

The last two weeks have been rough. I’ve been the illest I’ve been all year, which meant absolutely no progress for a little while. It’s been frustrating watching time slip by, but I’m finally feeling well enough to slowly pick things back up. If this journey has taught me anything so far, it’s that self-directed projects don’t run in straight lines, sometimes you’re powering forward, and other times life forces you to pause. I’m trying to accept that both are part of the process. 

Following on from last week’s character design fiasco, I’ve been trying to troubleshoot and figure out whether I can still use MetaHuman on my Mac. After a lot of searching, forum scrolling and unsuccessful experimenting, it became increasingly clear that MetaHuman is much happier running on a machine with more power behind it. My Mac Mini only has 16GB RAM, whereas MetaHuman really prefers 32GB or more, especially on Apple Silicon, which explains all the crashing and creative heartbreak. 

At one point I wondered whether I could bypass the issue by using a browser version of MetaHuman. I did find that you can design in MetaHuman Creator online, but the moment you import characters into Unreal, the heavy rendering falls back onto your own computer. In other words, even if I design in the cloud, my Mac still struggles once the character enters the engine. 

Because of that, I’ve started looking into possible alternatives. I still love the look and realism of MetaHuman, but I might need another tool while I learn and experiment. I’ve begun exploring options like MakeHuman, Blender and Character Creator, programs that are lighter on RAM and might allow me to prototype characters without constant crashes. They don’t have quite the same level of detail, but they could still help me visualise ideas and keep moving forward, which is more important than perfection at this stage. 

Even though this phase has been frustrating and progress has been slow, it’s also given me a deeper understanding of what really goes into game development. It’s not just the exciting creative bits, it’s problem-solving, improvising, adapting to limitations, and learning how to move forward even when things don’t go to plan. I’m choosing to see this as part of the journey, and I’m looking forward to getting back into development with fresh perspective. 

This week hasn’t been big in visuals or results, but it’s been full of technical, emotional and practical learning. I’ve learned where my limits are hardware-wise, and found new avenues I can explore until I eventually upgrade or find workarounds like cloud rendering or borrowing a stronger machine for the heavy stages. 

If anyone has advice for working with MetaHuman on lower-RAM setups, or has used any of the alternative character tools I’ve mentioned, feel free to drop me a message. I’d love to hear your experiences. 

Onwards!