Newbie seeking help for the UDK

[despair]

Hello all. I found out about the UDK earlier today by watching its video trailer. I must say, knowing that you could create a top notch game with just the UDK has really peaked my interest. I've never tried to develop a game before. However, these days I have a lot of free time to kill, so I'm interested in learning how to use the UDK to possibly create a simple game of my own. The UDK, however, looks extremely complicated(and so it should be), so I doubt someone like me without any experience in using a game editor can pick up the UDK and start making games. My question is, are there any guides out there that will specifically teach me step by step on how to use the UDK to make a simple game? (PS. I'm not looking for a guide that teaches you what tool does what, I have this (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKContentCreationHome.html) for that.)

[Sheepdog]

I'm not the most experienced on the subject, but I am currently attending school for game design so I'll throw in my two cents.

First, before anything else, figure out the scope of the project. Get a really good sense of the game in your head that you want to design. Before you even open up the editor, you should already have a solid picture of that game. It doesn't matter if it will change later (spoiler alert: it will). Make sure you've picked out your basic mechanics, aesthetics, and story that will make up the first iteration of the game.

With this in mind, you should be able to write a design document, which basically lays out everything you'll ever need to do in order to get your game off the ground all the way to completion. Does this include asset creation? If so, what kinds of assets? Character animation? Scripted events?

From this exercise, you will be able to determine roughly how many people, and what kind of time frame you will ultimately need to make this game a reality.

Even a very simple-sounding game can become overly complex extremely fast. Take rock-paper-scissors for example. Let's say you want to create a simple 2.5D rock-paper-scissors game using unreal. Ultimately, you're talking about

-main menu/interface
-all text
-setting up a fixed camera
-hand models
-UVs for those hand models
-Materials for those models
-Some kind of background
-rock, paper, scissors, resting, preparing, count down, victory and defeat animations (at minimum)
-particles/special effects
-lighting
-figuring out and mapping controls
-scripting for all events and winning/losing situations
-some kind of score-keeping mechanism that tallies up through games
-a way for two players to participate? (if not, then the scripting for an AI hand)
...etc... going over this list more thoroughly I'd end up adding a dozen more things.

And all of these categories must be broken down even further - what kind of hand are we talking about? Gloved hand? Human hand? Alien hand? Do the hands actually turn into rock, paper or scissors when you pick one? What all has to happen to make the sequence of choosing a move, keeping it hidden from the other player, and then throwing out the moves at the same time all work? Does each player input their move in advance of the throw (and then it initiates after all players have finalized their input), or do they have to time it during the "rock...paper...scissors!" countdown? That in itself can be a big gameplay consideration.

This is why you need to make a design document. The "bible" of your game, if you will. Most amateur game projects fail specifically because the designer will overshoot their capabilities in the first place. Once you have a design document, it is also easier to assemble a team and keep them on task (although experimentation is always a good thing in addition to this).

If you haven't already, try a simple mod with a board game. Find a board game you either love or hate, and try to change a few things about it and still make it both playable and fun. Once you can do that, you'll have the right outlook to approach an Unreal project with.

[DeltaCommando5]

I'm in the same boat, kinda. I'm an aspiring, passionate game designer, and I have skills in several areas of asset creation, but I lack any knowledge in code. I'm dying to make a professional looking game before I go off to a game design school or college for that matter. I read the documentation example and I saw lots of code, although I also see they have a visual code editor "Kismet". Is it possible to code a game entirely with the Kismet?

[Angel_Mapper]

Kismet != code, it's more a really really complex triggering system. There are a lot of things you can do with it though.

[Xion]

as far as coding from what I have been reading is that you should learn Java since it's (OOP) like the unreal Script. Yeah I would say that you would almost need a game. they take a long time. If it's your first time work on a demo level for you doc. Most places prefer you to have a working demo as they are not going to play your whole game but know where your going with the game. The problem I'm having is that I can't find any how to get started with the UDK

[mahri725]

I have a problem...I've converted a Maya mesh to UDK,I made the same steps as Raven did in the tutorial on youtube and the carachter still falls trough the converted mesh.Could you help me please?

[mahri725]

I have a problem:I've converted a Maya mesh to UDK and I did the same steps as Raven did in his tutorial on Youtube,but the main caracther still falls trough the mesh.After I selected from menu ,,build all paths'' and it gave me the following errors:,,Navigation point not on a valid base'' and ,,Map should have KillZ set''.Could you help me please?

[UnspoiledWalnut]

You can ignore the killZ set thing I think. Likely you need enable collision.

And there are a ton of OOP's, Java is just one that somehow became kinda popular. Moreover the languages themselves aren't that hard to pick up, you can probably really do that over a period of a few days, it's the design element to construct what you want that's an issue.

[mahri725]

I've converted an maya mesh to udk mesh and I did the same thing as Raven did in his tutorial on Youtube but the main carachter still falls trough the mesh.I've tried to enable collision on that mesh but I don't know wich type should I use.I can't even test the map-the screen is black,the life and armour values are missing and the weapon is missing.Could you help me please?