Getting started: Your guide to creating an Unreal game
1) Get the Unreal Development Kit
That’s 600MB of toolset and code, which is everything you need to make a standalone game of your own, (bar third-party art applications to create textures and such). It’s availablehere. If you need to buy a license, you can do that here.
2) Make your game
Yeah, just like that. No, not just like that – it’s a long and complicated process, but surprisingly easy to grasp the basics of. The best way to do that is by following the Whizzle tutorial. You can also download the free puzzle game Whizzle itself and its source code to crib from. For the finer points, you want the over 200 documents and helpful forum-folkhere.
Above: Whizzle in action
3) Get it out there
Once the thing’s made, you need to distribute it. If it’s to be free, chat up the likes of indie blogTIGsourceand Valhalla. If you want to sell it,Steam, Stardock’s Impulseor Gamersgateare leading lights for self-published indie developers. “We would offer anyone using the Unreal 3 SDK the same rate we offer all of our developer partners: 70% of the gross revenue per unit sold,” says Stardock’s director of publishing, Brian Clair. ”Essentially, we would treat these devs the same way that we do all of our partners.”
4) Spread the word
Get a buzz around your game; doing this before you have a distributor will help you secure one, too. Tap up forums, fansites, get your friends Twittering and name-dropping, set up invitation-only betas, release a demo… Oh, and tell us about it too. Don’t wait for the internet to beat a path to your door. You have to pimp yourself, because as any pimp can tell you, pimping means profit – especially given how many other people are now going to be making U3 engine games too.
Dec 28, 2009
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