Unreal Engine

Item

Unreal blueprint - Yotam Shibolet.jpg
Title
Unreal Engine
Description
Originally developed by Epic Games for their shooter game Unreal Unreal Engine grew to be one of the most popular game engine worldwide alongside Unity. While its technical and visual affordances for the design of detailed 3D environments characters and physics are almost unrivaled it is very tough to learn and includes little support for narrative authoring. While a full-scale project requires coding in C++ the blueprint mode allows beginners and prototype developers to create functional project using readymade assets and preset schemes – making charting out a prospective project with Unreal comparably comfortable (though still requiring a learning curve and some graphical know-how).

*My classification of this tool tries to account for both the relatively amateur-friendly Blueprint mode which is based on visual templating and Unreal's more advanced primary authoring mode based on abstract coding and design from scratch
Form filler
Yotam Shibolet
Creator and affiliation
Epic Games
Current ownership type
Fully private
Year of first release
1998
End-product media type(s)
Real-time graphics
XR (Virtual/augmented/mixed reality)
Main target audience(s)
Amateurs/enthusiasts
Professional interactive narrative authors
Programmers (no creative background)-targeted tool
Available modes of creation
Abstract coding/scripting creation mode (e.g. Ren’Py)
Visual coding creation mode (e.g. Scratch)
Spatial creation mode (e.g. Unity)
Role of coding in creative process
Optional
Life status
Alive (actively moderated and updated and/or active community of authors)
Product portal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games
https://www.giantbomb.com/unreal-engine-4/3015-2551/games/
Homepage URL
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/
Reference citations/URL(s)
https://hub.packtpub.com/overview-unreal-engine/
Use license cost
Free license
Programming language written in
Written in C++
Author-facing programming/scripting language(s)
C++ authoring
Authoring tool work platform(s)
Windows
Mac
Linux
End-product work platform(s)
PC support
PlayStation support
XBox support
Switch support
Android support
Browser support
iOS support
iPhone support
VR/XR consoles
Available supporting technical resource(s)
https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/store
Self-containment
Self-contained with optional plugins/assets
Primary design focus
Space (environment design)
Primary authoring action(s)
Drag & drop (visual templates - e.g. RPGMaker - Unity)
Visual coding (e.g. Scratch)
Main interface window(s)
WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) layout
Nodes & links graph
3D space editor
Text-based authoring/coding layout
Customization menus
Designable general element(s)
Nodes and links (any medium)
Video segments
Audio/sound
Animations
Movement affordances
Props/items
Rules/Constraints
Events
Physics system/objects
Environmental/Character States
Camera controls
Control customization
Built-in preset element(s)
Visual templates
Interaction model presets
Layout presets of the final product
Extendable nodes
Menu presets
Environment presets
Character AI presets
Overall difficulty assessment
Hard
Work environment/design interface intuitiveness
Medium intuitive
Learning curve complexity
Medium learning curve
Advanced authoring complexity
High complexity
Depth of advanced authoring
Large depth
Degree of narrative specific emphasis
Nonexistent narrative-specific emphasis
Role of procedural authoring
Optional procedural authoring
Types of available procedural authoring
Environment
Objects/Items
End-product control interface
Mouse & keyboard
Physical controllers (joystick touchscreen steering wheel gamepad etc.)
Motion controllers
Gestural capture interface
Additional key interaction design affordance(s)
Multiplayer support
Locational detection
Item sets
IDN authoring tools