Learning the Game Development Pipeline

I’m halfway through my first class on the game development pipeline at SCAD taught by Professor Nye Warburton. I’m still working full-time so my progress is limited to the time I can spend in the wee hours of the morning chicken-peckin’ my way around Unreal Engine. It’s a lot of fun so far. I’ve been able to wrap my head around the workflow from grayboxing to modeling, texturing, and even blueprinting in Unreal and Cinema 4D.

As much as I love Cinema, I’m noticing a significant gap between my classmates and I when it comes to tool choice. Most everyone seems to be in more of a Maya/ZBrush/Substance camp, while only a couple of us play in Cinema 4D. I am still optimistic that the DCC package you use won’t be as important in the next few years (especially if Universal Scene Description takes off) and your 3D modeling and animation tool of choice will be synonymous with the IDE programmers choose. Notepad++ baby!

I suppose I’ll have more interesting things to share as I learn them, but I’ve been really enjoying diving into game design with this book recommended by Professor Warburton. For now, here’s a walk-through of my first game, compiled in Unreal Engine. The brief was to “create a gated level” meaning we want to create an experience where the player has to learn a skill and then as they improve in it, they are rewarded with more progress. In my game, we focus on jumping!

I plan on coming back to this level to make things look a little prettier. But I have to say, Unreal does really feel like a completely different animal. I can still render out linear sequences, but the tools and assets available to create complex worlds and narratives is so promising.