Build Your Own First Person Shooter In Unreal Engine 4

Learn the fundamentals of creating a FPS game in Unreal Engine, with free resources and over 13 hours of tutorials!

Last updated 2022-01-10 | 4.4

- Creating a controllable character from scratch with custom inputs and movement systems
- Advanced hitscan and projectile based weapon mechanics (equipping
- reloading
- ADS
- FX
- automatic fire
- fire rate
- bullet spread
- recoil
- and more)
- Artificial Intelligence behavior for enemies

What you'll learn

Creating a controllable character from scratch with custom inputs and movement systems
Advanced hitscan and projectile based weapon mechanics (equipping
reloading
ADS
FX
automatic fire
fire rate
bullet spread
recoil
and more)
Artificial Intelligence behavior for enemies
Advanced animation blueprints
Advanced HUD elements
Damage modifiers based on impacted body parts
A fundamental understanding of Unreal Engine 4

* Requirements

* A PC capable of running UE4
* 8 GB RAM or more [recommended]

Description

This course will teach you how to make a first-person shooter game in Unreal Engine 4, whether you're UE4 knowledgable or a complete beginner. We will go step by step through the game-making process to show how we can set up a character from scratch, create weapons and AI, and tie it all up with common gameplay mechanics.

In this course, you will:

  • Learn how to create your own first-person character and movement mechanics.

  • Create advanced weapons in multiple ways (hitscan and projectile) of multiple types (automatic fire, burst fire, explosive, etc).

  • Put together HUD elements to give your game that extra bit of polish (dynamic crosshairs, blood screens, directional damage indicators, interpolating health bars, and more).

  • Create AI Characters that can sense you through sight, sound, or touch, and will have certain abilities such as being able to search for you if you get out of sight.

  • Make a round-based spawning system to make your new creations turn into a game.

  • Many other fun activities such as one-way collision, purchasable weapons and obstacles, ragdoll physics, game over screens, regenerative health, making 2D images out of 3D meshes, holding your weapon to your chest when near a wall, and much more.

  • Master the ability to create a game in your vision.

We're going to dive straight in, starting a game from scratch and building ourselves an empire. It's going to be an incredibly fun journey, and at the end of it, you'll have the knowledge needed to create games on your own, from start to finish. You'll learn how much easier it can be to use Unreal Engine once you've got the hang of it, and then nothing will be in the way of you and your dreams of making and finishing video games.

Why Take This Course?

Even if first-person shooters aren't your interest, this course provides the steps necessary to create a video game from start to finish. You will learn many fundamental things about the game-making process and will be able to utilize that knowledge in the projects you work on from here on out. I'm excited to see what you can create because I understand what you're capable of. So are you ready?

Let's start making a video game!

Who this course is for:

  • Anyone looking to delve into Unreal Engine 4 or simply expand their skillset

Course content

11 sections • 93 lectures

Preview Preview 01:41

Have you ever wanted to build a First Person Shooter in Unreal Engine 4? Not only is this a great place to start, but by the end, you'll have a fully functioning fps game! Let's get creating!

Welcome Preview 00:50

Welcome to our course.

Creating Our Project Preview 04:28

We set up our project and create the base classes needed to get our game running, such as the character, controller, game mode, and HUD.

Importing Assets Preview 03:07

In this episode, we import our first-person arms and animations.

Importing Weapons Preview 01:38

We import a free weapons pack from the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

Mouse Input Preview 02:38

We create a system that allows mouse movement to control our camera.

Movement Input Preview 03:04

We create a system that allows the WASD keys to control our movement.

Jump Functionality Preview 01:06

We link pressing the spacebar to having our character jump.

Creating A Material For Our Mesh Preview 02:58

We remake the material for our first-person arms mesh.

Adding First Person Arms to Our Character Preview 03:33

We add the skeletal mesh to our controllable character.

Creating Weapon Classes and Adding Bone Sockets Preview 12:35

We create our weapon base class and set the sockets for them to be attached to in our skeleton.

Animation Blueprints and Custom Animations Preview 15:17

We add our animation blueprint and create animations for our guns.

Spawning Weapons To Mesh Preview 15:08

We add equipable weapons.

Weapon Firing, Reloading, and Recoil Preview 30:44

We add firing functionality with particle effects, recoil, and reloading.

Reload Animation Preview 04:14

We improve on our reloading to give us a visual that the reloading is happening.

Ejecting Shells Preview 04:33

We add a particle effect to eject shells from the weapon.

Hitscan Weapons and Bullet Spread Preview 12:35

We create the first of our two weapon types, hitscan and projectile. We also implement bullet spread into our mechanic.

Impact Effects- Particles and Bullet Holes Based On Different Surfaces Preview 18:00

We create impact effects such as dust and bullet holes where your bullet lands and set it up in a way where hitting different surfaces can create different impact effects (i.e. concrete is chunks, flesh is blood, water splashes, etc).

Dynamic Crosshair Preview 20:21

We add a dynamic crosshair that increases in size as we are moving or falling, and can be set to match the gun's bullet spread.

Fixing An Impact Effect Bug Preview 00:44

We fix a bug in our impact effect actor that produces an error when our bullet does not collide with a surface.

Purchasable Weapons Preview 27:53

We replace our debug system of spawning weapons into our hands with number keys with purchasable weapons set in our scene.

Switching Weapons Animation Preview 01:56

We add an animation for switching our weapon.

Disabling Shoot Functionality While Changing Your Weapon Preview 01:07

We don't let our player shoot while they are switching their weapon.

Creating an AI Character Preview 19:57

We create a very basic AI character to get started with.

Creating Physical Materials for Differential Damage Based on Hit Body Part Preview 13:50

We create physical materials so hitting different body parts on our AI will result in different amounts of damage applied.

Fixing the Flesh_Body Physical Material Preview 00:33

We fix a quick mistake I made in our Flesh_Body Physical Material that still gives it a destructible damage threshold of 1.0.

Removing the Gun Shadow Preview 00:48

We remove the floating gun shadow from our world.

Creating an Assault Rifle Preview 17:08

We create an assault rifle.

Removing Impact Sound When Our Bullet Doesn't Hit Anything Preview 00:54

We remove the issue of the impact sound effect being played even when our bullet does not hit any surface.

Setting AI Mesh Physical Material Override Preview 02:20

We remove the issue of shooting the body in between physic asset capsules and registering the hit as default rather than flesh.

Creating a Shotgun Preview 16:13

We create a shotgun.

Fixing Shotgun Reload Time Preview 00:33

We plug in the function for setting our reload time so it registers how to calculate the custom reload time.

Making a Custom Object Channel for Weapon Buys Preview 02:06

We create a custom object channel for our weapon buy so our bullets don't register it as a surface. We make it reusable for any overlapping trigger we may want to have.

Creating Projectile-Based Weapons- the Sniper Rifle Preview 44:15

We start on projectile-based weapons rather than hitscan, creating the sniper rifle.

Creating the Sniper Rifle- Part 2 Preview 03:42

We continue on creating our sniper rifle.

Fixing a Weapon Switch Bug Preview 01:47

We fix an issue where you can switch to the weapon you are already holding.

Updating Our Weapon Animation Method Preview 10:59

We update our animation blueprint to be more efficient.

Fixing Disappearing Mesh Bug Preview 00:48

We fix the issue that hides your FPS arms mesh when you look straight up or straight down.

Creating the Sniper Rifle- Part 3 Preview 06:41

We finish our sniper rifle.

Creating the Rocket Launcher and Radius Damage Preview 34:00

We create a rocket launcher and radius based damage.

Fixing Subtracting Negative Health from Radius Damage Bug Preview 01:44

We fix a small bug that causes negative health from the radius damage.

Creating the Grenade Launcher Preview 14:32

We create the grenade launcher.

Running and Jumping Animations Preview 08:38

We add running and jumping animations that blend with our gun poses to give our first-person experience a more realistic feel.

Holding Weapon to Chest When Near Wall Preview 09:09

To prevent the weapon from clipping through the wall, our character will pull their weapon towards their chest when near a wall.

Updating the Is Near Wall Check Preview 02:01

We make some changes to the is near wall check so we can keep our jump animations while holding our weapon to our chest.

Smoothing Out the Jump End Animation Preview 01:14

We smooth out the jump end animation for a cleaner jump.

Aiming Down Sights Preview 17:23

We create the ability to aim down our gun's iron sights.

Slowing Our Character Down During ADS Preview 08:52

We slow our movement and look speed when we are aiming.

Reducing Bullet Spread and Recoil While Aiming Preview 05:16

When aiming, our bullet spread decreases for more accurate shots and our recoil goes down as well.

Removing the Sniper Rifle's Shell Emitter when ADS Preview 01:10

We remove the shell emitter from the sniper rifle when we are aiming through the scope so it doesn't get in the way. Whether you want to incorporate this or not is completely up to you.

Sniper Scope Recoil Preview 02:44

We add recoil to the sniper rifle when you're aiming down sights, using the same method we use for the assault rifle.

Fire Rate Preview 03:39

We create fire rate for our weapons.

Fixing a Recoil Bug Preview 01:34

We fix a quick recoil bug that has us never stop recoiling until the LMB is released.

Adding Weapon Information in Our HUD Preview 15:59

We add a widget in the lower right that displays the gun and ammo.

Reloading Text Preview 04:40

We create a text that lets you know you're reloading.

Creating Gun Icons Preview 21:43

We create gun icons from our gun's 3D meshes.

Adding Gun Icons to Weapon Info Widget Preview 09:46

We create our gun icon materials and add them to our weapon info widget.

Health and Armor Preview 09:55

We give our player health and armor.

Advanced Health and Armor Progress Bars Preview 16:38

We create an interpolating health bar.

Health Bar Flashes Red at Low Health Preview 04:03

We create an animation for our health bar to flash red when we're below 30% health.

Regenerative Health Preview 05:59

We make our health regenerative.

Blood Screens Preview 25:15

We add blood screens to indicate damage.

Player Dying Effect Preview 11:30

We add a player death effect so we can collapse to the ground after we die.

Hitmarkers Preview 10:49

We create 2 different kinds of hitmarkers to indicate when we have damaged our enemies.

Floating Damage Preview 11:31

We add floating damage so we know how much damage we have done to our enemies.

Ragdoll Physics Preview 10:04

We add ragdoll physics to our AI Character so he can collapse when he dies.

Behavior Trees Preview 10:27

We begin creating our AI's behavior tree.

AI Animation Blueprint Preview 08:40

We create an animation blueprint for our AI.

AI Rotation Preview 00:54

We make our AI smoothly rotate towards his next desired location.

Sight Perception Preview 14:21

We give our AI sight perception.

Chase Player Preview 08:57

We have our AI chase the player when they see you.

AI Investigation Preview 16:41

We add AI investigation that allows the AI to look for you once they've lost sight of you.

AI Attack Player Preview 11:51

We create a way for the AI to swing at us when he gets close enough.

AI Damage Player Preview 06:22

We have the AI damage the player when they hit him.

Disallowing our Player to Shoot AI After Their Death Preview 01:44

We remove generating a hit when shooting a dead NPC (no more hitmarker or floating damage).

Hearing Perception Preview 10:39

We give our AI the ability to hear things such as gunshots, resulting in investigation.

Damage Perception Preview 06:11

We give our AI the ability to react when damaged.

Nav Link Proxy Preview 02:25

We create nav link proxies, which bridge together two pieces of navigable mesh.

New Map and Nav Mesh Preview 10:20

We create a navigation mesh for our new map.

Player Takes Explosive Damage Preview 07:27

We implement the player being able to take damage from their own explosive weapons.

Directional Damage Indicator Preview 17:13

We add a directional damage indicator so you know from where you got hit.

Spawning and Round System Preview 31:31

We create a round system similar to Call of Duty's Zombies where the amount of zombies gets increased each round.

Zombie Spawn Points and Expanding the Behavior Tree Preview 19:44

We add upon our spawn points to have them enter the house before they begin their chase sequence.

One Way Collision Preview 08:18

We create a one-way collision system that doesn't allow our player to exit the house, but allows zombies to enter the house.

Score System Preview 10:40

We implement a scoring system that gives us points for damaging and killing zombies.

Making Weapons Purchasable Preview 03:11

We make our weapons purchasable with the points we gain from killing zombies.

Game Over Preview 13:23

We add a game over screen that displays some stats and a restart button.

Improving Floating Damage Preview 03:02

We create some variation with the floating damage by making it red when we get a headshot.

No Weapon Animation Preview 04:24

We remove the weapon animation when you're not holding a weapon.

Improved FX Preview 06:13

We add a trail of smoke after firing and change the impact effect.

Purchasable Obstacles Preview 11:32

We create purchasable obstacles to limit the player from exploring the entire map without playing some of the game first.

Fixing the Long Overdue Reload Bug Preview 01:27

We fix the reload bug that takes away a full magazine of ammo when you reload, even when it's not supposed to.

Conclusion Preview 00:32

Thank you for joining me in this game making journey. I hope to see you again soon.