Unreal Engine, the Fortnite engine, free on your PC. Learn the editor, Blueprint visual scripting (real programming with nodes and wires), Actors, events and a playable interactive level.
Before you start: Unreal Engine 5 is free, but it is a big install (around 30 GB) and wants a reasonably strong PC with a dedicated GPU. This is a home-computer workshop, so a grown-up should help, and it will not run on a locked-down school computer. Want to begin right now with nothing to install? Try the Unreal Studio in your browser first, then come back for the full engine.
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Workshop reference pack: download an offline copy of every step in this workshop: ⬇ unreal-basics-workshop-reference.zip. Every code block also has a Copy button.
1
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Install & Editor Tour
Epic Games Launcher, UE5, and the viewport
Active
🎯
Goal for this step
Install Unreal Engine 5 and learn to move through a level.
1Install the Epic Games Launcher, then Unreal Engine (latest 5.x) from its Library tab. It is big (~30 GB), start it downloading!
2New Project → Games → Third Person template, Blueprint, no starter content needed. You begin with a WORKING playable character, Unreal’s gift.
3Viewport flying: hold Right Mouse + WASD (Q/E for down/up), scroll to change fly speed.
4The panels: Outliner (everything in the level), Details (edit the selected thing, Unity’s Inspector), Content Drawer (Ctrl+Space, all assets).
5Press Play (or Alt+P) and run around with the mannequin. You are inside a AAA engine.
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Parent note: Unreal Engine is completely free until a released game earns over $1 million. It wants a reasonably strong PC, a dedicated GPU helps a lot.
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Fill in the Blanks
+15 XP
Flying the viewport holds the mouse button with WASD. The panel listing everything in the level is the , and assets live in the Content .
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
The Third Person template starts you with a playable character because…
AUnreal cannot make others
BUnreal ships production-grade starting points, you learn by modifying working systems, not empty scenes
CIt is a demo you cannot edit
2
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Actors & Level Building
Place, transform and organise a small arena
Locked
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Goal for this step
Build a simple arena from shapes and learn Actor thinking.
1Everything placed in a level is an Actor (Unity’s GameObject, roughly).
3The Event Graph is code as nodes: Event Tick (runs every frame) → drag off it → AddActorLocalRotation (Z = 2).
4White wires = execution order; coloured wires = data. That IS programming, visually.
5Compile, Save, drag BP_Coins into the arena. Play: they all spin.
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Fill in the Blanks
+15 XP
Blueprint logic lives in the Event . The wire carries execution order, while coloured wires carry . Event Tick fires every frame.
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
Event Tick in Blueprint corresponds to which concept you already know?
AThe constructor
BUpdate()/Step/the game loop, per-frame logic, the same heartbeat in every engine
CThe render button
4
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Overlap Events & Collecting
Box triggers, casting, and destroying actors
Locked
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Goal for this step
Make the coin collectable when the player touches it.
1In BP_Coin add a Box Collision component around the mesh.
2Select it → Details → Events → + On Component Begin Overlap, a red event node appears (GameMaker’s collision event, Unreal-style).
3From Other Actor, drag → Cast To BP_ThirdPersonCharacter, "was it the player?" (the tag check / GetComponent-null-check of Unreal).
4Cast success → DestroyActor (self). Play and run through coins: collected!
5Add a pickup sound: PlaySoundAtLocation before the destroy (the template has sounds to borrow).
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Fill in the Blanks
+15 XP
Touch detection uses On Component Begin . Checking the toucher was the player is done with a To node, and the coin removes itself with .
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
The Cast To node answers the same question as which patterns from earlier episodes?
AThe game loop
BCompareTag("Ball") / GetComponent<Brick>() != null, "is this thing the kind I care about?"
CThe clamp function
5
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Variables, HUD & Counting
A score variable and on-screen text
Locked
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Goal for this step
Count collected coins and show the total on screen.
1Open the player Blueprint (BP_ThirdPersonCharacter). Add a variable: CoinCount, Integer, default 0.
2In BP_Coin’s overlap (after the successful cast): drag from the cast output → Get CoinCount → +1 → Set CoinCount. Variables read/write across Blueprints through references, the cast GAVE you the reference.
3HUD: create a Widget Blueprint (WBP_HUD) with a Text block. Bind its text to the player’s CoinCount (Create Binding → get player → get CoinCount → ToText).
5Play: a live coin counter. You just built UI, data flow and events, no text code at all.
✏️
Fill in the Blanks
+15 XP
On-screen UI is built in a Blueprint and shown with Add to . The cast node’s output pin provided the used to reach the player’s variables.
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
Blueprint variables + bindings gave you a live-updating HUD. In Unity the same job needed…
ANothing
BA Canvas, a TMP text and a script setting .text, same architecture, different clothes
CA separate program
6
🎮
Win State & Your First Level
Branches, all-coins-collected and level polish
Locked
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Goal for this step
Add a win condition and finish a complete playable level.
1The Branch node is Blueprint’s if-statement. After incrementing CoinCount: Branch, is CoinCount == 10 (an Equal node)?
2True → show a "YOU WIN!" widget + Open Level (reload for replay) after a 2-second Delay node.
3Level design pass with your arena: place 10 coins so collecting them TOURS the space, heights, behind pillars, up the ramps (bonus: the mannequin can jump!).
4Playtest: can a friend find all 10 without hints? Watch where they get lost; move coins accordingly. That is real level design iteration.
5Episode complete, the shooter awaits in Episode 2!
✏️
Fill in the Blanks
+15 XP
Blueprint’s if-statement is the node. A timed pause before the reload uses a node, and restarting uses Open .
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Knowledge Check
+15 XP
You built this entire level without one line of text code. Blueprints prove that…
ACode is obsolete
BProgramming is LOGIC (events, variables, branches, loops), syntax is just one way to write it
CUnreal has no code
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Workshop Complete!
The UE5 editor, Blueprint logic and an interactive level, the AAA engine answers to you now. The series continues with the Blueprint Shooter!
