Unreal Development Kit game design cookbook : over 100 recipes to accelerate the process of learning game design with UDK

UDK is a free, world class game editing tool and being so powerful it can be daunting to learn. This guide offers an excellent set of targeted recipes to help game artists get up to speed with game designing in UDK. Unreal Development Kit Game Design Cookbook contains everything you need to jumpstart your game design efforts. The lessons are aimed squarely at the artist's field of production, with recipes on asset handling, creating content within the editor, animation and visual scripting to get the content working in gameplay. Unreal Game Development Kit Game Design Cookbook exposes how real-time environments are built using UDK tools. Key features are examined assets, animation, light, materials, game controls, user interface, special effects, and game interactivity - with the view of making UDK technically accessible so users can transcend technique and focus on their creative design process. The book has well prepared recipes for level designers and artists of all levels. It covers core design tools and processes in the editor, particularly setting up characters, UI approaches, configuration and scripting gameplay. It is a technical guide that allows game artists to go beyond just creating assets, and it includes creative, extensive demonstrations that extend on mere functionality

In Detail

UDK is a free, world class game editing tool and being so powerful it can be daunting to learn. This guide offers an excellent set of targeted recipes to help game artists get up to speed with game designing in UDK.

Unreal Development Kit Game Design Cookbook contains everything you need to jumpstart your game design efforts. The lessons are aimed squarely at the artist's field of production, with recipes on asset handling, creating content within the editor, animation and visual scripting to get the content working in gameplay.

Unreal Game Development Kit Game Design Cookbook exposes how real-time environments are built using UDK tools. Key features are examined - assets, animation, light, materials, game controls, user interface, special effects, and game interactivity - with the view of making UDK technically accessible so users can transcend technique and focus on their creative design process. The book has well prepared recipes for level designers and artists of all levels. It covers core design tools and processes in the editor, particularly setting up characters, UI approaches, configuration and scripting gameplay. It is a technical guide that allows game artists to go beyond just creating assets, and it includes creative, extensive demonstrations that extend on mere functionality.

Approach

Written in cookbook style, this book offers many recipes to learn game design with UDK. Each recipe contains step-by-step instructions followed by analysis of what was done in each task and other useful information. The book is designed so that you can read it chapter by chapter, or you can look at the list of recipes and refer to them in no particular order.

Who this book is for

This book is meant for game artists who are getting used to UDK but may feel the need for guidance on matters of implementation. It also targets brave beginners who are struggling to find an all in one package for getting started with UDK, and want a ready to hand reference. Level designers can use this book to gauge their understanding of the editor, check for specific problems, and discover gems they may not have come across before.

Setting a LookAt target for head rotation in codeSetting morph weights in code; Calling up SkeletalMesh animation using Matinee; Associating sounds with character moves in Matinee; Sound for non-Matinee controlled animation; Chapter 4: Got Your Wires Crossed?-Visual Scripting of Gameplay in Kismet; Introduction; Kismet UI essentials; Creating a simple enemy Bot; Event-based movement of scene objects in Matinee; Trace actions in a shooting situation; Revealing and hiding scene actors during gameplay; Producing sounds through Kismet; Using Take Damage events to produce explosions Chapter 2: Notes From an Unreal World-Constructing Game World ElementsIntroduction; How to handle BSP geometry; Building a hollow room; Adjusting surface properties of BSP; Generating volume from the BSP brush; Handling StaticMesh actors in the scene; Setting collision in the Static Mesh Editor; Creating Terrain, Deco Layers, and Material Layers; Creating a Landscape; Scattering meshes on a Landscape using the Foliage tool; Creating a steamy plume in Cascade; Chapter 3: It Lives!-Character Setup and Animation; Introduction; Installing ActorX and exporting skeletal animation Understanding the usage of Named VariablesTidying up Kismet networks using Sub-sequences; Tidying up Kismet networks using Remote Events; Toggling Materials through Kismet; Toggling lights through Kismet; Animating PointLights in Matinee to mimic texture animation; Making a comparison following a countdown; Using Integer Counter to count enemy deaths; Controlling node flow using a Gate action; Making Bots follow a path; Chapter 5: It Is Your Destiny!-Scripting Complex Gameplay Flow in Kismet; Prefabs including Kismet references; Swapping control of a Bot using Possess Pawn Importing SkeletalMesh content into UDKMorph targets and .FBX importing; Setting up sockets; Attachments to SkeletalMeshes without using sockets; Setting up a custom AnimTree; Defining animations in your AnimTree; Configuring your character to use your AnimTree; How to use a single bone control chain to correct an offset crouch animation; Setting up a physics asset using PhAT; Adding limits to physics asset joint rotations; Adding a physics-driven tail to a key framed SkeletalMesh; Enabling the head to face in a given direction for tracking purposes Cover; Copyright; Credits; About the Authors; About the Reviewers; www.PacktPub.com; Table of Contents; Preface; Chapter 1: Heads UP-UDK Interface Essentials; Introduction; Installing UDK and folder structure; What content comes with UDK?; Beginning, building, and testing a new level; Deciding on your preferences; UI survival steps; Navigating the Content Browser; Accessing assets in the Content Browser; Creating and managing packages; Importing your own content; Cooking a map in Unreal Frontend; Mobile device emulation; Kismet debugging