Today we began by learning about the the Unreal Engine as well as what game design at Epic Games is like. Mr. Polge asked questions about what careers we were looking into and how we could use Unreal Engine in many of the different fields. For example I am intrested in AI programing, even though this is quite a difficult thing to implement in two weeks I learned that it would be quite easy to implement in the Unreal Engine. This led to a discussion about the many different applications of the Unreal Engine such as film/TV show making (The Mandalorian), marketing in the automotive industry, architecture, game development, and even VR purposes. Then we started learning about Unreal Engine itself and how there is two main ways to work on a project, as a beginner it is recommended you do something with the blueprint function where you are given different functions and you can drag and drop “code” to create a simple blueprint. Once you get more advanced Unreal Engine allows you to hard program your creation with C++ and all the source could is available on github and to the public. After taking a lunch break for some pizza (thanks Mr. Polge), we began working on the projects we were assigned for our two weeks using the workstations he provided. Even though he could only bring in two today, I used my own computer to learn everything I could about game design in Unreal Engine using the vast marketplace(a place where designers and programmers can provide their code and designs on Unreal Engine). I also messed around with the MetaHuman program where Unreal Engine has tried to solve the hidden valley problem where computer generated/animated humans lack certain features that make them look fake. This was a really interesting program as I attempted to create myself(which did not turn out to well as seen below). Overall, this was a great experience and can’t wait to begin working on my project tomorrow!
