Game Development Patterns with Unreal Engine 5: Build maintainable and scalable systems with C++ and Blueprint

I bought both this book, and the "holy grail" of game development books - "Game Programming Patterns" by Robert Nystrom, and found this book, MUCH more practical and better suited for developers working in Unreal Engine specifically.This book is FAR more engaging and interesting to read due to blending the concepts of game programming patterns with the actual software I use. For example, learning the Command Pattern is great, but learning how it works in an Unreal Engine code base is far greater (if you work in UE).I read this book from cover to cover, took a bunch of notes, and was actually able to apply some of the lessons to a game I am working on now.I would highly recommend beginner/intermediate developers to pick this book up if they are still doing everything in their Tick function.GG

I am a self-taught indie developer and I primarily rely on UE5's C++ systems. I tend to shy away from blueprinting, and spend as little time in the editor as possible. This book has a lot of valuable information for a self taught individual such as myself, as there are a lot of paradigms, designs, and simple pieces of information I have simply missed in my trajectory. This book has been an excellent resource for insight from an expert on a lot of topics I wouldn't know how to research on my own, and provided me with information that I didn't know I needed to know in the first place. As time continues I know I'll be able to keep coming back to this book for UE5 guidance. A final note is that this is pretty useful when considering the standard documentation on UE5 is so... nonexistent.

They have the ideas, but I don't think those are very well written nor well presented. The clarity of ideas is subpar, especially when considering this is a document of technically complex topics.

Instead of being a tutorial, this book teaches you design patterns that can greatly simplify the development process. Highly recommended along with other books about design patterns in game development and software engineering.

I'm two hours in and the book is super organized and set into pretty clear steps.There have been a couple typos but overall it is well-edited.It gets a bit verbose on tangents in some spots, which would be good for those that want more context and history.Great work on formatting and pictures illustrating the steps and guiding the reader through the processes described.(Product received for free.)

I got the chance to go through a few chapters. I will say being a mainly Unity developer with plans to further learn Unreal in the future, it was very beginner friendly. I felt eased into the book, rather than getting slammed with super diificult topics, especially with the example codes, diagrams, photos of the work being done, and even the little pop quiz and installing instructions in the beginning. I definitely have a better understand of Blueprint as well as programming patterns for Unreal, though some patterns and topics were a bit difficult for me as a semi-beginner to grasp while only reading and not actually doing. But when I do eventually get to learning how to better using the Unreal engine, I will definiely cite back to this book for help!

This book covers a lot of OOP design patterns that are useful for game development in general, using Unreal as a vehicle for driving this information and ingraining it into your memory. It does a good job at explaining why and how to use the different patterns and even uses many of the built in functionalities of the Unreal Engine to show functional use cases of more complex design patterns.Something I enjoyed massively was the fact that it gives a good effort in trying to describe ways of decoupling different parts of your systems. Coupled systems are the bane of my existence and should be the bane of your existence as well, so give it a read.

This book was surprisingly easy to follow. I’ve found myself referring to it often and re-reading sections in order to move forward with my own work. It’s does a great job of tackling the once showing just how visual studio works with unreal engine and it provides me with a work flow that works for me and the next person viewing my code. I started this book with limited basic knowledge of C++ and a good understanding of Blueprints in Unreal Engine. Before this book I didn’t bother attempting to look further under the hood of a blueprint to see what was really happening but now I have an understanding of how and why to convert a blueprint into C++. Node for node allowing me to customize and create efficient unique tools.

I had a number of issues getting the code examples running, which is a necessity if you want to take anything real away from this book. In the end, I got it all running (I am running code successfully from Chapter 5 by now), but I must say the code quality is not great. First, the author doesn't follow their own coding convention and the structure of classes and project source files just teaches, in my opinion, bad habits. What's worse, the code doesn't even work the way it's supposed to. To give the most recent example (unfortunately not the only one), you are told to setup a sphere collision to detect when a light torch detected a player. But the code doesn't setup the sphere correctly and so I had to fix the code / work in Unreal editor to do that. I'm an experienced coder and figured this out pretty quickly, but more intermediate coders will be frustrated I imagine.Overall, I would say the authors did a poor job getting the code examples ready. I even tried to get contact with them about their example projects not compiling, but the authors brushed me off with "download the correct UE version" , which I told them I did. I can 100% say that some of their blueprints in earlier chapters were just broken.There is still a lot you can learn from this book, but I am giving 2 stars because learning is way more painful than it should be, with a book that costs over $60.

Game Development patterns with Unreal Engine 5 delivers a concise yet comprehensive guide tailored for students and game developers delving into C++ coding within Unreal Engine 5.The knowledge and skill in helping folks learn new concepts is evident in the authors’ expertise as Uni lecturers. The book rather skillfully navigates through intricate game development patterns, offering invaluable insights and practical techniques.From fundamental concepts of spatial partitioning to advanced strategies like object pooling, the authors’ deep understanding shines through, making this book an indispensable resource for those seeking to elevate their skills in UE5 game development.

There are a lot of great topics that I've not considered or useful for me as someone that's been in the games industry for 9 years to refresh on. I use this book primarily to revise my UE knowledge and skills as I don't program games outside of jams since my role has shifted to production.The images are very clear and the look of the book is the professional and clean.

I highly recommend this book for anyone learning Unreal C++ or looking to polish their basic knowledge as well as improve C++ coding practices.I recently spent months learning Unreal C++, I wish this book came out sooner because it would have made it super easy for me to learn unreal C++.Would highly recommend getting it!!!!!!