So you are looking into setting up your computer and/or laptop for video game development. It's not too hard to set up but it can be tricky if you don't know your own computer/laptop. Even the software you are planning to use may throw some problems during game development. I'll show you some tips that can help you on your journey.
Knowing your computer and/or laptop
Understanding your computer’s capabilities is crucial before you begin. A gaming PC is ideal, but a standard PC or laptop can also work. You need to know your system specifications and how old your hardware is, as newer software often demands more power and storage or certain software to run programs. it may sound simple, you can buy more storage and update your computer when needed but it's not that simple.
You want to know why, well it is because of MONEY. some of you might have some to spend to buy upgrades for your computer but others don't. since your computer/laptop may be the latest model since 2019 it might run into some incompatibility issues. like trying to add new upgrades to your computers meant for 2025 computers. For software updates like graphic cards updates can be a problem. Normally they don't send updated alerts like normal pc/laptop updates, where you click the update button. You will manually have to go into your computer system and update it since the graphics card is one of the major components of your computer. If you try to mess with it you may have some problems. For example, if you try to update your graphic there is a chance that you get the blue screen of death. That may or may not be permanent if you're lucky. You can even try to use a different graphic card but be warned, that switch may also break your computer. Each computer runs using different tech/software, The other graphic cards you are trying to use may have some incompatibility issues.
With these problems, you might run into you may want to seek help from someone you know with some computer knowledge. To try and stop or minimize any damage you may cause when updating or changing important software like your graphic card. If not, let's hope you don't break your computer and end up buying a new one. Computers can be around $300 to $600, which isn't cheap. so be careful and check your computer's capability before making major changes. One option to avoid those problems is to try and build your PC. It is cheaper than buying one and you can choose what components you want to use. Just make sure you know what you're doing when building your computer.
What software do I use
Some free software you will see can be used with other game engines. Some are optional depending on how you want to build your game project. For starters let's Start with Unreal Engine version 4 or 5
- Unreal Engine To Download Unreal Engine you need to download the Epic Games store. Once you get it you need to choose what version you want to download. Some might think why not just download the latest version? Well, there are some benefits in the later version that some like.
-Unreal 4
-Install Size 20-50GB
-Minimum RAM to run 8Gb
-Recommended RAM 16GB
-Unreal 5
-new Features
- Nanite Virtualized Geometry(better handle highly models without a
drop in performance)
- Lumen Global Illumination(better dynamic lighting for realistic
scenes)
- World Partition(handles open world projects better)
- MetaHumans(enhanced lifelike humans characters)
- Chaos Physics(better physics)
-Install Size 50-100GB
-Minimum RAM to run 16Gb
-Recommended RAM 32GB
After comparing the difference you can see that Unreal 5 has more benefits. Depending on what you're planning for your game project you may not need those features. So it is better to get Unreal 4 to save some memory instead of wasting them. If you plan to use Unreal 5 at some point in time don't worry. Unreal has a handy feature to make projects in older versions, work in new versions of Unreal.
Ubunto(optional)
It's a Linux-based operating system known for its stability, security, and performance. It's more efficient using its resources than Windows. should be installed first before VS Code(Visual Studio Code)
Visual Studio Code(Optional)
It's a lightweight code editor for General coding, web development, and open source. It has free extensions that you can use for whatever project you're working on. It can also be used with an Unreal engine, just set Unreal to use it in the setting. Great for when you're just using Visual Studio(different software) for the SDK. After it's installed get this extension since the Unreal engine uses C++ to code.
- C/C++(language)
- C#(language)
- C# dev kit(development kit)
Visual Studio
An integrated development environment or IDE similar to Visual Studio Code but without extensions. when installing you are asked to select some additional features to be installed with. Select the Game Development feature, and then go to the right side of the installation screen. You see some checkboxes, Select the flowing
- .NET desktop development(optional)
- Desktop development with C++
- MSVC v143 - C++ build tools
- Windows 10 or 11 SDK(latest versions)
- C++ profiling tools
- CMake tools for Windows
- Git for Windows(optional)
Visual Studio is free but for a limited time then you have to pay for it after the free trial. Luckily you can still use the SDK tool even after your free trial is over, But what is an SDK? It's a Software Development Kit that can turn C++ language into machine language. It is used when building/packaging a game project in Unreal. The SDK is not required for Unreal Engine to build/package projects, but it can help stop any problem after being built/packaged. This can range from stopping small bugs, game crashes, or even soft locks(stopping game progress).
Others software
Since there is a game market there is also a game assets market. When making a game project you need some assets like sounds/music, 3d models, and textures. You could go and look for some free assets or buy some. There is also the option to make some from scratch. Here is a list of some free software you can use.
- Blender(3d modeler and can make animation along with visual effects)
-Lmms(Linux MultiMedia Studio, music making software)
-Audacity(voice/sound editing software)
-Gimp(a general photo editing software)
-Tiled(create tile-based maps used in 2d game)
- Unreal engine has a similar built-in feature, so if you're using Unreal you might not want to install this software
I hope you enjoy this blog and find it helpful. This blog is based on my experience in game development with Unreal Engine 4 and 5. some images used were screenshots taken from my PC and one from chat GBT. I am currently working on a game project Called Marble Runner, if you are interested I posted videos on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@InflatablePenguinGames). I even have a LinkedIn account(https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/settings?trk=d_flagship3_profile_self_view_public_profile)
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