Multiplayer Game Development with Unreal Engine 5

Discover Unreal Engine 5’s networking techniques, to create your own scalable and fully functional multiplayer game experiences with passionate game programming teacher, Marco Secchi

Key Features:

– Design a captivating multiplayer game using networking techniques from this illustrated guide

– Understand how to use the Unreal Engine networking system with C++ and Blueprints

– Carefully plan and develop an online experience from start to finish

Book Description:

If you’re fascinated by the immersive gaming experiences that enable multiple users to engage in collaborative or competitive gameplay, this Unreal Engine 5 game development book is for you.

In this book, you’ll learn the foundational principles behind multiplayer games. Starting with a sample project, you’ll learn how to set up a networked system and make it work. Once the prototype of the project is functional, you’ll start adding game logic, including obstacles and AI opponents, to heighten the challenges and engagement, offering a captivating experience for players. Next, you’ll learn how to debug and optimize the project, before finally deploying the game build and integrating it with cloud services such as the Epic Online Services system.

By the end of this book, you’ll have the confidence to develop and manage multiplayer experiences using the Unreal Engine environment, taking your newfound programming skills in your upcoming projects.

What You Will Learn:

– Get to grips with the basics of multiplayer game development

– Understand the main elements of a networked level

– Explore Unreal multiplayer features such as replication, RPCs, relevancy, and roles

– Debug and optimize code for improved game performance

– Deploy the game on LAN or online platforms

– Use Epic Online Services to elevate the player experience

Who this book is for:

If you are a game programmer, particularly an Unreal Engine developer, with little or no knowledge of video game networking systems and a passion for multiplayer games, this book will help you explore the subject in depth.

Developers skilled in other game engines will find this book useful for understanding the principles of the Unreal multiplayer system, however, basic knowledge of Unreal Engine and C++ is strongly recommended.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Introducing Multiplayer Games

Chapter 1: Getting Started with Multi player Game Development

Chapter 2: Understanding Networking Basics

Chapter 3: Testing the Multiplayer System with a Project Prototype

Part 2: Networking and Multiplayer Games in Unreal Engine

Chapter 4: Setting Up Your First Multiplayer Environment

Chapter 5: Managing Actors in a Multiplayer Environment

Chapter 6: Replicating Properties Over the Network

Chapter 7: Using Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

Part 3: Improving Your Game

Chapter 8: Introducing Al into a Multiplayer Environment

Chapter 9: Extending Al Behaviors

Chapter 10: Enhancing the Player Experience

Chapter 11: Debugging a Multi player Game

Part 4: Deploying Your Game Online

Chapter 12: Managing Multiplayer Sessions

Chapter 13: Handling Data During a Session

Chapter 14: Deploying Multiplayer Games

Chapter 15: Adding Epic Online Services (EOS)

Review

“This book is an excellent development guide to Unreal Engine 5 focusing on multiplayer games. It’ll help you develop a solid foundation in Blueprints, C++, multiplayer game concepts, and networking. Another very interesting feature is the example game developed in the chapters of the book. The author took care to develop the game’s concept and use a free 3D asset kit. This helps a lot to keep the reader motivated in reading the chapters to complete the implementation of the game. If you are interested in developing multiplayer games on Unreal Engine 5, this book will save you a lot of time and will become your main source of reference.” – Marcos Romero, Author of the official Unreal Engine 4 Blueprints Instructors’ Guide and Blueprints Visual Scripting for Unreal Engine 5

About the Author

Marco Secchi is a freelance game developer who graduated in Computer Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He is a lecturer and Lead Game Advisor at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) where he also mentors BA students in their final thesis projects. In his spare time, he reads a lot, plays video games (less than he would like), and tries to practice Crossfit.