Experiments with The Epic Unreal Engine

I had played around with UDK for my minor project in Computer Science Engineering undergraduate course and had come into a new world of it's own. UDK or Unreal Development Kit is a professional game development kit built upon the Unreal (Game) Engine by Epic. It's a proprietary product but UDK is free for noncommercial use.
It was my first time playing around with a 3D graphics software and it took me a while to master it's various view-ports and other 3D graphics manipulations. It is very powerful tool for game development truly built for the "serious" gamer. Though I had to scrap the project due to it's multiple skill requirements in 3D Graphics (Game Level Design, Asset Creation), Story Boarding, Cinematography and Programming (If you're creating something truly original) and my small team.

A lot of core features are locked down into the source-code but, trust me, to build blockbuster games you would not require to peek under the hood. Well, as I've said before, until you're truly doing something not directly intended by the UDK or you're a professional game developer.

The programming can be done with UnrealScript (an object oriented language tied up with the Unreal Engine) while you may want to use C++ for programming in a licensed version. Another revolutionary alternative to programming game behaviors is to use Kismet, a visual scripting engine. Kismet is the prime tool used by new comers and graphic artists and game level designers to implement simple functionality like opening of a door or build a chain of events to perform sophisticated actions.

Another tool which must be used in parallel to the Unreal Development Kit is UnCodeX (A Source Code Browser for Unreal Engine libraries). It will be very useful to learn and experiment with the source-code unreal scripts to hack new cool in game features.

A lot of simple predefined source code and tools are provided to rapidly build a first person shooter while other genres may require to get under the hood or perform hacks. Hence, I built a simple FPS which showcases more of my Game Level Designing rather than coding prowess or any other cinematography skills.

Here's a list of Resources you can use to start tinkering with UDK:

Official Site-

http://www.unrealengine.com/ 

http://www.unrealengine.com/

Required Books-

Unreal Development Kit Game Programming with UnrealScript: Beginner's Guide

http://www.packtpub.com/unreal-development-kit-game-programming-with-unrealscript-beginners-guide/book

Mastering Unreal Technology: The Art of Level Design

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Unreal-Technology-Level-Design/dp/0672326922

You can get major help, tutorials on its excellent network and web communities. There are plenty of books too for your aid. Good Luck!

Here's my last major work with UDK;

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4e1TZA7mwrNLUIyRXVOQ2hXOUE/edit?usp=sharing

Note: You'll need the UDK to open the attached Map. I'm a little lazy and inept in using UDK, hence, no cooked files or executable.

Here are a few screen shots (Looks pretty good, eh?):

Disclaimer: The contents/Assets were prepackaged into the UDK. I did not import custom assets to the map.