As has been Epic Games’ style for many years, Robo Recall – built on the company’s Unreal Engine 4 – allows you to change the original game via the engine’s editor, giving you the tools you need to mod the title to your heart’s content.
The slickly designed and expertly executed first person VR shooter Robo Recall is an interesting prospect for Epic Games, the developers behind the title. As a title funded by Oculus Studios, the studio had an opportunity to build a title they evidently wanted to make, but more than that – it also allowed them an opportunity to hone performance and visual fidelity within UE4 for VR projects, with their improved forward renderer a prime example. But the final bonus for Epic may be a crafty back door induction to Unreal Engine via the tantalising prospect of modding Robo Recall itself.
Epic Games have launched a tutorial which walks anyone interested through the steps needed to mod the title, which of course requires Unreal Engine. It’s a clever way to introduce those who may never have considered themselves programmers to take a look at, and play with the same toolset used by triple-A developers in the games industry. And as its technically possible to design and build games (VR or otherwise) within UE4’s environment without writing a line of code (at least in theory), perhaps some might decide to grow beyond the ‘simple’ first mod onto considering building full games.
All that aside, before you start, you’ll need a healthy amount of free disk space and an Epic Games user account in order to access all the Unreal Engine and the required content. The instructions then walk you through the basics of UE4 components, Level designer how to use the Blueprints visual scripting system. You’re then set to launch into creating your first new mod, and the guide starts with an example for creating customised weaponry with its own unique design before moving on to testing and releasing.
This isn’t low level programming, the vast majority of the work is aided by UE4’s GUI, but some may still find this in itself a little daunting at first. But if you manage to deploy your first mod, you can launch the game and see the results of your hard work almost immediately.
It’s a great way for those who’ve been itching to get creative with their gaming hobby for a while, and with this tutorial you may even gain skills that lead to other interest or even a new career. Check out the full tutorial over at the Unreal Engine site here.
