Unreal Engine is one of the most critical tools in our suite of game development services. As one of the premiere game engines on the market, Magic Media wants to ensure we can deliver the best Unreal games possible. To this end, we’re lucky to have the in-house expertize of our Lead Unreal Developer, Bruno Coimbra.
We had the opportunity to speak to Bruno about his day-to-day work, challenges, and the ins and outs of being an Unreal engine game development expert and leading others in this.
Day-to-Day Work in Unreal Development
For Bruno, the day usually begins by checking each of the projects he’s involved in and participating in meetings to help clarify each project’s next steps, identify blockers, and provide guidance where possible. One of Bruno’s most important tasks is helping team members with their blockers and offering them help where possible before moving on to his own technical tasks.
As a Lead Unreal Developer, Bruno helps the team and the wider Magic Media group in a significant way by documenting technical information and topics as much as possible. Not only does this directly help the development teams in their endeavors, but it also helps spread knowledge within the Magic Media group. Aside from working on his assigned tasks and assisting the team, Bruno keeps up to date with everything related to Unreal Engine and general game development industry news to be in the loop at all times.
Bruno defines his role as a Lead Unreal Developer as a kind of glue that keeps everything together and through logical thinking helps keep all the parts of a project held together, whether it’s audio, animation, or anything else. He says it’s all about translating what we want to achieve in a way the engine understands through Blueprints or C++.
The Unique Features and Challenges of Unreal Engine
Bruno says that Unreal Engine provides a great range of tools for collaboration between programmers and non-programmers to make its usage more transparent and fluid, making for more efficient collaboration and iteration. For programmers and technically oriented personnel, Unreal Engine provides access to its source code, allowing developers to see issues from different perspectives and modify the game engine as required for our work.
One of Unreal Engine’s biggest benefits is how customizable it is. Out of the box, Unreal Engine is suitable for crafting games of any kind on all platforms, but it can be further enhanced and modified to suit specific purposes even better. The Blueprints Visual Scripting Language is one of the most impactful features of Unreal Engine. The language allows non-programmers to create gameplay elements, massively reducing the barrier between working on mechanics and the technical knowledge required to implement them. The engine’s rendering tools are also worth mentioning. Bruno says with rendering tools like the dynamic global illumination system, creating impressive visuals has never been easier.
Bruno says it should be noted however that Unreal Engine is an ever-evolving tool, so keeping up with the latest updates can be challenging and time-consuming. It’s not uncommon for developers to learn certain parts of the engine in intimate detail while keeping their knowledge of other aspects relatively basic.
Working with Unreal Engine
Bruno has extensive experience using different game engines, including Unreal and Unity. He says it’s important to note that Unreal Engine isn’t some kind of silver bullet that will solve every studio’s development decisions and woes, it’s a tool like any other. Unreal Engine should be considered for usage the same way as any other engine or tool – through extensive research and consultation with experts. Though it’s a fantastic game engine, it might not be the right one for every project, and choosing Unreal Engine when it might not be the optimal choice could end up costing development studios and making things more complicated than they need to be.
Bruno also says that programming experience is essential to using Unreal Engine, and having a strong sense of teamwork and multidisciplinary knowledge is also critical. Unreal Engine has never been more collaborative and understanding various disciplines will help Unreal Developers stand out even more so because of their ability to work with different teams.
Magic Media is an expert services provider for game development plus dozens of other gaming-related disciplines, in addition to tech and entertainment projects. We offer a comprehensive range of development services such as full-cycle game development, game porting, and co-development, and others such as art production, cybersecurity, and much more. Contact Magic Media, and let’s create magic!
