How to Make a Game in Unreal Engine 5: A Beginner's Guide

To make a game in Unreal Engine 5, install it for free through the Epic Games Launcher and start a project from a template. Then add your game rules with Blueprints, Unreal's drag-and-drop scripting. You do not need to know how to code. In this guide you build a small collect-and-escape game: grab five coins, unlock the exit, win, and then turn it into a program your friends can play.

Can your PC run Unreal Engine 5?

Unreal Engine 5 is the heaviest of the big free game engines. It builds detailed 3D worlds, and the editor needs a strong computer to do that smoothly. Check your PC before you download tens of gigabytes. On Windows, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc and open the Performance tab to see your memory and graphics card.

On a Mac, Epic's minimum is an Apple silicon chip (M1 or newer), macOS Sonoma 14.5 and 16 GB of memory. It recommends an M3 chip or newer with 32 GB. School Chromebooks and most office laptops cannot run the editor. If your PC is on the weak side, you can still learn: pick the lighter settings shown below and keep your levels small. Epic lists the full details on its hardware and software specifications page.

How to install Unreal Engine 5

Unreal Engine is free to download and use. You only pay a royalty if a game earns more than one million US dollars, and our guide Is Unreal Engine free? explains exactly how that works.

1. Download the Epic Games Launcher from the official Epic Games website, install it and sign in.
2. Open the engine library. Click Unreal Engine in the left menu, then the Library tab.
3. Add an engine version. Click the + button next to ENGINE VERSIONS. A new tile appears with the newest version selected. As of November 2026 that is Unreal Engine 5.8. If a version is marked Preview, pick the newest one without that word: previews are test versions that can crash.
4. Choose what to install. Click Install, accept the license, and open Options. Keep Starter Content and Templates and Feature Packs. Leave Editor symbols for debugging unticked, because it is huge and beginners do not need it. The dialog shows how much space your choice needs.
5. Wait, then launch. The download often takes one to two hours. When it finishes, click Launch on the engine tile.

Epic's installation guide shows the same steps with screenshots. Macs use the same launcher; Linux has a separate download.

Create your first project from a template

A template is a ready-made starter project. The Third Person template gives you a character that already runs, jumps and has a camera. That saves you hours.

1. In the Unreal Project Browser that opens, choose the Games category and click Third Person. If you are offered extra variants, keep the default choice.
2. Under Project Defaults, pick Blueprint (not C++) and Desktop. Choose Maximum quality on a strong PC, or Scalable on a weaker one.
3. Tick Starter Content. It adds simple shapes and materials you will use. Leave Ray Tracing off.
4. Name the project CoinEscape with no spaces, pick a folder with plenty of space, and click Create.

The first time a project opens, Unreal compiles shaders, the small programs your graphics card uses to draw materials. A counter shows the progress. It can take 10 to 40 minutes. This is normal, and it is much faster next time.

The Unreal Editor in five minutes

A level is one map of your game. Everything you place in it is an actor: the floor, a light, the player, a coin. Every file in your project, such as a 3D model or a sound, is an asset.

• Move the camera: hold the right mouse button and press W A S D. Press F to zoom to the selected actor.
• Change an actor: click it, then press W to move, E to rotate or R to scale.
• Test the game: click Play or press Alt + P. Press Esc to stop and Shift + F1 to get your mouse back while playing.
• Find assets: press Ctrl + Space to open the Content Drawer.

Epic's editor interface page names every button if you get lost.

Step 1: Make coins that count

Here is the plan. The player collects five coins. A counter shows progress. The exit only lets you win when all five are collected. You build it with Blueprints: visual scripts made of boxes called nodes, joined by wires. Our Blueprints guide for beginners explains them in more depth.

1. Give the player a coin counter. In the Content Drawer, open ThirdPerson > Blueprints > BP_ThirdPersonCharacter, or type its name in the search box. In the My Blueprint panel, click + next to Variables, name it Coins and set its type to Integer (a whole number). Click Compile, then Save.
2. Create the coin. Right-click an empty spot in the Content Drawer and choose Blueprint Class. In the window that opens, click Actor, then name the new asset BP_Coin. Double-click to open it.
3. Shape it. Click Add in the Components panel and add a Cylinder. In Details, set Scale to 0.6, 0.6, 0.1 and Rotation X to 90 so it stands up like a coin. Under Materials, pick a gold one from Starter Content, such as M_Metal_Gold.
4. Let the player pass through. With the Cylinder selected, set Collision Presets to OverlapAllDynamic and make sure Generate Overlap Events is ticked. An overlap is when two things touch without blocking each other.
5. Make it spin. Click Add again and add a Rotating Movement component. No script needed.
6. Write the logic in the Event Graph tab. In the plan below, each line is one node and each arrow is a white execution wire.

Event ActorBeginOverlap (Other Actor)
  -> Cast To BP_ThirdPersonCharacter (Object = Other Actor)
     -> Set Coins  (Coins + 1)
     -> Destroy Actor (Self)

// How to make each node:
// 0. Event ActorBeginOverlap is already in the graph,
//    greyed out. If not, right-click and search for it.
// 1. Drag from Other Actor, type "Cast To BP_Third"
// 2. Drag from "As BP Third Person Character",
//    type "Get Coins", then add a "+" node set to 1
// 3. Drag from the same pin, type "Set Coins"
// 4. Right-click empty space, type "Destroy Actor"
// 5. Join the white execution pins from left to right

A cast checks "is the thing that touched me really the player?" and, if so, gives access to its variables. If an enemy rolls into the coin, the cast fails and nothing happens. Compile, save, then drag five coins from the Content Drawer into the level. Press Alt + P and run into one. It should vanish.

Step 2: Build the exit and the win screen

1. Create another Blueprint Class with the parent Actor and name it BP_Exit. Add a Box Collision component and scale it to the size of a doorway. Add a Cube so players can see the exit, and set its Collision Presets to NoCollision so it does not block them.
2. Add an Integer variable called CoinsNeeded, compile, and set its default value to 5.
3. Select the Box Collision. In Details, scroll to Events and click + next to On Component Begin Overlap.
4. Make a win screen: right-click in the Content Drawer, choose User Interface > Widget Blueprint, pick User Widget and name it WBP_Win. A widget is a piece of on-screen interface. From the Palette panel, drag in a Canvas Panel, then a big Text that says "You escaped!".
5. Back in BP_Exit, build this chain:

On Component Begin Overlap (Other Actor)
  -> Cast To BP_ThirdPersonCharacter
     -> Branch (Coins >= CoinsNeeded)
        True:  Create Widget (WBP_Win) -> Add to Viewport
               -> Delay (3 seconds)
               -> Open Level (by Name) = Get Current Level Name
        False: do nothing, the player keeps looking

A Branch is an "if" check: it follows the True wire or the False wire. To build the check, drag from the Coins pin, type >= and pick the "greater or equal" node, then plug CoinsNeeded into its second pin. For the widget, plug the Return Value of Create Widget into the Target of Add to Viewport. Open Level reloads the map, which resets the coins and lets the player go again. Place BP_Exit somewhere tricky, then play.

Step 3: Show the score on screen

Players need to see their progress. The HUD (heads-up display) is the information drawn over the game.

1. Create another Widget Blueprint named WBP_HUD. Add a Canvas Panel and a Text in the top-left corner.
2. Select the Text. In Details, next to Text, click Bind and then Create Binding. A binding is a small function that keeps the text up to date.
3. In that function: Get Player Character, then Cast To BP_ThirdPersonCharacter, then Get Coins. Feed Coins into a Format Text node with the text Coins: {0} / 5 and connect it to the Return Value.
4. Open BP_ThirdPersonCharacter and find Event BeginPlay. If it is not there, right-click and add it. Add Create Widget (class WBP_HUD) and Add to Viewport at the end of its chain, joined the same way as the win screen.

Package your game as a Windows program

Packaging turns your project into a game that runs without Unreal installed. On Windows and Mac you need no extra software for this.

1. Save everything with File > Save All.
2. Check Edit > Project Settings > Maps & Modes. Game Default Map must be your level. Templates set it already. If you made a new level, choose it here, or the packaged game shows a black screen.
3. In the main toolbar, open Platforms > Windows. Set Binary Configuration to Shipping for a version you share. Shipping removes test tools such as the console.
4. Click Platforms > Windows > Package Project, choose an empty folder outside your project, and wait. The first package often takes 10 to 30 minutes.
5. Open the output folder and run CoinEscape.exe. To share it, zip the whole folder, not just the .exe, because the game needs the other files.

Even tiny Unreal games are often several hundred megabytes. Windows may warn your friends because the program is not signed. That is normal for small indie builds. Epic's packaging guide covers more options.

Beginner mistakes and quick fixes

What to learn next

You now know the full loop: build, test, package. Next, make the game harder. Add a timer, a moving platform, or lava that restarts the level. Then grow your skills one step at a time:

• Learn doors, pickups and how Blueprints talk to each other in Unreal Engine Blueprints for beginners.
• Use AI as a tutor without breaking your project with how to use AI with Unreal Engine.
• Make it playable with a friend in how to make a multiplayer game in Unreal Engine.
• Not sure Unreal is right for you? Compare it in Godot vs Unity vs Unreal Engine.

For inspiration, see what small teams have built on our Unreal Engine indie games page.