How To Make A Flexible Inventory System In Unreal Engine from Udemy

Learn how to craft a dynamic and modular inventory system for your RPG game. Whether you're a beginner or intermediatedeveloper, this course will guide you through the process of creating an inventory system that's both flexible and efficient.

Course Overview

From conceptualization to implementation, I will guide you through every step of creating a robust RPG inventory system that will elevate your game to new heights.

Delve into the core concepts of UI design as you learn to craft visually stunning interfaces that enhance player immersion. Harness the power of Unreal Engine's tools and components to seamlessly structure your inventory UI, making navigation a breeze for players.

Explore advanced gameplay mechanics as you implement dynamic item interactions, enabling players to seamlessly manage their inventory through intuitive drag-and-drop functionality. Dive deep into the realm of scriptable objects to empower your inventory system with flexible data management capabilities.

Discover the art of equipping and managing weapons, armor, and items with ease, thanks to our comprehensive equipping system.

What's Inside

Course Modules :

Introduction
Item Interaction
Money System
Creating An Inventory
Adding Items To The Inventory
Creating a Drag and Drop System
Creating An Armour & Equipment System
Consuambles
Dropping Items
Tooltip
Creating A Chest System
Weight System
Sorting Item In The Inventory By Categories
Save System

What Will You Learn In this Course?

By the end of this course, you'll have the skills and confidence to create a fully functional RPG inventory system in Unreal Engine, ready to integrate seamlessly into your game project. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer

Have a look at the course free lessons below, and please enjoy the course.

What's inside

Learning objectives

Master ui design: learn to design and organize your inventory ui with intuitive panels, buttons, slots, and icons that enhance user experience.
Implement dynamic interactions: develop a robust drag-and-drop system, enabling players to seamlessly move inventory items between slots or drop items
Enhance player equipment management: customize the equipping system to allow players to equip weapons and armor directly from their inventory

Create informative tooltips: implement and tailor a tooltip system to deliver essential information about inventory items to players.
Implement item stacking: make items stackable to save inventory space and display the quantity of stacked items, improving inventory management
Implement item weight system: learn how to create a weight mechanic where every item in the inventory will weigh a certain amount.

Master ui design: learn to design and organize your inventory ui with intuitive panels, buttons, slots, and icons that enhance user experience.
Implement dynamic interactions: develop a robust drag-and-drop system, enabling players to seamlessly move inventory items between slots or drop items
Enhance player equipment management: customize the equipping system to allow players to equip weapons and armor directly from their inventory
Create informative tooltips: implement and tailor a tooltip system to deliver essential information about inventory items to players.
Implement item stacking: make items stackable to save inventory space and display the quantity of stacked items, improving inventory management
Implement item weight system: learn how to create a weight mechanic where every item in the inventory will weigh a certain amount.

Syllabus

Introduction

Project Set Up

Importing The Assets

Community

Item Interaction

Creating An Outline Material

Making The Outline Appear When We Are Close To An Object

Creating A Press "E To Interact" Widget

Creating An Inventory Component

Creating An Interaction Interface

Money System

Creating A Money Pick Up

Creating The Inventory Widget

Creating The Money Widget

Updating The Inventory When We Collect More Money

Creating Items In Our Inventory

Creating An Icon Generator

Creating A Data Table For Our Items

Creating Items Dynamically

Creating Enums For Our Two Types Of Items

Creating An Item Slot Widget

Designing Our Inventory Widget

Widget Switcher

Highlighting Items In Our Inventory

Creating Dynamic Inventory Slots

Adding Items To The Inventory

Adding Armor & Equipment To Our Inventory

Displaying The Quantity Of Item In Our Inventory

Adding Consumable Items To Our Inventory

Letting The Player Know When The Inventory Is Full

Creating A Drag and Drop System

Creating A Drag System In Our Inventory

Removing An Item Once We Drop It

Dropping Items In Our Inventory

Dragging And Dropping Consumable Items

Armour & Equipment System

Creating Armour Items

Attaching Armour & Equipment To The Player Character

Switching The Armour & Equipment

Creating The Equipment Slot

Equpping Items From The Inventory

Moving An Item From The Inventory To The Equipment Slot

Swapping Items From The Inventory To The Equipment Slots

Dragging And Dropping Items From The Inventory To The Equipment Slot

Dragging And Dropping Items From The Equipment Slot To The Inventory

Functions

Creating The Shield Equipment Slot

Creating The Helment Equipment Slot

Fixing A Switching Equipment Slot Issue

Adding Conditions For The Equipment Slot

Updating The Player When The Equipment Slot Has Armour & Equipment

Updating Equipment Slot Hover Color

Displaying A 3D Mesh Of The Player Character In Our Widget

Consuambles

Creating A Consuamble Slot

Dragging And Dropping The Consuamble Slot

Automatically Switching To The Correct Inventory Tab

Dropping Items

Creating The Drop Widget

Dropping Items From The Inventory

Dropping Items From The Equipment Slot

Tooltip

Creating A ToolTip System

Creating A Chest System

Importing The Chest Model

Creating An Animation For The Chest

Designing The Chest Widgets

Adding Items To The Chest

Collecting Items From The Chest

Weight System

Creating A Weight System

Updating The Inventory When We Collect Or Drop Items

Encumberment

Sorting Items In The Inventory By Categories

Sorting Items In Our Inventory By Weights

Sorting Empty Slots In The Inventory

Sorting Consumables In The Inventory By Weight

Sorting Items In The Inventory By Value

Save System

Saving The Items In Our Inventory To A Save File

Loading The Save Game File

Deleting The Save Game

Polishing

Making The Inventory Infinitely Long

Updating The Tool Tip

Bonus Lecture + What's Next

What's Next And Well Done!

Project Files

Bonus Lecture

Good to know

Know what's good

, what to watch for

, and possible dealbreakers

Covers item interaction, equipping, and inventory management, which are essential for creating engaging RPG experiences

Includes a save system, which allows players to save their progress and return to the game later, a crucial feature for RPGs

Teaches UI design principles within the context of inventory systems, which helps learners create visually appealing and user-friendly interfaces

Focuses on Unreal Engine, a popular game engine used by both indie and AAA game developers, making the skills highly transferable

Features a drag-and-drop system, which is a common and intuitive way for players to manage their inventory in RPGs

Requires Unreal Engine, which may necessitate a separate download and installation process for learners unfamiliar with the engine

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in How To Make A Flexible Inventory System In Unreal Engine with these activities:

Review Unreal Engine UI Design Fundamentals

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Reviewing UI design principles in Unreal Engine will help you better understand the course's inventory UI implementation.

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Watch introductory tutorials on Unreal Engine's UMG system.
Practice creating basic UI elements like buttons and text boxes.
Experiment with different layout techniques within UMG.

Brush Up on Scriptable Objects

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Understanding Scriptable Objects is crucial for managing item data efficiently in the inventory system.

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Read documentation on Scriptable Objects and their use cases.
Create a simple Scriptable Object to store item properties.
Experiment with different data types within Scriptable Objects.

Unreal Engine Blueprints Visual Scripting Projects

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Reviewing this book will provide a solid foundation in Blueprint scripting, essential for building the inventory system.

View Putting Knowledge to Work on Amazon

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Read the chapters related to UI and data management.
Try implementing some of the examples in your own Unreal Engine project.
Adapt the book's examples to fit the specific needs of the inventory system.

Four other activities

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Implement a Basic Drag-and-Drop System

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Building a simple drag-and-drop system will reinforce your understanding of the course's item interaction mechanics.

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Create a new Unreal Engine project.
Implement a basic drag-and-drop system for simple UI elements.
Extend the system to handle item data and inventory slots.

Document Your Inventory System

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Creating documentation will help solidify your understanding of the inventory system's architecture and functionality.

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Create a document outlining the key components of the inventory system.
Describe the purpose and functionality of each Blueprint and data asset.
Include diagrams to illustrate the relationships between different components.

Collaborate with Peers on Inventory System Enhancements

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Collaborating with peers will expose you to different perspectives and approaches to inventory system design.

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Find other students who are also taking the course.
Discuss potential improvements to the inventory system.
Work together to implement new features or optimizations.

Contribute to an Open-Source Inventory System Project

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Contributing to an open-source project will provide valuable experience in collaborative development and real-world application of your skills.

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Find an open-source inventory system project on GitHub or GitLab.
Identify a bug or feature that you can contribute to.
Submit a pull request with your changes.

Career center

Learners who complete How To Make A Flexible Inventory System In Unreal Engine will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Gameplay Engineer

A gameplay engineer focuses on the implementation of game mechanics and systems, ensuring that they are fun and engaging for the player. This course is excellent for an aspiring gameplay engineer as it covers everything one would need to develop an inventory system, from UI design to dynamic item interactions to equipping systems. The course's detailed modules on creating a drag and drop system, implementing tooltips, and managing item weight give a gameplay engineer the skills to implement complex RPG mechanics. Any gameplay engineer who wants to develop role playing games should consider taking this course.

See salaries and explore the career path for Gameplay Engineer

Game Programmer

A game programmer is responsible for writing the code that brings a game to life. This includes implementing gameplay mechanics, UI systems, and other interactive elements. This course helps a game programmer develop the skills needed to implement complex systems such as an inventory. The course provides the building blocks to create item interaction, drag and drop functionality, and an equipment system, all of which are essential in many modern role playing games. Taking this course means that a game programmer is well-positioned to tackle the challenges of building complex and engaging game systems for players.

See salaries and explore the career path for Game Programmer

UI Programmer

A user interface programmer focuses on creating interactive and intuitive interfaces for software applications or games. This course helps a UI programmer build a strong foundation in creating interactive interfaces through the detailed exploration of inventory management, equipping systems, and drag and drop interactions. The course also explores UI design through the creation of visually appealing panels, buttons, and item slots. A UI programmer will find this course valuable because of its use of Unreal Engine, and the way it methodically approaches the development of interactive UI elements.

See salaries and explore the career path for UI Programmer

Game Designer

A game designer is responsible for creating the overall design and vision of a game, including its mechanics, systems, and player experience. This course, focused on creating a flexible inventory system, is helpful for any game designer. It goes into detail regarding item interaction, a money system, and creating items in the inventory. A game designer benefits from getting hands-on experience, which this practical course offers. It further shows how to create dynamic interfaces, such as the drag and drop system. This adds valuable tools to any game designer's arsenal.

See salaries and explore the career path for Game Designer

Technical Designer

A technical designer bridges the gap between design and implementation, ensuring that game mechanics and systems are technically feasible and well-integrated. This course is useful for a technical designer because it provides a hands-on overview of how game mechanics are created with Unreal Engine. The detailed modules in this course cover vital topics such as creating inventory slots, adding items to the inventory, and creating a drag and drop system. A technical designer will find the course's practical approach helpful when thinking about both what is possible and what is practical.

See salaries and explore the career path for Technical Designer

Simulation Developer

A simulation developer creates software that simulates real-world or fictional environments and systems. Though this course focuses on game development, it is still useful to a simulation developer because it goes into detail regarding the creation of a functional and dynamic system in a simulated environment. The course's curriculum, which includes topics such as item interaction, money systems, and dynamic inventory management, are all helpful to a simulation developer. Any simulation developer who aims to make their simulations more engaging and interactive should look here.

See salaries and explore the career path for Simulation Developer

Software Engineer

A software engineer designs, develops, and tests software applications. While this course focuses on game development, the skills it teaches are relevant to software engineering. This course uses the Unreal Engine, which relies on a lot of C++, so this is good for any software engineer. A software engineer will find the course useful in understanding how to build and implement complex systems. The course’s modules on creating a drag and drop system, implementing tooltips, and managing data will help build a foundation for any software engineer who wants to explore game programming.

See salaries and explore the career path for Software Engineer

Interaction Designer

An interaction designer focuses on enhancing the user experience through intuitive and engaging interface elements. As this course delves into crafting a flexible inventory system with intuitive item slots and a seamless drag and drop system, it may be useful for an interaction designer. The course also explores user interface design with tooltips and visual indicators, which are all useful tools for an interaction designer. An interaction designer who is interested in learning how to build and implement inventory and equipment systems in a game would find this course helpful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Interaction Designer

UX Designer

A user experience designer ensures that software or digital products are intuitive, accessible, and enjoyable to use. While this course focuses on a game inventory system, its principles of effective user interface design and interaction are useful to a UX designer. A UX designer may find that the techniques used to create the dynamic drag and drop system, and the different interactive widgets in the inventory are all helpful when it comes to their own work. A UX designer with an interest in learning how game conventions may be applied to their own work could find it useful.

See salaries and explore the career path for UX Designer

Systems Designer

A systems designer is responsible for creating and balancing the various interconnected systems that drive a game. This course may be useful as it goes into detail about how to create an inventory system that is interconnected with a game's overall mechanics. The course covers topics such as creating an equipment system, integrating a weight system, and sorting items by category, all of which are useful lessons for a systems designer. The course may help a systems designer think about the interactions that are essential to any complex game.

See salaries and explore the career path for Systems Designer

Level Designer

A level designer creates the environments and spaces within a game, including their layout, visual design, and gameplay elements. Though this course is not specifically about level design, it may be helpful to a level designer who needs to integrate gameplay systems into their level designs. The course focuses on the creation of multiple interactive systems. For example, the chest system module will help a level designer who seeks to integrate interactive containers into their levels. The course may be useful to a level designer who wants to have more control over the interactive elements in their levels.

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Project Manager

A project manager oversees the planning, execution, and completion of projects. A project manager in game development who seeks a better technical understanding of their developers' challenges may find this course useful. This course covers the process of building a complete system, such as an RPG inventory system, from beginning to end. Through this, the project manager may gain a better understanding of the development process. A project manager who seeks to familiarize themselves with the technical side of game development may find this helpful.

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QA Tester

A quality assurance tester is responsible for finding bugs and defects in software or games. While this is not a career that is focused on creating game systems, it may be helpful to a QA tester to know how they are constructed. This course focuses on creating a complete inventory system, and a QA tester may better understand the different processes that can cause bugs or issues. The course's modules on item interaction, dynamic UI, and equipment systems may be useful to a QA tester looking to broaden their skill set.

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Technical Artist

A technical artist bridges the gap between art and technology, ensuring that artistic assets are optimized and integrated into a game engine. This course, which focuses on game mechanics, is not directly relevant to a technical artist. However, technical artists typically work closely with programmers and designers. Taking this course will give them a better sense of the challenges that programmers and designers face. A technical artist who wishes to better understand the technical limitations of game development may find this useful.

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Animator

An animator creates the movements and actions of characters and objects within a game or animation project. This course is focused on the implementation of a game's inventory system instead of animation. It focuses on the creation of drag and drop functionality, item interaction, and an equipment system. An animator may benefit from a general understanding of these systems, and so the course may be useful to them. An animator who is curious about the technical side of game development could find this course helpful.

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How To Make A Flexible Inventory System In Unreal Engine

What's inside

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Syllabus

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