What is Blueprints in Unreal Engine?

- Visual Scripting Language Blueprints is a programming language without writing single line of code, that's why it's called VISUAL scripting language. Let's break it down a little bit more.

 

Classic way of programming is when a developer is writing text code in a code editor such as Visual Studio Code, using programming languages such as C++, C#, Python, JavaScript etc, to create an App, Game and more.

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Let's face it, not everybody has the patience to learn how to code from scratch, especially when the person is self-taught from YouTube, Udemy or other online resources that are self paced.

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In order to learn how to code and be good at it, takes A LOT of work, time and dedication. Even when you dedicate huge amount of hours learning how to code, it will still take you around

2 - 3 years to become a Junior Dev.

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Fortunately, Unreal Engine has Blueprints Scripting Language to replace all from the above, in other words - people who can't code or don't want to code, they can use the Blueprints to create games from scratch.

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With Blueprints is very easy to start and you can quickly understand how to move things around, making your character jump, shoot or other mechanics, with a very little effort. This is because the Blueprint nodes are displayed with text, so it's easier to understand what that node ( code ) is doing.

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Let's compare programming with Blueprints VS classic text code programming:

- If it take you around 2-3 years to become a Junior Dev with classic text coding you might be able to create a small game, whereas with Blueprints you will be able to create more complicated games within 2-3 years timeframe.

Please note that this is just an estimate because every person is different than the other, one is more talented than the other, and one is more hard working than the other, so keep that in mind.

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Summary:

- If you are not a coder, or beginner coder and struggling with coding but you still want to bring your imagination to life and create amazing games to play with your friends, or even make money from it, get rid of the text coding and try Blueprints instead - it's the ideal option to start with.

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This is a brief summary for the beginners to have a rough picture of what Blueprints are, and what a classic programming text code is.

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- As everything in life, everything has pros and cons, so Blueprints too -

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For advanced users...

- There are Blueprints that are good to be used only for prototyping ( e.g. quickly test an idea out, a mechanics etc ), and then you should delete that Blueprint and replace it with a different one.

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Why should we replace the prototyping Blueprints and what to use instead ?

• There are many Blueprints that are performance heavy that can make your system glitchy, buggy or even crash.

• We must use the proper Blueprints to prevent this from happening, Blueprints that will do the same functionality and it won't crash your system.

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So WHY 90% of the YouTube tutorials are taught with these "bad" Blueprints then ?

- With all due respect to all the Online teachers out there, but ...

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WE HAVE to mention this:

The Blueprints that they are using is just to make their tutorials quick and easy, without mentioning how bad many Blueprints nodes are, and why you should never use.​