Using project templates

In the New Project tab, you will find templates for various project types. These templates will give you a great head start, so you won't need to reinvent code that is common to specific game types. The templates are as follows:

• Blank: Only use this option if none of the following templates fit your project's genre. Usually, one of the other templates will cover what you need to get started, and everything about the template can be customized or deleted. But if your game project doesn't fall under anything else, you can use this option to create your entire game from scratch.
• First Person: This is the standard shooter template. It includes a first person arm mesh and a weapon that fires projectiles.
• Flying: This is a third-person view of a spaceship that can be flown around.
• Handheld AR: This includes everything you need to get started with augmented reality on a phone. Make sure your device supports ARKit for iOS devices, or ARCore for Android!
• nDisplay: This option is used for multimonitor/cave display setups. It is rarely used, but is an incredibly useful template when you need it.
• Puzzle: Most people associate the UE with top-of-the-line graphics, but even simple puzzle games can benefit from the workflow that Blueprints present.
• Rolling: Ball-based games will find their home here. All of these templates have keyboard, gamepad, and touch inputs already set up as appropriate. Here, the ball can be controlled with any of the three options.
• Side Scroller / 2D Side Scroller: This is a standard Metroidvania camera setup. Which of these two you use depends on whether your art assets will be 2D or 3D.
• Third Person: This is a free rotating camera with a keyboard-controlled player, common for platformers and action games.
• Top Down: This can be easily confused with the Third Person template, but this one has a fixed camera with a Diablo style click-to-move player.
• Twin Stick Shooter: This is the Top Down shooter template. Don't let the icon fool you; this template is just as suitable for a Hotline Miami style human player as it is for a bullet-hell spaceship one.
• Vehicle: This is the racing template. Another great feature of these templates is the ability to combine them. For instance, if you wanted to make a GTA style game where you could run around or drive cars, you could choose the Third Person template, and once you're in the Unreal editor, you could add the Vehicle template to your project as well.
• Virtual Reality: This includes hand models, teleportation, and grabbable objects.
• Vehicle Advanced: If your project needs more realistic vehicles than the simple physics of the vehicle template, this would be your choice.

Most of these templates can be used in both Blueprint and C++ projects (augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) templates are Blueprint only). Unless your goal is to solely use Blueprints or C++, don't worry too much about which project type to use. C++ can be added to Blueprint projects and vice versa.

One major exception to this is if you need to alter any of the engine code itself, or if you need dedicated servers for your game. Using the UE through the launcher with the official engine versions allows us to extend from the engine and its classes, but it doesn't let us modify the engine code directly. If you do need to do this, you will need to download and compile the engine yourself, which is fairly simple but outside the scope of this quick start guide. Most of the time, you can create and deploy your entire game without needing to touch the engine code.