GrumbEngine | Singleplayer Game Development Toolkit for Unreal Engine 5+
NOTE: This is an early, incomplete (but also discounted!) version of the plugin. Most major functionality is present and the plugin is usable, but expect lots of spaghetti code, unoptimized blueprints, and a general lack of documentation. All of this will be fixed and new features will be added upcoming updates!
GrumbEngine is a full drag-and-drop framework for fast prototyping and development, with tools and utilities inspired by the workflow of the Source engine and its Hammer map editor. Go from blank project to playable prototype in a matter of minutes! Suitable for FPS, puzzle, horror, exploration, and walking sim games - and more!
WHAT IS GRUMBENGINE FOR?
GrumbEngine is intended to be a base to build (primarily first-person) games off of. The base character class included has enough configurable settings to be usable in many situations even without modification; however, it can easily be extended upon to provide even further functionality.
Everything is designed to be as modular and drag-and-drop as possible - so within minutes of adding the plugin, you can have your project up-and-running. GrumbEngine is inspired by the modding scene of Half-Life 2 and other Source-based games; generally when modding a game like that, you’ve got all of that game’s already-made assets and tools at your disposal, making it essentially a drag-and-drop process. GrumbEngine aims to make general development feel just as smooth and easy.
FEATURES
There’s a lot of features - for a quick rundown with more detail, check out the overview video!
- Ever-expanding Blueprint function and macro libraries full of miscellaneous time-saving nodes.
- An intuitive subtitled dialog system (note that this does not include any sort of dialog trees or player response, but rather playing sounds with subtitles).
- A render layers component, allowing you to render selected actors/components on a separate screen layer from everything else - essential for first-person viewmodels that don’t clip through walls! Also has adjustable FOV separate from that of the player’s camera! NOT material based like some other assets - simply add a Comp_RenderLayer component and tell it which meshes to render on what layers, and you’re done! Although if you prefer the material-based method, that’s included too.
- A fully fleshed out character base with health, crouching, sprinting, fall damage, interaction, grabbable physics objects, ladder climbing, material-dependant footstep noises, and dozens of functions and variables to allow for substantial customization and extendability.
- Several types of new triggers and utility actors, such as sight triggers (which activate when looked at), directional triggers (which fire different events when entered or exited, or only activate when entered from a certain direction), and the random fire actor (a highly configurable actor used to handle randomized events).
- A simple and intuitive event calling system, where triggers can directly call events within other actors just by using the event name. No need to set up dispatchers or mess with the level blueprint!
- Very active development! I use this plugin constantly for my own work, so I’m always adding new features to it to help speed up my workflow. Any time I create a new reusable function or blueprint for any of my projects, I generally add it to this plugin for ease of use. Any suggestions, requests, or feedback are welcome!
- Bonus custom-made CC0 models, sounds, and example blueprints you’re free to use in your projects! Includes a basic crowbar weapon/model, push buttons, pistol, crates, barrels, and player SFX.
F.A.Q. (READ THIS BEFORE BUYING, PLEASE!)
Q: Does this support multiplayer?
A: No, and it probably never will. The focus at the moment is entirely on creating a singleplayer game development toolkit, and I honestly know very little about replication. It'd take a full rework of the plugin to make it work in multiplayer, and even then I wouldn't really know how to do it. Maybe at some point, but don't count on it.
Q: Can you add X feature/function/blueprint to the plugin?
A: Maybe! I'm always open to suggestions. As I work on my own projects, I'll continue to update the plugin with whatever features I think might be useful.
Q: Can you release a version of the plugin for <some version prior to 5.0>?
A: No, sadly. Plugins aren't backwards compatible, so I would have to completely remake the plugin from scratch to do that. I do have a very early version of the plugin for UE4.26/UE4.27, though it's not being updated, is very buggy and messy, and is not recommended. If you really need this for some reason, feel free to reach out and I can send it to you.
PLANNED FEATURES
- Seamless portals, allowing you to connect distant areas of your level together seamlessly, even if it's not spatially possible.
- A VR character class, with physical interaction, weapons, and more.
SUPPORTED UNREAL ENGINE VERSIONS
- UE5.0+
GAMES MADE WITH GRUMBENGINE
Are you using GrumbEngine in your own project? Feel free to reach out and I can add it to this list!
A really cool Unreal Engine 5 plugin