Dev Log 14 - State of Druid Mechanics

Hello, my friend. Stay a while and listen...

We are long overdue for another Dev Log, and boy, do we have things to talk about!

I suppose I should start with the elephant in the room, huh? The State of Unreal. Like, wow. Bombs were dropped. Feels were felt. Panic, uproar, and rage erupted. The Unreal Engine community is outraged about some things, and I won’t even pretend that isn’t happening. And lots of people are asking me what my thoughts are about all this. Oh, yes. We’ll get to that.

It’s also time for me to give you a Druid Mechanics update, and fill you in on the progress I’m making, what I’m working on now, what’s coming next, and the general plans for the future, and whether the recent news changes any of that. Yes, we’ll get to that as well.

A lot of people have voiced their feelings in response to the recent announcements, and many feel uncertain about it all. Many feel discouraged. Some feel downright crushed. Others don't know how to feel. Many don't know what to do. I believe that in order to figure that out, it's important to assess the facts. Right now, the internet is rife with speculations, assumptions, and misunderstandings, so it's important to straighten out what we know for sure versus what we fear will happen, what we think will happen, what is probable, and so on.

So... what happened?

The State of Unreal was livestreamed on the 17th, and some of the main takeaways from it were:

• Unreal Engine 5.8 is now released.

• 5.8 now ships with an MCP server plugin, allowing developers to connect Unreal Engine with an LLM such as Claude. This can allow AI to perform actions in Unreal.

• Some tools were also introduced for the MCP plugin, and a demo was shown using Claude to vibe code some level design with PCG.

• We were also shown an AI-assisted workflow involving art creation with the use of AI, including 2D and 3D asset creation.

• UE 5.8 is the last version of UE5 (they did say they reserve the option to release a 5.9 if they need to)

• Unreal Engine 6 is scheduled to have the Preview version released "at the end of 2027-ish"

• The first official release will be 12 to 18 months after that.

• UE6 will be the combination of UEFN and UE5.

• Developers will be able to develop any type of game they want, and have the option to publish it to their platform of choice, OR they can publish it directly into Fortnite.

• More metaverse stuff... plans for interoperability between games and experiences, etc.

• UE6 developers will be able to make games that can be shipped to the platform of their choice, or they can ship them directly into Fortnite.

• Gameplay programming is moving over to Verse. C++ will be used for more "low level" stuff.

• The new framework is based on Scene Graph, an ECS (Entity Component System).

• The Actor system, along with Blueprint, will be deprecated.

• Actors and Blueprints will still be in the first versions of Unreal Engine 6. In later versions, it will be scheduled for removal.

• They are planning to release conversion tools for converting projects to the new system.

• Unreal Engine 6 will ship with a built-in version control system called Lore.

• There are some new tools as well, including an application for converting video footage to 3D animations.

There was more, and if you haven't watched it, feel free to go do so. But as far as I'm concerned, these are the main points.

So even though the State of Unreal wasn't a very long stream, there was a lot of impactful news in it. And some of the news had to be read between the lines... there was no mention of a visual scripting system to replace Blueprint.

Many people in the community, including some content creators, said not to fret. Many said we were getting a visual Verse to replace Blueprint. Partially, this assumption was due to the fact that early in UEFN's life, a survey was released to UEFN creators, asking for their feedback. The survey indicated that they might be working on a visual Verse scripting system, and it asked if people preferred it to be block-based or node-based, with little example images of that those systems might look like.

There has also been casual mention of plans for a visual Verse system here and there during talks from Epic staff.

However, since it was not mentioned in the State of Unreal, the community sought clarification from Epic staff, who replied with a definitive no. There are no current plans to develop a visual scripting system for Verse.

So from among the news mentioned above, the two major concerns with the community then were:

• The Actor/Blueprint system is going away in UE6

• There are no plans to develop a visual scripting system for Verse
  and, a corollary to this perhaps seems to be that Verse has ugly syntax and it doesn't look easy to learn.

  These, I've seen, appear to be the major points of concern, but they aren't the only ones. Others involve concerns about the use of AI to drive art workflows in the UE6 tech demo, as well as the fact that UE6 will contain essentially all of UEFN and the ability to push experiences into Fortnite and the metaverse. People see the lack of a visual scripting system, coupled with the addition of the MCP server, and a large consensus is that vibe coding is intended to be the replacement for Blueprints, and this means there's torrential downpour of vibe-coded AI slop in our forecast.

So there's some disquiet in the community. And for good reasons.

But I also believe that some of these fears are a bit... misguided. That's not to say that I'm happy with what's happening. If I'm being completely honest with you, I don't like a lot of the news I heard on the 17th. I didn't like some of what I saw. But there are some things I did like, and some things I'm very much looking forward to. So, for those of you who've asked me what I think about what's going on, well, here goes.

First, I'll address those "misguided fears" I mentioned above. Because I'm not here to invalidate anyone's feelings. If you feel strongly about things, I feel like those feelings are legit. So please, don't take this as a personal attack if I say anything you personally disagree with.

First, let's talk about AI. Enabling the MCP server plugin is an option. You don't have to vibe code. Yes, yes, I know, if there isn't a visual scripting system, and you only knew Blueprints, and you're not touching Verse with a ten foot pole, then vibe coding is your only option, right? Well, first of all, I personally don't think vibe coding works the way many think it does. It produces shit code if you don't know what you are doing. It uses a massive amount of tokens, which cost money, to perform many tasks that would be faster by hand if you know how. It takes skill to use AI to accelerate your workflow, and inexperienced users are going to be very frustrated. If you already understand Verse, you can then properly instruct an AI Agent to code in Verse for you. If you don't know Verse, and you think you'll architect good gameplay scripts with prompts alone, I'm sorry, you've got a lot of frustration in your future. That's just my opinion. So then, if you don't want to vibe code, and you aren't getting a Visual scripting system, what then do you do?

Well, I can't tell you what to do. That's your decision you have to come to yourself. You can stick with Unreal Engine 5. Yes, yes, I know, then you're not getting the latest up-to-date tech. You want to upgrade to UE6 and not get left behind. But there are talks of 5.8 becoming an LTS. This means long term support. Countless companies need this, so I expect it to be true.

You can use UE6 when it comes out, and still use Actors and Blueprints. Sure, they'll be deprecated, but deprecated doesn't mean removed. They will exist in the first versions of the engine. We have official Epic verification of that. Just because a new version of the engine comes out, doesn't mean you have to upgrade to it. Sure, you'll be working with deprecated tech, so there might be little yellow warning signs somewhere that remind you that you're using something deprecated. It doesn't mean you can't still use it. Cascade was deprecated in UE 5.0. It survived all the way to UE6.

You can abandon Unreal Engine altogether and switch to another engine, like Unity or Godot.

You can leave game dev far behind and pick up bobsledding. I hear it's pretty fun.

Or, now hear me out, you can learn Verse.

Ow! Hey, tomatoes actually hurt when you throw them that hard!

If you don't like any of those options, well, I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you. All I can say is I wasn't the one who made these decisions. All I can do is deal with them.

So what am I doing?

Well, for one, Unreal Engine 6 isn't here yet. We have Unreal Engine 5.8. UE6 proper is at least 3 years away. And UE 5.8 is a fantastic engine. Just because we were shown a new and shiny thing doesn't make what we have any less good. Before the 17th, we were working with the world's most cutting-edge engine and we were loving it. Then we were shown its successor 3 years early and we're suddenly ready to throw it in the trash. I'm still using Unreal Engine 5.8.

In fact, I'm doing so happily, because when UE6 comes out, I'll be familiar with UE5. Yes, yes, I know, the engine will be different. All the stuff I did with Actors and Blueprints will be deprecated. Well, yeah, but I'm still a game developer. I'm still a programmer. I'll be learning something new, but so will the rest of the world. And believe me, it's not the end of the world.

All tech jobs require constant learning. Even in UE4 and UE5, we were constantly learning the new systems and frameworks Epic continued to develop. That won't change. If you think you can spend 2 years learning, then just "do your job" for the rest of your life, I've got news for you. The tech world doesn't work like that.

Verse isn't the end of the world. By the way, I've been learning Verse in UEFN since Verse came out in 2023. Most people aren't doing that, because they have no desire to download and learn how to make Fortnite islands. Well, neither do I, really. But Verse is the scripting system for UEFN, so it's currently the only way to actually get experience coding in it. It's also the best way to test out all the new features we'll be seeing in UE6, including the whole Scene Graph system, which is much more powerful and versatile than the Actor-based system.

Most people have a very misguided idea of what they think Verse is. The most common belief I see is that Verse is a scripting language Epic Games made for Fortnite or UE, and that's the gist of it, and that the team they had making it decided on the most ass-backward syntax, so the language sucks.

That couldn't be farther from the truth. Verse looks so alien, even to experienced Unreal Engine programmers, because it's not a C-based programming language. It was designed with other paradigms in mind, and is tailored to its use case much more sharply than C++. So many who expected the new scripting language to look like C# were sorely disappointed, and discouraged.

But, and I speak from experience, Verse is a great language. Once you get the hang of it, scripting gameplay in Verse is so much faster and smoother than coding gameplay in C++, and even Blueprints. Its syntax to me isn't ugly, just different. C++ contains so many pitfalls that often get even experienced devs into trouble. Verse is extremely powerful and fast.

I don't want to weigh this Dev Log down too much talking about Verse, but I did leave a lengthy response to a Reddit post titled "What is Verse like?" and you can read it here:

What is Verse like?

So personally, because I feel like Verse is a great language, I'm excited to learn the new system. Now, I know, this isn't a sentiment everyone feels. But I've been asked to share my honest opinion, and that's how I feel. It took me at least 8 years to feel comfortable in C++, the behemoth of all programming languages. I trained a team of 3 in Verse in the space of a couple weeks and together we built a Red vs. Blue Fortnite Island. None of them had any programming experience prior to Verse.

But do I feel like all my years learning Unreal Engine's Actor system, Blueprints, and its C++ code base were a waste of time?

Absolutely not. What I learned was a way of thinking. Of problem solving. Of figuring out how to make things work. That's a skill that transfers over to new systems, new programming languages, new engines. Sure, it feels great to finally start getting good at something, and it feels terrible to be told that what you've just learned will be replaced. I get that. But I also take that as a challenge to overcome. And after learning Scene Graph in UEFN, the new system feels more intuitive and direct than UE5's Object/Actor/Pawn/Character/Controller/GameMode framework.

Look, am I trying to convince you to stick with Unreal Engine or learn Verse even if you don't want to? Hell no! Do what you want! I'm not here to try to change how you feel, or invalidate your concerns. I have concerns too. I'm just telling you my attitude toward this situation. I have no plans to quit Unreal and migrate over to another engine. Especially since we're finally getting an ECS, an architecture pattern that is superior to monolithic hierarchies like the Actor system. I just want you to know that just because the more vocal opinions on the internet are pushing a doom and gloom mindset doesn't mean that that's how things are.

But the UE5 system is great too. It's battle-tested. And UE6 is far from complete. We've got literal years before it's ready to do anything even close to what UE5 can do. So until then, I'm still working in UE5. In fact, I'm making a new course in UE 5.8 as we speak. And I'll talk about that in a bit. For now, let me finish my thoughts about all this.

One of the major concerns is that UE is turning into Roblox. This one is a pretty misguided concern if you ask me. There's no obligation for UE6 projects to be Fortnite islands. It's an option. Not a requirement. Opting into the metaverse is an option, not a requirement. We'll be able to create any sort of games we want, and do whatever we want with them.

And yes, the Fortnite and AI features mean that we'll likely see a tidal wave of newbies with the intent on making low-quality AI slop. And that sucks! I don't like how AI has contributed to the enshittification of modern society anymore than you do. But what are we going to do about that? There isn't much we can do, except do our own thing and make great games. In a sea of shit, a diamond will stand out. Make the fucking diamond, man.

It's also a bit silly to call UE6 AI slop for introducing MCP support. This is, in fact in 5.8, mind you. And it's a powerful tool if used correctly. A huge number of Unreal Engine developers are leveraging AI in some capacity. If used well, it's a powerful productivity booster. If put in the wrong hands, it makes slop. I'm talking about programming here. My thoughts on the use of gen AI for art are: well, I hate it, honestly. Art requires passion. AI doesn't have that. It should be used for tasks that suck your soul because they're mundane and boring. Don't replace one of the only outlets for our souls to express themselves.

And many in the community say they'll be sticking with UE5, even when UE6 comes out. And honestly, I think that's a perfectly legitimate approach to this. UE5 will continue to be great, well into UE6's lifetime. There are still AAA games out there that were made in UE4. Hell, even UE3 (Rocket League, hello?). I think that's a sentiment that a large number of people share, and I don't blame them. For some, they just don't want to learn new tech or a new language. For others, they might have a game, a team, a company that completely relies on the old system. There are teams that cannot run without Blueprint. There will likely be no other choice for many but to stick with UE5. And that wouldn't feel so bad if they didn't know there was a newer, shinier thing coming around that will not be accessible to them. And I truly believe that this is a tragedy. Visual scripting is an important accessibility feature and I don't think AI replaces it.

So anyway, I think I've gone on long enough about UE6 and the future. Hopefully I've made it clear that I have a bit more optimistic of an outlook than most about this. But I'll enumerate my points of view a bit more explicitly.

• I'm not too hyped about seeing the use of MCP and AI for art. I believe AI should be used on non-creative, mundane tasks, not replace those that require passion.

• I'm bummed that there won't be an official Epic-made visual Scripting system for Verse.

• I am excited to be using Verse as the scripting language for gameplay in UE6. I've learned language and used it in UEFN and I feel it's a much nicer experience to script gameplay than C++ and even Blueprint.

• I am excited about the new ECS system with Scene Graph. It's a better architecture than the Actor system from a software design perspective, and I look forward to using it in all sorts of creative ways.

• I'll still be using Unreal Engine 5 for the next few years, which means using Actors, Blueprints, and C++. Knowing they'll eventually be replaced by Verse and Scene Graph doesn't matter to me. I'm still developing, learning, and sharpening skills that will still serve me well into the new system. And UE5 will continue to be a legit and widely-used engine in the industry.

So, hopefully that gives you an idea of where my head is at with all this. Now, where is Druid Mechanics going?

Well, I'm not stopping now!

The current courses I've been working on have been completed from my end (the recording end). These are my State Tree course and my C++ From Beginner to Unreal course. My video editor is editing and scheduling them out, and in fact, I've got a completion date for you: State Tree will be complete by July 23. The C++ course, well, it's a large one and goes into some more advanced stuff, so we've got a little more time for that one before it's done. I'll have a date closer to completion.

I've also begun recording my latest course, using Unreal Engine 5.8: First-Person Shooter! It's a course on... well... multiplayer first-person shooters! Access it in my Patreon's Collections section. I currently have a huge launch discount applied. I've been wanting to make this one for a while now, so I'm really excited about it! For this course, I'm developing it more aggressively, and my plan is to finish it before the end of July. And I'm planning on releasing it to Udemy once it's done.

So, this new First Person Shooter course is now live on Patreon! And because I plan on finishing it by the end of next month, we're dropping those videos fast! So check it out!

As I said, I'm currently running a launch sale for it. You can get it for $10.00 USD with this link: https://www.patreon.com/collection/2230448

This course is the culmination of all I've learned about multiplayer programming in my years of programming in Unreal Engine. It is much better than my older multiplayer shooter course in terms of code architecture and design. It also shows how to handle the nuances of FPS games compared to third-person shooters. I'm quite proud of it. Please watch the promotional video on my Patreon!

I'm also running a week-long sale for membership. For just seven days, you can enroll for a year subscription to my Patreon for 50% off! To redeem it, use this code at checkout: C0000

(those are zeros, not o's)

What's next? Well, late in July I'll be inactive for a couple of weeks, because I'm getting married. To my video editor, actually. We'll be taking a bit of time off, so my Patreon Gold Tier will have about a two week's lapse in videos until I get the next new content created. Sorry about that!

And I'm still deciding on what's next, but I'm considering a course on Verse. I've been learning it since it first came out, which was actually back in 2023! I would like to teach this language so that those who want to prepare for UE6 will have the option to do so. Currently, the only way to do that is by programming in UEFN, which doesn't excite some people, but we'll see. That's why I'm still deciding on whether or not to do it. UEFN does have Scene Graph already, so there are lots of things to teach that transfer directly over to UE6, and Epic promises Verse to be backward compatible no matter how many features they add to it, so it should be a good way for people to prepare.

Well, that's about it! This one was kind of a lot, I know. And there's still more I haven't talked about. There's just so much going on in the game developer world right now, and this log should really only be so long. So if you'd like to discuss this more, feel free to comment here, or just chat with me over things in the Druid Mechanics Discord.

That just about wraps this one up. I hope you all stay well, and as always, happy dev'ing, my friends.

Stephen