Unrealで2Dと2.5Dゲームを4年間作って学んだこと | Unreal Fest Tokyo 2025

Unrealで2Dと2.5Dゲームを4年間作って学んだこと What I learned in 4 years of making 2D and 2.5D games with Unreal Cobra Code #unrealfest

• Why Use UE to make 2D Games? Agenda • What are Paper 2D/PaperZD? • 2D/2.5D Workflows and Examples • Useful Techniques 2 #unrealfest

About Me • Have been using UE for 5+ years • Started the 'Cobra Code' YouTube - Pic of cobra, authorized instructor and youtube channel stats channel about 4 years ago • Worked as a programmer before that 3 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? Is it even possible to make 2D Games in Unreal? 4 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? Is it even possible to make 2D Games in Unreal? 5 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? Well… kinda 6 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? 7 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? Paper 2D in 2021 • Many people hated on it and it was very misunderstood • Not much information available in terms of documentation and tutorials • …But I didn’t want to give up 8 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? Official Sources • 2D Side Scroller Template • A few official tutorials 9 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? 10 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? ©2025 PLAION GmbH. 11 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? ©2018 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. 12 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? 13 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? • 2D Platformer • 2D Action Platformer • 2D Top Down Action • 2.5D JRPG • …much more 14 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? Released The Siege and the Sandfox Octopath Traveler Octopath Traveler 2 Ender Lilies Ender Magnolia Twilight Monk The Artful Escape The Vagrant Triangle Strategy Live A Live The Plucky Squire Gensokyo Night Festival Terror at Oakheart Snacko Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake Born of Bread Replic Survivors Wunderling DX Northwind Metal Slug Attack Reloaded … many more In Development Octopath Traveler 0 Dragon Quest 1+2 HD-2D Remake The Adventures of Elliot Threads of Time Lost Fragments Detained: Too Good for School Demon Crush Tenebris Somnia Storm Settlers Undead Spaceman Memories PSYCHOFINGER Escape from Ever After Avante! Atlantis The Grey Elegy: Under the Cursed Wings 15 #unrealfest

UE 2D Possible? Is it even possible to make 2D Games in Unreal? 16 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? • Sprite-based system for creating 2D and 2D/3D hybrid games • Official plugin developed by a small team at Epic Games • Consists of Sprites, Flipbooks, Tile Sets and Tile Maps 17 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? Paper Sprite • Simply a texture attached to a quad • Can have collision and be placed in the world 18 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? Paper Flipbook • Sequence of Sprites • Can set the playback speed with FPS and frame run • Used for characters and other animated objects 19 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? Tile Set • Defines the ‘palette’ we use to draw Tile Maps • Defines size and collision for each tile 20 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? Tile Map • Is what we use to create our 2D Levels • Allows drawing in a grid using Tile Sets • Supports multiple layers and collision settings 21 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? Tile Map Issues • Stuck in Beta and the weakest link of Paper 2D • Drawing tools are very limited • No auto tiling, Isometric is problematic, etc • Custom Editor Widgets or Plugins can help 22 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? Paper Terrain • Hidden and very experimental • Allows creation of texture based terrain 23 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? Paper 2D helps us make 2D and 2D/3D Hybrids by giving us tools to work with sprites 24 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? Remaining Issues • No dedicated 2D Physics mode • Have to use Axis constraints • Box 2D was implemented in an experimental state, but was removed again 25 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? No Animation Graph Support • No Animation Blueprint or Animation Graph Support • Have to directly call which animation to play when from blueprint • Bad for separation of concerns 26 #unrealfest

What is Paper 2D? No Anim Notify Support • Anim Notifies help us play sound, VFX and trigger events • Instead have to manually check against flipbook and frame to manually trigger effects • Bad for separation of concerns 27 #unrealfest

Why UE 2D? So why even make 2D/2.5D Games with Unreal? 28 #unrealfest

Why UE 2D? Reasons to use UE for 2D/2.5D • Prior experience and future plans • Personal Preference • Everything outside of the 2D Toolset 29 #unrealfest

Why UE 2D? Unreal’s Robust Feature Set • Localization Built In • Multi-Platform Support • Sequencer • Blueprint Visual Scripting • Fast Iteration (What you see is what you get) • Much more… 30 #unrealfest

Why UE 2D? Community • Many success stories • Growing community • Plugin creators • Tutorials and Courses 31 #unrealfest

Why UE 2D? Epic Games Ecosystem • Great Licensing Terms • Epic Mega Grants • EGS Benefits 32 #unrealfest

© Binary Haze Interactive Why UE 2D? Performance Concerns • Won’t performance be worse than other engines? • Can we hit target FPS on all platforms? • Steam Deck Test • Default Settings: ~165 FPS • Simple Tweaks: ~380 FPS Document Link 33 #unrealfest

• http://tinyurl.com/UE2DSettings

Why UE 2D? Package Size Concerns • Won’t the package size be huge and unwarranted for 2D Games? 34 #unrealfest

Why UE 2D? PaperZD is awesome! 35 #unrealfest

Why UE 2D? So why even make 2D/2.5D Games with Unreal? 36 #unrealfest

PaperZD What is PaperZD? • Free Plugin that works together with Paper 2D (Does not replace it) • Solves the 2 biggest issues with animating sprites by providing an animation graph and anim notifies • Released in 2017 as a paid plugin • Received an Epic Mega Grant in 2022 and became free 37 #unrealfest

PaperZD Animation Graph 38 #unrealfest

PaperZD Animation Graph 39 #unrealfest

PaperZD Animation Overrides 40 #unrealfest

PaperZD Animation Jumps 41 #unrealfest

PaperZD Anim Notifies 42 #unrealfest

PaperZD Anim Notifies 43 #unrealfest

PaperZD Directional Animations 44 #unrealfest

PaperZD Sequencer Support 45 #unrealfest

PaperZD Issues solved? • In the case of 2D/3D Hybrids it solves all of the issues we had with base Paper 2D 2.5D • For 2D only games it helps with animations, but Tile maps are still not ideal IF you want to use them -> Get plugin or custom tools 2D 46 #unrealfest

Workflow and Useful Techniques 47 #unrealfest

ご清聴ありがとうございました 48 #unrealfest