Unreal Engine — Ultimate Survival Horror Course

Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. This advanced course focuses on two crucial aspects of horror game development: gameplay mechanics and inventory systems. You’ll begin by mastering the intricacies of setting up a comprehensive inventory system. From designing the layout and functionality to creating item components, drop-down menus, and handling multiple items, you’ll learn how to create a fluid and engaging inventory system that enhances player interaction. You’ll also explore key features like item descriptions, icons, and advanced inspection systems to improve quality-of-life elements for the player. Building on the inventory system, the course transitions into advanced horror mechanics. You’ll dive into adding flashlight systems with battery depletion, health systems complete with visual effects like blood screens, and more. Learn how to create realistic interactions such as hiding from AI enemies, unlocking combination locks, and reading in-game notes. The course also covers creating dynamic environmental features like footsteps on different surfaces, jumpscares, and even cinematic cutscenes. By the end, you’ll have built an immersive horror environment complete with customizable features that amplify the tension and dread of gameplay. This course is designed for game developers looking to implement sophisticated systems into their horror games. Whether you're working on enhancing an existing project or developing a new game, the combination of inventory management and horror mechanics taught in this course will give you the skills needed to create an engaging, fear-inducing experience. This course is ideal for intermediate to advanced Unreal Engine users looking to create more complex gameplay and inventory systems. A basic understanding of Unreal Engine and prior experience with game development is recommended.

Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. This course teaches you how to master atmospheric level design and integrate famous horror mechanics into your game, along with powerful AI systems. Beginning with atmosphere and level design, you'll learn how to create eerie environments using advanced lighting, post-processing, fog, and ambient sounds to set the mood. You'll also explore how to design immersive scenes with depth-of-field effects and dust particles, perfecting the visual atmosphere of your horror game. Next, the course focuses on recreating iconic mechanics from some of the most popular horror games, including the camera systems from Outlast, Resident Evil, and Five Nights at Freddy's. These mechanics are essential for adding tension and enhancing player immersion. You’ll learn to build functional camera systems that add new layers of gameplay to your horror project. The final section dives into AI behavior, where you’ll create patrolling enemies that can chase, investigate, and even pull players from hiding spots. You'll develop intelligent AI enemies capable of dynamic interactions such as following the player, opening doors, and triggering jumpscares. By the end of this course, you will have completed a polished horror game with atmospheric environments, sophisticated AI, and iconic horror game mechanics. This course is designed for intermediate to advanced Unreal Engine users who are interested in creating atmospheric horror games with AI-driven enemies. Prior experience with Unreal Engine and game development is recommended.