UE4 – Package a Project for Windows

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.25

Basic steps for packaging a simple UE4 project for Windows:

Package settings:
Open the Project Settings window:

1. In: Project > Description
   Set the project’s details and thumbnail:
   > The Project thumbnail will apear in the UE4 Editor browser.
   > Thumbnail image must be a 192 x 192 resolution PNG
   
2. In: Project > Maps & Modes
   Set default level (Map) for the project:
   
3. In: Project > Packaging
   Choose build configuration
   > For final distribution choose ‘Shipping‘:
   
4. In: Project > Supported Platforms:
   Make sure Windows is selected:
   

Setting user input focus:
* So the user doesn’t have to mouse click the screen before being able to control the game.
Select the FirstPersonCharacter Actor and enter editing mode.
In the Event Graph Blueprint, locate the Event BeginPlay node, add a Set Input Game Only node, after it, and connect a Get Player Controller node set to index 0, to it’s Player Controller input:

Note that if there are UI user interactions, in the game, you may need to switch to different input modes during the game to allow interaction with UI.

Adding a Quit command:
Select the FirstPersonCharacter Actor and enter editing mode.
In the Event Graph Blueprint, add an Escape key press Event node,
And connect it to a Quit Game command node.

Creating the game package:
Choose:
File > Package Project > Windows > Windows (64-bit)
And select an output folder.

A folder named “WindowsNoEditor” will be created,
And inside it will be the game executable along with code and assets folders.
This package can be renamed and copied to other locations.

Possible causes for packaging failure:
There are many reasons packaging a UE project can fail,
I certainly don’t know all of them, but I’ll list some cases I actually encountered:

1. If the project folder is located within a deep folder structure, packaging errors may occur because of long file paths.
   * Sorry I didn’t save the actual error message..
2. Installing a plugin twice by mistake will cause the following error:
   Error: System.ArgumentException: An item with the same key has already been added.
   * I mistakenly installed the Houdini engine plugin both in the Plugins\Runtime folder and in the Plugins folder (this specific plugin should be only in Plugins\Runtime).

Related posts:

1. UE4 – 3ds max & V-Ray Datasmith workflow
2. Cleanup the FPS project template for Archvis