The Ultimate Unreal Engine 2D Game Development Course (Udemy.com)
Learn all you need to know about Paper 2D and PaperZD to make 2D and 2D/3D hybrid games in Unreal Engine 5!
Created by: Cobra Code
Last updated March 2026
Our take
Based on the ratings of 3,290 students and a sample of their written reviews, the syllabus, the course as of March 2026. No course pays to be reviewed.
A project-first course on making 2D and 2D/3D hybrid games in Unreal Engine 5 with Paper 2D and the free PaperZD plugin. Cobra Code builds four small games across 12 hours and 109 lectures: a one-button quick draw game, a runner, a classic platformer, and an action platformer with pixel art characters in a 3D world. A short UE5 crash course sits near the start, so no prior Unreal or programming experience is expected. The syllabus is built on Blueprints, from basics to intermediate, and C++ does not appear on it.
Reviewers say the explanations are clear enough that beginners can follow without pausing every few seconds, and one notes it is one of the only solid 2D Unreal resources they could find. The Discord community gets a mention too. The rating is 4.8 from about 3,300 reviews, with under one percent at one or two stars. The complaints are about scope rather than quality. Four-star reviews ask for practice tasks to attempt alone, and for the systems a finished game needs: a title screen, save points, health bars, level transitions, menus.
It was refreshed in March 2026, well after its 2023 launch. The course sits in our 3D game development list beside mostly Unity courses, and it is the only one there built around 2D. If Unreal is the engine you want and pixel art is the style, this is the obvious pick. If the goal is shipping a complete game, expect to look elsewhere for the menus and saving.
Pros
- Four playable projects that build on each other, from a one-button game to a 2D/3D hybrid action platformer
- Clear, step-by-step narration that beginners say they can follow without constant pausing
- Covers PaperZD animation blueprints, enemy AI with behavior trees, and polish like coyote time and hitstop
- Updated March 2026, plus a Discord where the instructor and other students answer questions
Cons
- No solo exercises or assignments, so it is follow-along from start to finish
- Stops short of full-game systems like menus, saving, health bars, and level transitions
- Taught in Blueprints with no C++ on the syllabus, so anyone wanting C++ for 2D Unreal needs another resource
This course is great fun and easy to follow. It has got me fixing my own problems without watching tutorials now.
Listed as all levels and it holds: a UE5 crash course opens it, but Unreal veterans will skim the first two sections.
What you will learn
- How to make 2D Games with Unreal Engine 5
- Create 4 Awesome Games of various genres
- All about Sprites, Flipbooks, Tile Maps and Tile Sets
- How to use the free PaperZD plugin to enhance your 2D games
- Unreal Engine Blueprints, starting from the basics up to intermediate usage
- Set up animation trees and anim notifies for your 2D animations
- Create 2D enemy AI using the AI Controller and Behavior trees
- How to mix 2D Sprites with 3D backgrounds to create 2D/3D Hybrid games
- How to polish up your game using hitstop, sprite shake, coyote time and jump buffering
Course content
10 sections · 109 lectures · 12 hours of video 19 articles
- 1Course Orientation 2 free previews5 lectures · 14 min
- 2Unreal Engine 5 Crash Course9 lectures · 42 min
- 3Paper 2D Basics 1 free preview3 lectures · 4 min
- 4Quick Draw Project 3 free previews21 lectures · 1.8 hours
- 5Mash Runner Project 3 free previews17 lectures · 2 hours
- 6PaperZD Introduction 1 free preview3 lectures · 5 min
- 7Tower Climb Platformer Project 3 free previews22 lectures · 3 hours
- 8Action Platformer Project 3 free previews26 lectures · 4.2 hours
- 9Extra: Some Tips and Updates2 lectures · 4 min
- 10Bonus: What's next?1 lecture
Who it is for
The instructor says it suits
- Beginner and Intermediate Unreal Engine developers who want to make 2D Games
What you need before you start
- No prior programming or Unreal Engine experience needed! You'll learn everything you need to know.
Quality Score
No CourseDuck member has rated this course yet. Taken it? Give each part a thumbs up or down.
Overall Score : 96 / 100
Course Description
Welcome to The Ultimate Unreal Engine 2D Game Development Course.
This is the most comprehensive and effective course you'll ever find about making 2D and 2D/3D hybrid games with Unreal Engine 5.
Through teaching Unreal Engine on YouTube and also in person at a Japanese Game Dev school for the past couple of years I've gained an understanding of what students are really looking for and designed this course to teach you Paper 2D and PaperZD step by step in a structured manner.
If you're completely new to Unreal Engine you can check out the Unreal Engine 5 Crash Course which is included in one of the early chapters.
We'll start out slowly by making a one-button-minigame that teaches you about how to import sprites and use them in your scene. You'll also learn about project settings we need to adjust and about the enhanced input action system which we'll use throughout all of the other chapters in this course as well.
The second game will teach you all about using sprite sheets and how we can create flipbooks.
We'll also look at how to switch between the idle and run flipbook during gameplay and how to play footstep sounds on the correct animation frames.
Since we want the background to be dynamically adjustable I'll also teach you how we can use a background sprite in a blueprint, attach collisions to them and dynamically change them in the construction script depending on how long we want the stage to be.
The Third game is a classic platformer game and will be the first projects using the free PaperZD plugin to improve the workflow of making 2D games with Unreal Engine.
Here you'll learn how to set up an animation source and animation blueprint file with PaperZD and use them to create animation graphs and animation notifies.
We'll also create enemies that can detect walls and ledges to change the direction they walk in and can interact with the player when being stomped on or touching the player character.
You'll also learn how to create a one-way platform that we can jump through form the bottom, but don't fall through from the top.
The forth game will combine all the things we've learned and will be the first 2D/3D hybrid game we create.
This means that our characters are 2D pixel art, however the backgrounds are 3D environments which allow us to make use of all of the amazing features of Unreal Engine.
For this game we don't only have platformer mechanics, but we'll also implement hitboxes, a stun system a damage system and many more things you'll need to know about for most of your games.
To lean into metroidvania mechanics we also create an unlockable sword throw ability, which allows you to stick swords into the wall and use them as platforms to reach higher areas.
Instructor Details
- 4.8 Rating
3,290 Reviews
Cobra Code
Greetings, everyone!
I'm a professional Game Developer and Authorized Unreal Engine Instructor.
My passion for games and computers ignited at a young age, but I started to seriously get into Game Development in 2018 and have been using Unreal Engine on a daily basis since then.
Throughout my journey, I've had the privilege of working on various professional projects as a game programmer. Additionally, I took on the role of an Unreal Engine instructor at a Game Dev college in Japan. This invaluable experience has honed my understanding of the challenges learners face and the specific areas they seek guidance in.
In 2021 I started a YouTube Channel called 'Cobra Code' where I also teach about Unreal Engine and my main focus has been making 2D and 2D/3D Hybrid Games.
It brings me immense joy to witness the growth and success of my students as they embark on their own game development journeys.
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Reviews
By Yugo Tajima on 7/17/2026
This is a very good course because it's easy to understand, even for beginners like me. The explanations are clear and easy to follow. My only suggestion is that it would be even better if it covered how to build a complete game from start to finish. For example, it could include topics such as creating a title screen, an inventory menu, level transitions, save points, a health bar, end credits, and other essential game systems.
By Robert Patała on 5/19/2026
The course is a great introduction on how the Paper2D and PaperZD works. To some degrea it also explains the basics of game design and other Unreal Engine functions. It would be almosst perfect if for example there were sections in witch we are given a task or something to try and do by us alone. Still I recomend this course
By Kalliopi Tsavari on 3/29/2026
I am super happy to have enrolled to this course. I have learned of Cobra Code from YouTube and since I absolutely loved the way he clearly instructed through his tutorials there, I couldn't help but take more of his full courses. He is now my top instructor and I have learned so many things from him so I can start working on my own UE5 2D game. His way of clearly stating what he was doing in the videos helped me most of the times to just follow the instructions without watching the videos at the same time, so I could follow in a good pace without needing to pause the video before doing it myself the majority of the times. I think it can help to note that I am already an established games programmer working in the insdustry and have multiple years of UE4 experience, but I can definitelly say that without Cobra Code's teachings, I would have been trying to figure out a lot of things through scattered videos on YT and make my life a lot harder. So I can clearly say that I am sticking around for all the courses he will make/already has made and I can't wait for what will come next. Thanks a lot for your amazing work Cobra Code.
By Ilya Honin on 2/21/2026
Суперский курс по базовому программированию игр. Видно, что преподаватель не только хорошо разбирается в теме, но и действительно стремится передать частичку своих знаний в наиболее интересной форме. Данный курс познакомил меня не только с Paper ZD, но и многими нодами, позволяющими оптимизировать код на блюпринтах. Ну и AI деревья и система скиллов тоже хорошо раскрыты! Рекомендую!
By Kaden Adam Palmer on 2/14/2026
This is a really good quality course just learning how to do. Basics and learning advance techniques is a really good course. I promise you you would not be disappointed on this course. He doesn’t just explain he shows you visually and even gives you a Discord to go get some help truly amazing person to show a quality content worth every Penney. Thank you so much for creating an amazing course.
By Joshua Campi on 1/1/2026
It was a great experience and added a lot of code to my arsenal. Im new to all of this so I started with a different Udemy course first to get more familiar with navigating Unreal Engine. His pace can be a bit brisk at times so; I definitely recommend multiple monitors so you can pause and catch up. Thank you Cobra for properly kicking off my game DEV journey.
By Arnulfo Torres on 12/16/2025
Very comprehensive course! I really liked the difficulty progression from one game to the next, even as someone who has used unreal before it was really helpful. Explanations are also very clear and easy to follow. If anything, there were just one or two times where I felt that we were conjuring up a blueprint node that we hadn't used before, and that I felt could have benefitted from even a few more seconds of explaining, but usually it was obvious what they did from their name of you could quickly look them up if you wanted to know more, so it was not a big deal. Highly recommended
By Lucas Goncalves on 12/6/2025
I really like Cobra's teaching method. Very methodical and with a well-defined objective. UE5 is huge and incredible. It's quite complicated to know where to start, and this course helped me get that initial technical overview. Cool stuff. Approved! :D
By Andy Bush on 10/25/2025
This is fantastic. One minor suggestion would be to expand a bit more on the reason behind some of these blueprint nodes, similar to how you explained the transparency material. Like, here's what will happen down the line if you DON'T create variables. Still, VERY comprehensive. I assume its a matter of pacing in the lessons.
By A Vilela on 9/25/2025
Amazing thus far! I bought this course a long, long time ago, and finally have the time to work on the courses. The only note is that the course doesn't work with Unreal 5.5 or 5.6. I had to use 5.4.4. I hope to start my game dev journey now! Looking forward to completing the class! (Note: It's worth creating ALOT of comment boxes to group and label node sections/networks. This isolates the purpose of each area, and how they connect to other networks for future reference and file revisiting.)








