Before getting into the actual process of setting things up, I would like to shine light on the system requirements for working the the Wild Omission code base. Wild Omission currently runs on a Custom Version of Unreal Engine 5.3.2 at the time of writing. There are newer versions but 5.3.2 works fine and there hasn't been a good reason to upgrade it.

The System Requirements for working with Unreal Engine 5.3 According to the official Epic Games Unreal Engine Documentation[dev.epicgames.com] list as:

• OS: Windows 10 64bit or newer
  
• Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster
  
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
  
• Graphics: DirectX 11 or 12 compatible graphics card with the latest drivers

However these are not representative of working on a large project such as Wild Omission. Personally I would suggest a system that has at minimum:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit or newer
  
• Processor: Six-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster
  
• Memory: 32 GB RAM
  
• Graphics: RTX 2060 Super or better
  
• Storage: 150 GB available space

That was essentially the specs of my computer when I started working on the game. However, my current rig I use for working on the game consists of:

• OS: Windows 11 64-bit
  
• Processor: 24 Core 32 Thread Intel I9 13900k @ 5.8GHz
  
• Memory: 32 GB RAM DDR5 5600
  
• Graphics: RTX 4080 16GB
  
• Storage: 2TB NVMe SSD

At the very least having 32 GB of ram is a must! When compiling the code, between Unreal Engine and Visual Studio you absolutely will use up over 16GB

In order to work on Wild Omission you will need the following software:

Make a github account if you don't already have one. Then download GitHub desktop[desktop.github.com]. once installed, login with your GitHub account

Next download Visual Studio 2022.[visualstudio.microsoft.com] We only need the Community version for our purposes. Once you download and run it, you should see the visual studio installer. Make sure to select "Game Development with C++", and on the side also make sure "Unreal Engine Installer" is selected, as it provides additional tools that are useful for working with unreal engine.

Download and Install the Epic Games Launcher[store.epicgames.com]. This is where we will download the Unreal Engine.

Open the Epic Games Launcher, and go to the unreal engine tab. Click on the plus button to add an Unreal Engine installation.
By default it will select the newest version of the engine. However for our cases Wild Omission uses Unreal Engine 5.3.2, so we will be using this.
To change version, click on the version number to open a drop down menu, where you can select 5.3.2, and click install. This will take 20 minutes to an hour depending on your internet.

Before you do anything, be sure to fork the Wild Omission repository on GitHub[github.com], you will need to download your forked copy of the repository. To do this open GitHub Desktop. Once in GitHub Desktop, click on File from the context menu at the top, and click "Clone Repository..."
Click the "URL" tab and type "YourUsername/WildOmission" into the url text box. Use the local path to choose the folder you want the repository to be put in (Note that the process of cloning will create a Wild Omission folder, so avoid naming the folder you're putting it in "Wild Omission" to avoid confusion.). Then click the Clone Button.
You should see this once it starts cloning, it may take a few minutes.
Once it's done you should see this.

Navigate to the folder you cloned the repo to.
Right click on the "WildOmission.uproject" file and select "Show More Options" (On Windows 11), and then "Generate Visual Studio Project Files"

Once it's done, you should have a new file called "WildOmission.sln" double click to open it in Visual Studio.
Once open Click the green arrow to build, not the box that says "Local Windows Debugger" as we aren't debugging. This will start the build process. It may take anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours depending on your machine.
Once it's done building it will automatically open the Unreal Editior.

You've build your very own copy of Wild Omission on you own computer. You can now click the green play button at the top to start playing.

Looking for inspiration or ideas of things to try to implement? Take a look at our roadmap of planned features here[trello.com].

To turn the project files into a complete executable, click on the "Platforms" button at the top. Then select "Windows" and then "Package Project". It will then ask you where you want to package the project, and build it.
Once it's done you should have a folder containing all the necessary binaries. You can run WildOmission.exe to play it.

If you have any problems with this guide please leave a comment, and I will try my best to help troubleshoot any problems. Leaving a comment will also help me make this guide more comprehensive. So future readers wont have to go through the same troubles.

When contributing to Wild Omission, please ensure that your contributions follow the rules as listed below.

• Write your code following our coding standards:
  
• Follow the Unreal Engine standard asset naming convention[dev.epicgames.com].
  
• Follow the Unreal Engine C++ standard convention[dev.epicgames.com].
  
• Each feature set is kept in it’s own module and asset folder, KEEP THINGS TIDY. (example: don’t put inventory code in the GameSettings module).
  
• Forward declarations should be added at declaration, not at the top of header files.
  
• Update documentation if required.
  
• Run the full test suite to ensure nothing was broken.

We follow conventional commits for our commit messages. Each commit message should be structured as follows:
type(scope): description
[optional body]
[optional footer]

Types include:

• feat: A new feature
  
• fix: A bug fix
  
• docs: Documentation changes
  
• style: Code style changes (formatting, etc)
  
• refactor: Code changes that neither fix bugs nor add features
  
• test: Adding or modifying tests
  
• chore: Changes to build process or auxiliary tools

Ensure Pull Requests are done per feature, if a pull request changes a bunch of stuff all at once, it may not get merged.
Update the documentation with details of any changes to interfaces.
Ensure all tests pass and code meets our quality standards.
Push to your fork and submit a pull request to our main branch.
The PR title should follow the same conventional commit format
Example PR title:
feat(auth): add OAuth2 authentication support

At least one maintainer will review your PR
We may suggest changes or improvements
Once approved, your PR will be merged

Update README.md if adding new features or changing setup requirements