Creating an installer for an exported game

Unreal Engine 4 offers a way to export your game to various platforms such as PC, PS4, Xbox etc… The PC export however, can be played in PCs that already have the engine installed. Having said that, chances are that your friends won’t have UE4 already installed in their PCs so in order to distribute your game to them you need to make an installer that includes all the required libraries for your game.

In this post, we’re going to use Innosetup in order to create an installer for our packaged UE4 game. Before you continue reading the tutorial, make sure to package your game using the editor.

Packaging an exported game

Once you package your game and have Innosetup installed, open up the Inno Setup Compiler and select the “new script file using the Script Wizard” option displayed in the screenshot below:

Then, fill in the Application Information and Application Folder forms to match your needs and in the Application files section, point the main executable file to match the exported .exe of your game (located inside the WindowsNoEditor folder):

Moreover, include the whole WindowsNoEditor folder to the Other Application Files (in case Innosetup asks you if you want to include any sub-folders, click yes):

By doing that, our installer will also install the prerequisites that UE4 includes in the Redist folder.

After configuring the Application Shortcuts to match your needs you have the option to include specific information or licence files which will be displayed when the end-user (meaning the future player) executes your installer. You can omit these files if you so desire. In the compiler settings type in the name of your exported .exe (this will be used to start the game) and point the installer to the folder you wish your installer to be created:

You do need to provide any password or custom icon file.

In the Setup Preprocessor tell your script to use the #define compiler directives and then click the finish option.

Innosetup will generate a script based on the previous information we assigned through the wizard and will ask you if you want to compile the new script:

Once you click Yes and save your script, innosetup will start creating your installer:

Once your installer is completed, a compressed installer named MyAwesomeGame will appear in your desired folder. Use this installer to distribute your game to your friends!