By the end of day 4, I have the model for the main character. He has two animations, running and idling. I will next add his lance, and then his shield. Finally, I'll add his wings, which I'm sure will require a couple more bones in order to animate them.

Overall, it took me 3 days of working an hour or two at night -- while learning -- to make a character and have his running animation working. I'm using very simple models and animations, so it's not like I'm doing something really difficult. Rather, my impression is that this style of animation and modeling would have been much easier for me to use for game development all along. In just a few short days, I have a character moving around. Blender is a powerful tool.

I haven't done anything in Unreal Engine itself yet, but I'm sure that once I get over basic hurdles like importing the model and animations into the engine, I'll find that the actual game development is similarly easier than working from scratch.

I'll provide another update when the character's shield, lance, and wings are complete. After that, my goal is to model and animate a few enemies for him to fight. My third short term goal is to design elements for a level, including some blocky level elements and basic decorations. I hope to have an actual playable level completed within a month.