Moving you to the Beginner's forum.

5 hours ago, Flatche said:

Hello, everyone!

Wanted to ask y'all a very brief question: 

I'm someone who likes to learn new programs by himself (as I presume most here are). Since I've already got the hang on graphic design and 3D modelling, I wanted to give game design a swing for a small, goofy hobby project. The idea is that I want to use some of the available design tools (like Unreal or Unity) to make a silly party / shooter game for me and my friends that we can have a laugh at during some game nights. But, before I started delving deeper into the whole ordeal, I wanted to ask a question - how possible is it to make multiplayer components in a non-commercial game using tools like UE4? LAN is not an option since our group of friends is really scattered around the place and don't have laptops

I know it would be a really big undertaking, but I wanted to be sure if it's even possible to do an online game just for the bunch of us. 

Thank you in advance - Cheers!

Both Unreal and Unity offer this.

Unity:

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/multiplayer-networking

https://docs.unity3d.com/2018.2/Documentation/Manual/UNet.html

Keep in mind that UNet is making its way out the door: https://support.unity3d.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001252086-UNet-Deprecation-FAQ?_ga=2.83213078.1016705689.1540586621-1375363947.1515645459

Unreal:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Gameplay/Networking

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/getting-started-with-unreal-multiplayer-in-cpp

How long it will take to implement this in your party game depends on your ability to learn the engine, the equivalent language, and concepts.

Best of luck.

7 hours ago, Flatche said:

a silly party / shooter game for me and my friends that we can have a laugh at during some game nights. But, ...  LAN is not an option since our group of friends is really scattered around the place and don't have laptops

Can you explain more about what your friends will play your game on? Are they going to play on desktops since they don't have laptops? Or iPhones, Androids...?

7 hours ago, Flatche said:

I wanted to give game design a swing for a small, goofy hobby project. The idea is that I want to use some of the available design tools (like Unreal or Unity)

The term for that isn't "game design." That's game development.