Chosen Developers Around the Globe Building Independent Games, Tools
and an Animated Feature Film In Unreal Engine 4
CARY, N.C.–Epic Games today announced the recipients of the latest round of Unreal Dev Grants totaling over $200,000 in no-strings-attached funds for
talented creators. Established in February 2015, Unreal Dev Grants is a
$5 million development fund to provide financial support for teams and
individuals doing impressive work in and around Unreal Engine 4, awarded
without any restrictions or obligations to Epic Games.
To date, the program has helped showcase the breadth and diversity of
projects powered by Unreal, with this most recent set of 13 recipients
hailing from across North America, Europe, China, Korea, Australia and
Pakistan. Unreal Dev Grant alumni include Astroneer, which developer
System Era recently launched in Alpha; Beethoven and Dinosaur’s highly
anticipated The Artful Escape, which Annapurna Interactive signed in
2017; and Polyarc’s award-winning Moss, coming next month to PlayStation
VR, among many other recipients.
“Receiving an Unreal Dev Grant is a huge achievement since we are using
Unreal Engine in the full production of a film,” said Usman Iqbal, Head
of Production, 3rd World Studios. “Our film wouldn’t be possible without
Unreal’s fast, built-in tools like Sequencer, the immensely powerful
Material Editor, particle editing, post-process effects, and so forth.
We can make constant improvements to heavily populated sets that have
dynamic foliage, furry animals and lots of particles. This would not be
possible if we were using a regular rendering pipeline. Thanks to Epic
for enabling an indie studio like ours to Dream Big.”
“Unreal Dev Grants is our way to reward and highlight the incredible
talent that makes up the Unreal development community,” said Chance
Ivey, Partnership Manager, Epic Games. “These projects show what is
possible when you combine passion with creative technology, and stand as
examples of why we do what we do.”
The latest round of grant recipients includes:
Allahyar and The Legend of Markhr by 3rd World Studios (Pakistan)
3rd World Studios is producing a beautifully animated feature-length film in
Unreal Engine, coming
to theaters next month. The team is employing real-time animation
methodologies in UE4 for the movie, drawing on their experience in
creating animation for AAA game titles. In this film Allahyar, a young
Pakistani boy from the North, sets off on an adventure where he
discovers a world he never knew existed. Allahyar is one of the most highly
awaited animated movies in Pakistan right now.
Bebylon Battle Royale by Kite and Lightning (United States)
Currently in beta, Bebylon Battle Royale is a multiplayer VR game with comedic
arena combat at its core. In this game, battling babies duke it out to
humiliate their foes with customizable vehicles, weapons and plenty of
smack talk.
BlueprintUE.com
by Sebastien Rancoud (France)
BlueprintUE.com is a tool that
enables developers to copy and paste their Unreal Engine 4 Blueprints as
text to the web and see the logic visually. The useful tool eases the
process of sharing Blueprint snippets online and is popular among UE4
developers.
Claybook
by Second Order Ltd. (Finland)
Step into the shoes of brave kids
who bring the Claybook
to life, and enter into each chapter filled with new obstacles and
puzzles. Everything in this unique world is made entirely of clay and
can be shaped and molded, deformed, destroyed or frozen solid.
Genesis
Noir by Feral Cat Den (United States)
Genesis Noir is an
artsy, indie title set before, during and after The Big Bang. In this
love triangle gone askew, the goal is to save the love of your life by
stopping the expansion of the universe.
Halflight
by Students of the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology
(Taiwan)
Halflight is a 3D adventure game where players follow in
the steps of the young boy Xi-sheng as he strays into an extraordinary
phantom world. Made by four students of National Yunlin University of
Science and Technology as a graduation project, Halflight took 1st Place
in the Taiwan College Student Unreal Competition hosted by Epic Games.
Hyper Jam by Bit Dragon (Australia)
Hyper Jam is a high-quality, fast-paced multiplayer indie game coming soon
to Steam. The game takes place in a neon-soaked arena full of lethal
weapons, stackable powerups and furious round-based combat.
Rogue Universe by MUST Games (Korea)
Developed by a team of industry veterans, Rogue
Universe is a mobile strategy game with high-quality visuals and a cast
of comic book-style characters that encounter a host of missions to
complete while earning rewards.
Shift Quantum by Fishing Cactus (Belgium)
Shift Quantum is the official successor to the popular puzzle-platformer game, Shift,
originally created by Antony Lavelle and published by Armor Games. Shift
Quantum will be coming to PC, Mac and consoles in early 2018.
Sinner by Dark Star Game Studios (Hong Kong)
Based in Hong Kong, the ex-Ubisoft, Blizzard and Konami developers of Dark Star have joined forces to create their debut title, Sinner:
Sacrifice of Redemption, a boss battling action role-playing game
that echoes the likes of Dark Souls, Shadow of the Colossus and Dante’s
The Divine Comedy. Sinner is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One in April
2018.
Skye from Puny Astronaut (Scotland)
Coming to Xbox One and PS4 this
year, Skye is an exploration game set in a fantastical world that allows
players to wander around as a friendly, flying dragon. Dash through
dandelions or dive for pearls in a coral reef while helping the ship
captain find his golden treasure.
The Machines from Directive Games Limited (China)
The Machines from China-based Directive Games debuted
onstage during the Apple Special Event as a flagship title for the
launch of augmented reality on iOS. The Machines is a MOBA-inspired AR
PVP game where players build an army of robots and duke it out with a
friend in-person or online.
About Unreal Engine
Developed by Epic Games, Unreal Engine is a high-performance software
development suite that brings real-time, high-fidelity fully interactive
experiences to PC, console, mobile, virtual reality (VR) and augmented
reality (AR) platforms. Used by many of the world’s leading
entertainment software developers and publishers, Unreal Engine is also
an integral part of many enterprise sectors. The Unreal Engine team
supports and nurtures vertical markets such as automotive, architecture,
film, science, aerospace, marketing and education that make use of
real-time technology within their processes. Unreal Engine is freely
available at unrealengine.com.
Follow @UnrealEngine for updates.
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