Epic Games has now launched their new “Make Something Unreal” PC game mod contest.
Sponsored this time by Intel, the contest will give aspiring game
creators a way to win cash and prizes for making mods based on Epic’s
Unreal Tournament 3. Over $1 million in cash and prizes will be given
to the winners and just like the first “Make Something Unreal” contest
(for mods made with UT 2003/2004) the new version will have a grand
prize of a full Unreal Engine 3 license for the overall best mod. Last
time the winner was Tripwire Interactive for their Red Orchestra mod;
they later formed a full dev team and released the game as a stand
alone commercial title. Judging will begin in June 2008 in the first
phase of the contest; the final winners will be determined in fall 2009
after all four phases are complete. Here is a snip:
“To all you aspiring game developers out there ? this is your chance to
get in the big leagues. We have categories for all kinds of creatively
talented people including programmers, artists, 3D modelers, designers
and even aspiring film directors,” said Mark Rein, vice president of
Epic Games. “You get to use the same world-class Unreal Engine 3
toolset we used to create Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War. Unreal
Engine 3 is used by many of the industry’s leading game companies, so
this is truly a chance to prove your worth and get your foot in the
door of the game business while having your work potentially exposed to
millions. To get mod-makers started, the collector’s edition of Unreal
Tournament 3 includes over 20 hours of 3D Buzz’s professional-level
video training materials for the Unreal Engine 3 toolset.”