North Carolina-based studio, Epic Games are renowned for their series of games Unreal Tournament, Gears of War and Infinity Blade.

Epic Games are the creators of the innovative game engine Unreal Engine 4, designed for game developers of all abilities. The engine gives developers everything they need to create their games, from 2D mobile games to console blockbusters and VR. Their Unreal Editor provides a full suite of project tools, including advanced features like:

• Physically-based rendering
• UI
• Level building
• Animation
• Visual effects
• Networking.

Unreal Engine 4 developers, also have full access to a complete C++ engine and editor source code, giving them the ability to modify their game. This free technology allows developers all over the world, whether they’re students, indies or part of a large team, to create breath-taking projects that they’re truly proud of. With Unreal Engine, developers can create fully immersive VR experiences, from simple scenes to complex cinematic environments. The possibilities for game creation are endless.

“We’re happy to lend our time and experience to ensure that students and aspiring game developers are given the support and guidance they need to grow, and to help push the games industry forward.”

Developed in 1998 and based on the same technology that powers Unreal Engine, Unreal
Tournament is a first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The game features a series of arena matches played with bots or other players, with the chance of earning in-game rewards.

In 2014, Epic Games announced the development of their newest Unreal Tournament game, which is entirely free and a crowd-sourcing development from the community. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux, Unreal Tournament functions as a marketplace for users to give away, buy and sell mods and content. The game is truly unique in that it’s a project being built by the community; allowing players to customise the bots in terms of names, appearance, accuracy and weapon preferences. Many fans of the series love taking advantage of the chance to modify and personalise the game. So not only does Unreal Tournament give you an immersive gaming experience, it also allows you to get creative with the assets!

They told us, “Many developers started out with nothing more than raw talent and passion, and with time and the support of the experienced development community have grown to become industry leaders. Epic Games has always prospered as a result of nurturing this talent, whether it be externally with the Unreal Dev Grants program, or internally with the recruitment of budding developers from all over the world. We’re happy to lend our time and experience to ensure that students and aspiring game developers are given the support and guidance they need to grow, and to help push the games industry forward.”

Epic Games play an integral part to our Search For A Star art competition. For the second round of the competition, all entrants are required to create game art assets for Unreal Tournament using Unreal Engine and the Unreal Tournament Editor. These assets can be character, environment or animation-based, and these are assessed by our judging panel of industry experts.

Epic Games are a fantastic addition to our art competition, through their provision of cutting-edge technology, that helps our student developers produce visually stunning artwork!