Category: Unreal Dev Grant

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Epic Games Awards the Final Round of Unreal Dev Grants

Launched in 2015 to support developers working with Unreal Engine, Epic Games’ $5 million USD Unreal Dev Grants programme has now drawn to a close, awarding the final $500,000 to over a dozen projects, covering industries including gaming, film, VR/AR, education, and more.

Project M Evie

Recipients this time include Backlight, a French studio working on virtual reality (VR) title Eclipse. Created in collaboration with Virtual Adventure, a VR entertainment centre near Paris, Eclipse is a multiplayer experience with 4D interactive elements.

Also in the VR sphere is Shooty Fruity Arcade from nDreams, a VR arcade version of its popular fruit shooting title for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. Then there’s Project M from EVR Studios, a narrative-driven adventure where you’re encouraged to interact and build friendships with the game’s hyper-realistic non-player characters. Or then there’s SnapClick: Fossil Diggers VR by The Orphanage, a puzzle title where you play as a palaeontologist on the hunt to find proof that dinosaurs once existed. Travel to remote locations, explore environments, find fossils and piece them together.

Other recipients also included:

  • Aeon Must Die! by Limestone Games
  • BioStories by Bio-Bridge Initiative
  • Complete Unreal C++ Dev by GameDev.TV
  • Cryptant by Orcari
  • Eximius: Seize the Frontline by Ammobox Studio
  • Glimpse from Mr. Kite
  • Kingshunt from Vaki Games
  • Meta Runner by Glitch Productions
  • Photorealism in UE4 by Rense de Boer
  • Polter Pals by Split Hare Games
  • The Forgotten City from Modern Storyteller
  • Virtual Helsinki by Zoan
Fossil Diggers VR
“With today’s announcement, we’ve reached our $5 million goal for the Unreal Dev Grants program. As we look back at the list of those we’ve been able to support throughout the years, we can’t help but feel deeply honoured to have played a part in the stories of hundreds of projects,” said Chance Ivey, Partnership Manager at Epic Games in a statement. “We remain inspired by the talent and dedication that the Unreal Engine community continues to exhibit, and look forward to where everyone will take things next. Though Unreal Dev Grants is now behind us, it’s not the end of our ongoing support. Tune in to Epic’s State of Unreal opening session at GDC for more information.”
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Epic Games and Unreal Engine, reporting back with the latest updates.
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Epic Games’ Unreal Dev Grants Awards a Further $800,000

Having launched its $5 million USD Unreal Dev Grant programme back in 2015, Epic Games has helped fund numerous videogame projects, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. The latest round has now been revealed, distributing $800,000 in funding.

Awake - StartVRThere have been quite a number of VR and AR recipients this time around, with the lucky ones being:

  • FILM / CINEMA / VR: Awake: Episode One by Start VR
    • Created by Start VR, Awake: Episode One is an interactive cinematic virtual reality experience for HTC Vive and Vive Pro. Awake: Episode One, which uses the latest volumetric capture techniques to bring real-life human performances into VR, officially premiered at SXSW and has been touring the festival circuit ever since.
  • INDEPENDENT GAME / AR: BOT-NET by Calvin Labs
    • BOT-NET is a game that turns physical space into a first-person battlefield using a mobile device’s AR features. Massive robots fight while the player engages in ground combat with smaller robots.
  • AR / VR: The Hydrous presents: Immerse
    • A pre-release version of Immerse took the stage at the recent Trojan Horse Was a Unicorn gathering in Malta presented by Dr. Erika Woolsey, the CEO of the Hydrous. The Hydrous’ mission is to create open access oceans by bringing conservation education to the masses.
  • INDEPENDENT GAME / VR: Jupiter & Mars by Tigertron
    • Jupiter & Mars is an underwater adventure game for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR. The player controls Jupiter, a dolphin with enhanced echolocation powers, travelling around the world with AI companion Mars to disable the man-made machinery disrupting marine life while solving puzzles and encountering magnificent creatures along the way.
  • INDEPENDENT GAME / VR: Kaisuo by USC Games
    • Kaisuo is a VR puzzle game in which players use fine motor dexterity to solve enigmatic Chinese puzzle boxes and unlock surreal, extraordinary spaces.
  • FINE ARTS / VR: The Kremer Collection Virtual Museum
    • The renowned duo of Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon (4D Art) are creating an immersive museum art piece for virtual reality using UE4.
  • INDEPENDENT GAME / VR: Mini World VR by Scaena Studios
    • Scaena Studios’ Mini World VR is an immersive storytelling experience featuring elaborate hand-animated characters.
  • INDEPENDENT GAME / VR: Planetrism VR by Planetrism Team
    • In Planetrism, players follow the opportunity of a lifetime to lead colonization on an uncharted planet, encountering untold mysteries while building a future for generations to come.
  • ARCHITECTURE / VR: Real Estate in VR by REinVR
    • The real estate technology team at REInVR is focused on using UE4 to build advanced immersive consumer buying experiences using digital humans, AI and VR.
  • TOOL / PLUGIN: Tools and Plugins by VR Professionals
    • Russia-based VR Professionals are on a mission to create more affordable and accessible “out of the box” solutions for VR training and education using UE4.
  • TOOL / PLUGIN:  VR Cataract Simulator by Surgical Mind
    • Surgical Mind, a branch of Korea-based Mania Mind, is developing a cutting-edge VR simulator for cataract surgery to enabling medical residents to better hone their skills before getting near an eye.

Jupiter and Mars“The Unreal Dev Grants program has a simple goal: to help talented developers succeed by letting them focus more on their project and less on their bills,” said Chance Ivey, Partnership Manager at Epic Games in a statement. “We’re continually amazed by the range of applications built with UE4 and the potential of so many of these projects; this round includes standouts such as Sojourn by Tierceron, Crab Rave by Noisestorm, and VR Cataract Simulator by Surgical Mind. Congrats to all of these folks for their vision and persistence!”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of the latest Unreal Dev Grant winners, reporting back with any VR related projects.

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Epic Games Announces No-Strings Funding For Unreal Developers

Unreal Engine is used by thousands of developers around the world to produce products both simple and sophisticated, and remains a very popular choice for developers working in the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) areas. Epic Games have now announced that several developers and creators will receive funding via the latest round of Unreal Dev Grants.

Thirty seven developers and creative teams will receive a total of $1 million (USD) in funding that can be used for games, tools, training, healthcare, hardware or anything else that will aid the company or team in question.

The Unreal Dev Grants programme was originally established in 2015 as a fund for promising developers working with Unreal Engine 4. Awards can range from $5,000 up to $50,000, with no restrictions or conditions attached.

The latest round of Unreal Dev Grants is going to a large range of companies and projects, highlighting the diverse range of applications for the Unreal Engine, from software plugins and VR videogames to healthcare tools and education platforms.

“The Unreal Dev Grants program was designed to give studios and other developers a boost to bring their promising working prototypes to market, and to give back to the wider Unreal developer community as they use the engine in interesting ways,” said Chance Ivey, Partnership Manager at Epic Games.

VR remains a crucial part of the Unreal Engine portfolio, as Ivey points out: “This new round is our biggest yet, and we are blown away by the potential of projects like Kara Education, an AI-driven online educational platform for kids with hearing difficulties; VStore, a VR tool for quick and portable early dementia screenings; and Anima, a robust crowd simulation plugin for Unreal that can be leveraged by any game designer or VFX artist working with Unreal. Congratulations to all of these recipients on their exciting work; we can’t wait to see what’s next!”

Unreal Engine 4 Header 2

Further information on Unreal Dev Grants can be found on the Unreal Engine website. As usual, VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest news on Unreal Engine and Epic Games VR projects.

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Bebylon Battle Royale Part of Epic Games’ Latest Unreal Dev Grants

American developer Kite and Lightning hasn’t yet released it’s long awaited virtual reality (VR) title Bebylon Battle Royale but it is still being awarded funding for the project, this time through Epic Games and its Unreal Dev Grant programme.

Bebylon Battle Royale 1

Every so often Epic Games announces a new raft of dev grants for indie studios that use Unreal Engine for their projects. This new round has seen over $200,000 USD being awarded to a mixture of developers, with Kite & Lightning being the only one making a VR videogame.

Bebylon Battle Royale’s core gameplay revolves around a multiplayer combat arena where you control babies who fight it out for supremacy with customisable vehicles and weapons to play with. There’s more to the experience than just fighting however, with the studio creating an entire virtual world in which to explore. The title also made VRFocus’ The Best HTC Vive Games Coming in 2018 list.

“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 in a statement. “These projects show what is possible when you combine passion with creative technology, and stand as examples of why we do what we do.”

Established in February 2015, Unreal Dev Grants is a $5 million development fund that supported many a VR developer in its time. These have included: Cooperative Innovations’ Raiders of Erda; The Soulkeeper VR by Helm Systems; Ape Law’s psychological horror title Albino Lullaby; Carbon Studio’s Alice VR and Kenzan Studios’ The Fantastic Voyages of Teo and  Leonie to name a few.

While Bebylon Battle Royale may have been the only VR title on the list, an augmented reality (AR) experience also made the grade. Originally revealed back in September 2017, The Machines comes from Chinese studio Directive Games Limited. It’s a MOBA-inspired AR PVP game where players build an army of robots and duke it out with a friend in-person or online.

As new grants are awarded by Epic Games, VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest VR titles making the grade.

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Epic Games’ Latest Unreal Dev Grants Include 7 VR Studios

Epic Games’ Unreal Dev Grants began back in 2016 as a $5 million USD initiative awarding developers with funding for contributions to the Unreal Engine community. In this latest round, 17 projects have received a total of $275,000, seven of which are virtual reality (VR) related.

The projects cover a range of genres – mostly videogames – with film and community support also included. Ape Law’s psychological horror title Albino Lullaby is the first on the list. The first episode arrived for HTC Vive last year, with Oculus Rift support added afterwards. Episode two is scheduled to release later this year.

The Soulkeeper VR

 

Cooperative Innovations’ Raiders of Erda is a VR role-playing game (RPG) experience that was announced earlier this year. The videogame features a complex combat system and an alpha is expected in 2017.

The Soulkeeper VR by Helm Systems is an episodic dark fantasy RPG that’s due to arrive on Steam Early Access. It will offer a variety of combat styles and mechanics, including melee, spell casting, combat with staff and ranged.

From New Reality Co comes Tree, a VR experience shown at VRLA, the Tribeca Film Festival, and Cannes that uses sight, sound, touch and smell to explore the lifecycle of a rainforest tree from a seedling to full-grown state to unfortunate human consumption.

A studio to be directly award is New Zealand-based realityvirtual.co. The company specialises in new media, including drone UAV cinematography and VR, with its most recent project MANA VR currently touring several events.

Lastly there’s MGS Studios, a developer behind the creation of several Robo Recall mods, such as a locomotion mod that changes how the game is played and a Star Wars mod.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of the Unreal Dev Grants, reporting back with the latest VR recipients.

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The Fantastic Voyages of Teo and Leonie and Alice VR Awarded Unreal Dev Grants

Today Epic Games has revealed the latest recipients of its Unreal Dev Grant scheme with two virtual reality (VR) titles included. These are Carbon Studio’s Alice VR and Kenzan Studios’ The Fantastic Voyages of Teo and Leonie.

Alice VR is a sci-fi adventure videogame that takes place in the farthest reaches of space, where a malfunction prompts the ship’s AI to wake players from cryosleep and forces an emergency landing on a foreign planet called Speculo. The colony on this planet mines a vital resource for interstellar travel and so players must head to the nearest city of Mirabilis in search of fuel, only to find that all of the inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared.

Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice VR will launch on 27th, October 2016, with support for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and OSVR.

AliceVR_Screen (3)

While The Fantastic Voyages of Teo and Leonie is a TV series that’s been designed from the ground up to be a transmedia product, combining both traditional animation and real-time rendering with Unreal Engine 4. The series follows two young children from the early 20th century who suddenly find themselves in the middle of the Renaissance. Here they find Leonardo da Vinci who takes them under his wing and tries to get them home. Kenzan Studios plans on releasing the series across smartphones, TV, consoles and VR headsets.

The other titles included in this latest round of grants are: Conarium by Zoetrope Interactive, The Watchmaker by Micropsia Games, Lost Soul Aside from Yang Bing and The Dice is Cast by Studio NextStage.

The six recipients have been awarded a total of $160,000 USD from Epic Games’ $5 million initiative. VRFocus will continue its coverage of the Unreal Dev Grants, reporting back with any further VR winners.