BUILD | GAME ENGINES // UNREAL ENGINE EPIC DIARIES
Mark Rein looks at why more independent developers are turning to UDK
The team behind Hawken (main image) moved comfortably from UDK to UE3. Inset: An example of a breakdown of a UDK project royalty structure
THERE’S NEVER BEEN a better time to check out the Unreal Development Kit, the free edition of Unreal Engine 3. It’s always been free to use until you’re
ready to deploy a commercial product, and even after the one-time $99 studio fee, Epic doesn’t take a royalty until you pocket $50,000. We also regularly update UDK, and never charge for upgrades. Here is one example of how the
commercial UDK back-end royalty structure works. Say you sell 15,000 copies of a $4.99 app, and your digital distribution platform
upcoming epic attended events:
GDC Europe Cologne, Germany August 13th - 15th, 2012
Gamescom Cologne, Germany August 15th to 19th 2012
GDC Online Austin, TX October 9th to 11th, 2012
Montreal International Game Summit Montreal, Canada November 1st to 2nd, 2012
Please email:
licensing@epicgames.comfor appointments.
To discuss licensing opportunities for the Unreal Engine, please email:
licensing@epicgames.com.
FOR RECRUITMENT OPPORTUNITIES PLEASE VISIT:
www.epicgames.com/careers
80 | AUGUST 2012
takes 30 per cent of total retail sales to $74,580, leaving you with $52,395. Epic takes 25 per cent of the net amount over $50,000, or $598.75. That means you keep $51,796.25 or 69 per cent of the total retail sales. Epic’s total cut at this point is $697.75 or one per cent of gross revenue. In a second example (see chart), sales double and 30,000 copies at $4.99 generates $149,700. You have $104,790 after digital distribution fees. At this point, 61 per cent of retail sales or $90,933.50 stays with you, the developer, and the total UDK investment comes to $13,796.50 or nine per cent of net revenue.
THE COMPLETE PACKAGE UDK provides access to the full UE3 feature set, including the Unreal Editor and its robust suite of tools, such as the Unreal Kismet visual scripting system, Unreal Matinee cinematic toolset, Unreal Cascade particle effects, Unreal Landscape terrain editor and Unreal Lightmass global illumination. Also included is UE3’s navigation mesh AI
system, the Unreal skeletal animation system and other tools that would normally cost money to license or require significant internal resources to build. UDK also ships with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of industry- leading middleware technologies, including the full Autodesk Scaleform GFX user interface software package, NVIDIA PhysX and APEX support, SpeedTree foliage editing, FaceFX facial animation, Bink Video, RealD
stereo 3D features and more. All of this is available in the base licensing fee. Epic absorbs technology integration costs to ensure developers only gain from our work with great partners. UDK scales from lightweight mobile experiences to high-end PC gaming. After Epic demonstrated its next-gen Samaritan demo last year, UDK began shipping with DirectX 11 support, so anyone can use UE3 for high-end rendering, tessellation and beautiful post-processing effects.
TREND SETTERS Every day, developers release UDK projects without needing full source UE3 access. Some studios, such as Hawken developer Adhesive Games and Dungeon Defenders creator Trendy Entertainment, start out using UDK and then transition to a UE3 deal. “By using UDK we were able to not only
quickly create a prototype for Hawken, but also implement the majority of our gameplay and other game features,” said Jon Kreuzer, technical director at Adhesive Games. “When the time was right we were able to easily transition to the full Unreal Engine license. Epic has been very helpful to us in our quest to achieve our creative vision for Hawken.” If your needs require full source code
access, then you can contact us at
licensing@epicgames.com. We’ll help you get started and find the business terms that are right for your team.
www.udk.com
Canadian-born Mark Rein is co-founder and vice president of Epic Games, based in Cary, NC. Unreal Engine 3 has won eight Game Developer magazine Front Line Awards, including entry into the Hall of Fame. Unreal Engine 3 has also received four consecutive Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Epic is the developer of the bestselling Unreal, Gears of War and Infinity Blade series of games. Follow @MarkRein and @UnrealEngine on Twitter.
DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100