The Mess Hall

Oh Oh You Ready For This!!

The Unreal Engine 3 already made a quite spectacular debut on iOS with Epic Games' own Infinity Blade, but the company's decided it's time to finally stop teasing and give us the software to really play with it.



Tomorrow's planned update to the UDK will deliver iOS support, meaning that all the fancy tools that helped make Infinity Blade such a blindingly gorgeous game will be at your fingertips should you be feeling creative. Licensing for the Engine is free for testing and non-commercial use, but you'll have to pay $99 if you want to sell anything you produce with it, to be followed by a 25 percent slice of your earnings beyond $5,000 and, of course, Apple's 30 percent cut of whatever's left.





That might not sound like the best business plan in the world, but consider that Infinity Blade is estimated to have racked up over $1.5 million in sales already -- we're sure there'll be enough change left for ice cream even after Epic and Apple have had their share.

I like the business model for sure. $99 up front is fuck all (the PS3 engine was about $10k last time I looked), and 25% off earnings over $5k favours both parties... The developer doesn't get stung up front, and Epic Games make a mint if any product takes off.

The down side, though, is that your development explodes when you start generating 3D content. For instance, I can make a game right now (as I do) with just PaintShop Pro. For U3 engine you will need probably Max or Maya and the skills to use it. And it's unlikely that one artist will be enough for the entire game. The other problem is the market. I love hardcore games, and was setting out with the intention of making a few epics. But having used my iPhone its really not what you want. You just want the simple little PopCap type games.

And with 2D to 3D it's the same function of effort to content that is plaguing next gen games when coming from old gen. You think Goldeneye on the N64 would have got away with the 6 hour campaign that CoD4 did?

But I would/will definitely grab the UDK and toy with it when I'm out of ideas or bored of making simple little 2D games. As I said, $99 is not a lot for what is undoubtedly awesome and well established tech. But it's all the other implications that go with it. I suspect we will now see a flood of 3D titles in the middle to upper price bracket (£5+). And as usual, there will be a gem or two floating in a sea of shit. And then the honeymoon period will end...