Epic MegaGrants Passes $60 Million in Help, New Recipients Introduced

Epic just announced that its MegaGrants program has exceeded $ 60 million in funding. Recipients represent nearly 1,000 talented teams and individuals worldwide and range from an animated cyberpunk adventure series to a mystery noir game featuring a raccoon detective. Included are the animated YouTube web series Meta Runner, which were created entirely in Unreal Engine by Glitch Productions. and Narrative Dynamics' Monomyth Previs tool, which automates the path from script to screen.

First introduced in 2019, Epic MegaGrants is a $ 100 million program that continues Epic Games' longstanding commitment to the success of all developers and is designed to mentor and support game developers. Business professionals; Media and entertainment artist; Students; Pedagogues; and tool developers who are doing a great job with Unreal Engine or enhancing open source functionality for the 3D graphics community.

INDEPENDENT GAMES

Advocaat – Backbone is a dystopian noir role-playing detective adventure. Step into the rubber shoes of raccoon private investigator Howard Lotor, a second-rate animal-dwelling resident of dystopian Vancouver, BC. Interview a wide variety of characters, gather evidence, and choose which to follow as you uncover puzzles.

METRONOMICS SDN. BHD. – No straight roads; Start a rock band and end the EDM empire in No Straight Roads, an action-adventure rocking adventure created by Wan Hazmer (Final Fantasy XV) and Daim Dziauddin (Street Fighter V). Explore Vinyl City and battle musical megastars on your journey to defeat an oppressive EDM empire in an action-packed adventure that combines rhythmic third-party battles with a soundtrack!

Keelworks LTD – Cygni is a twin stick hybrid scrolling shooter hybrid with a cinematic torch. It's a relentless onslaught of breathtaking images, deafening soundscapes, and mind-boggling action. Outmanned, outgunned and all alone, immerse yourself in a battle full of peril in a fight for survival in this modern take on the shoot & # 39; em up genre.

kaleidoscube GmbH – A Juggler & # 39; s Tale – Guide Abby the string puppet through a hurt but beautiful world in this poetic 3D adventure. Solve puzzles, avoid traps and throw off chasers on your way to freedom. Can Abby take control of her own destiny and make a difference with all the conditions?

Alexander Goodwin – Selfloss is a stylized, story-driven adventure in the world of ancient Russian and Icelandic mythology. Explore the fantastic world from the rough wilderness to the pulsating sea and use the light of your magic wand to help or defeat mythical creatures from classic fairy tales and to heal the deep wounds of an old Volkhv hero.

ACE team – The Eternal Cylinder – Control a herd of adorable creatures called Trebhums and explore an alien world full of exotic life forms, surreal environments and the constant threat of the Cylinder, a gigantic rolling structure of ancient origins that crushes everything in its path. In this unique alien ecosystem, real-time destruction, animal AI, and organic exploration and puzzle design make for an unforgettable adventure.

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

Glitch Productions – Meta Runner Season 2 takes viewers to a cyberpunk future where video games are everything and superstar esports competitors are paramount. Glitch Productions, an animated series about games created on a real-time engine, uses Unreal Engine's suite of tools to capture the essence and feel of video games.

Shazzy Gustafson – Mitzy Makes It – Mitzy Makes It is performed in Unreal Engine and is designed to show young girls that science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) can be fun, colorful and creative.

Narrative Dynamics – Monomyth is a powerful Previs tool that automates the path from script to screen. Write a scene and watch it come to life with automated camera positions, animation, dialogue, props, locations, and more. The software consists of a script editor, a speech processor and a display module, all of which were created with Unreal Engine. Once a scene has been generated, elements can be easily edited and scripts in the application can be optimized for quick iteration.

Lucan Visuals (PTY) LTD – Isaura is the story of a young Mozambican girl who goes on an adventure in the beautifully animated series to reconnect people with nature. Lucan from Cape Town is working with his African studio colleague Leaping Rhino to integrate Unreal Engine into his studio workflow and expand the existing pipeline for future projects.

TOOLS AND OPEN SOURCE

Reallusion – The iClone Unreal Live Link plugin for iClone creates a system for characters, lights, cameras and animations for Unreal Engine. Reallusion now offers Unreal Engine a complete character creation and animation pipeline for indies and studios of all sizes to create digital people.

Sound particles – Sound Particle Integration is a comprehensive audio software application that can be used to create a wide variety of complex sounds in a virtual 3D audio world. The team, widespread in the media and entertainment world, now wants to expand its offering and bring the full power of sound particles into Unreal Engine to open up a new world of sound possibilities for game developers.

COMPANIES

BeBop sensors – Practical immersive full-motion VR trainer – BeBop sensors support people with their intelligent fabric sensor platforms and Forte data gloves in an innovative way when communicating with technology. Using touch, gestures, and haptic feedback, the team aims to change the way we interact with augmented reality and open the door to new and immersive VR training experiences.

Render lounge – Industrial automation: Real-time factory monitoring and intervention – Development of a solution to increase security in the field of industrial automation. The Pakistan-based company has a pilot application for monitoring real-time data from machines in the factory and interactive command modules for manual switching of machines in an emergency.

Proteus VR Inc.. – Proteus VR – ProteusLabs provides a learning platform that uses virtual reality and artificial intelligence to simulate learning activities in school and business education settings. Laboratories in chemistry, physics, science, technology and other learning situations can be simulated in a virtual environment that is almost identical to their real-world counterparts.

EDUCATION

Ryan Laley Games – College tutor and self-published game developer Ryan Laley uses his eight plus years of teaching experience to train anyone interested in Unreal Engine on YouTube. His free weekly tutorials are both informative and easy to understand, and make a fantastic resource for people of all skill levels.

Source: Epic Games