Nameless Voice on 20/3/2014 at 23:39
Epic games are releasing the Unreal Engine 4 as a "subscription model", where anyone can pay $19/month for a subscription and get full source code access to the full Unreal engine:
(
https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/welcome-to-unreal-engine-4)
Sounds very interesting for would-be indie developers.
It seems that you only need the subscription to get the latest source code, and updates - you can unsubscribe and keep using the version you have to finish a game. There's also a 5%-of-gross royalty for anything you sell with it.
This will most likely be completely replacing UDK, and will be doing away with UnrealScript in favour of everything being written in C++.
demagogue on 21/3/2014 at 05:31
That sounds like a pretty tempting deal for them.
I think we should see a lot of indie devs taking it up.
These days have been such a boon for indie games, with all the free or cheap tools they have to work with, and the tutorials and forums. A big issue (for players) is just being able to play all of them.
Fafhrd on 21/3/2014 at 05:37
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
This will most likely be completely replacing UDK, and will be doing away with UnrealScript in favour of everything being written in C++.
No 'most likely' about it. UDK is gone. I think both UnrealScript and Kismet are being replaced with Blueprint, but if you really want to you'll be able to write stuff in C++ directly.
gunsmoke on 21/3/2014 at 17:06
That is freaking cheap! An amazing idea, I hope this (and Crytek's model) spur on some interesting stuff from the scene.
EvaUnit02 on 22/3/2014 at 09:14
I love how Crytek have undercut them by almost half and are asking for ZERO royalties (vs. Epic's 5%). CryEngine is now fully PC multi-platform, Kingdom Come: Deliverance will support OS X/Lunix, Star Citizen will probably fall in line too.
Fafhrd on 22/3/2014 at 17:47
Crytek doesn't seem to be giving source code access, though.
Renault on 22/3/2014 at 23:24
I know nothing about game design, but 5% doesn't sound like much to me, especially for something as core to a game as the engine is.
Livo on 23/3/2014 at 05:23
From the Ground Branch forums, which is now using the UE4 engine:
(
http://www.blackfootstudios.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6741&st=0)
Quote:
Under this agreement we no longer have the ability to ship the editor with our game. You will need to sign up for your own $19 license and get the editor yourself. Once you have that you can load GB in it and mod away. The way UE4 works is the engine/editor is it's own thing and games are separate 'projects' that are self contained and loaded. So you have one engine/editor but any number of projects.
The requirement to pay for the editor is kind of a bum deal in a way, but its not that bad. Simply sign up and pay, get the download then at the end of the month cancel. You are still allowed to use the editor all you want, you just don't get updates until you start up your subscription again. So really its $19 to mod GB. Then you can always re-up every few months to get the latest version if you want.One positive side effect of this is now that
you are under Epic's agreement directly, and if we chose to allow it, you could actually make money off your mods. You have your own royalty agreement with Epic so it removes BFS from that equations. We just need to decide if we want to allow it with our IP is all...Its the case for any game made using the new Epic Licensing. You can still negotiate other licensing deals with Epic to get something more customized and we may still do that down the road. But for now that is the way it is...
Is this an issue with only Ground Branch or all UE4 games? As I read it it is for all UE4 games. So no more free UDK or free modding. Looks like Crytek still offers the free SDK as well as the licensing option which is wonderful.Its the case for any game made using the new Epic Licensing. You can still negotiate other licensing deals with Epic to get something more customized and we may still do that down the road.
But for now that is the way it is.So you have to pay $19 order to make mods for UE4 games now, unless your game company can come to an arrangement with Epic to ship with the editor, but that's not confirmed right now.
Renzatic on 23/3/2014 at 07:10
That's not really all that big of a deal. You get hundreds of hours of modding potential for the price of a bog standard pizza night.
The real interesting thing are the connotations that the editor will work with any UE4 based game regardless of the amount of changes made to the source code.
