Every year, Epic holds a keynote at the Game Developers Conference to showcase the latest advancements for its Unreal Engine game-making tool, as well as its business as a whole. Last year, that included updates to its hyperrealistic MetaHumans, the launch of the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and a revamped creator economy within Fortnite. This year, the company has a lot going on — from the mobile version of the Epic Game Store to the resurgence of Fortnite — so expect a busy hour or so of news. At the very least, we should get some pretty tech demos for UE5.
Mar 20
Fortnite players can now build their own Lego games
The worlds of Lego and Fortnite are continuing to intertwine. At its State of Unreal keynote at GDC, Epic announced that, starting today, creators will now be able to use Lego templates and other Lego-branded elements to craft their own games inside of Fortnite. The Lego tools will be available in both Fortnite Creative and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).
Read Article >Like all other user-made games in Fortnite, Lego games are eligible for payouts through the game’s creative economy, though it sounds like there are more restrictions compared to typical Fortnite Creative islands. In particular, Lego says that “all published Lego Islands must have an ESRB rating of E10+ to be accessible to players in the United States, and a PEGI rating of 7 to be accessible to players in most of Europe.”
Mar 20
Epic is adding its hyperrealistic MetaHumans to Unreal Editor for Fortnite
At GDC last year, Epic launched a robust new creative tool called the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). And this year, the company announced some major new features that are on the way for it. To start, the company’s MetaHumans — hyperrealistic human characters that can be animated using only an iPhone — will be available in UEFN beginning today. Epic says that users can import any characters made using the MetaHuman Creator tool and the MetaHuman Animator into UEFN, where they can then be used as NPCs in player-made games.
Read Article >While MetaHumans are the highlight, a couple of other notable features are coming as well. Epic says that UEFN will be getting more camera options later this year, including a much-requested first-person perspective. Additionally, UEFN will be getting “physics sandbox gameplay,” which includes “the option to use physically-simulated characters in UEFN and Creative and simulate any static mesh.”
Mar 20
Here’s what Epic’s mobile app store might look like.Epic reiterated its plans to launch the Epic Games Store on both iOS and Android this year. And as part of that, the company released a concept image that looks a lot like, well, the Epic Games Store. Only mobile.
Mar 20
Captain America and Black Panther face off in the first trailer for 1943: Rise of Hydra
Epic’s State of Unreal keynote opened with a surprise: a first look at 1943: Rise of Hydra, the new Marvel game from writer and director Amy Hennig, best known for her work on the Uncharted franchise. It features an “ensemble” of playable characters including Captain America and Black Panther and is described as a “narrative-driven action-adventure game.”
Read Article >Here’s how Marvel describes the setup:
Mar 20
Epic Games’ State of Unreal event kicks off at 12:30PM ET.The keynote is taking place at the 2024 Games Developer Conference, and you can tune in from YouTube, Twitch, or the livestream embedded below.
Epic Games is expected to reveal the latest updates to its Unreal Engine, the 3D game development tool that powers games like Fortnite and Mortal Kombat 1. But if the event is anything like last year’s, Epic might toss in a few surprises, too.
Feb 15
GDC is going to be Epic.The Game Developers Conference kicks off next month, and once again Epic will be holding its State of Unreal keynote. Last year the company showed off more of its metahumans, the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and more; afterwards I had a nice, long chat with Tim Sweeney about the metaverse. You’ll be able to watch the keynote on March 20th on both Twitch and YouTube.