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Epic Games has announced a $ 100 million financing as well as free online services for game developers. The support, according to Epic Games, is to give the players back their immense support for Fortnite.
It's no secret that Fortnite has earned a lot of money since its launch. The game easily beat the profits of other titles like Black Ops 4, Assassin's Creed, Overwatch, etc. thanks to its free game model, coupled with constant support from AAA.
Epic Games announced to GDC 2019 that it wanted to give back to the gaming community and other developers. As part of this goal, Epic Games will provide $ 100 million in developer grants for creative projects.
The initiative calls itself "Epic Megagrants" and will provide grants ranging from US $ 5,000 to US $ 500,000 to "enhance creativity and innovation" in game development and other 3D creations. They announced this in a blog post on the Unreal Engine website.
Epic Games will select projects from individuals and teams based on developer submissions. Whether you're a one-person team or you're looking to form a larger developer group, you can get a grant if you have an idea or a prototype worthy of it.
If you are thinking of creating something worthy of a Megagrant, you can submit the idea with images, prototypes and more on Megagrant's page – Megagrants of epic game.
As if that were not enough already, Epic Games has announced another program to help developers create a quality gaming experience for gamers.
Epic will provide free online services for all game developers. This package is a set of free tools that are part of Epic Online Services.
The SDK for the online service can be downloaded right now from their developer portal. The kit currently supports Windows, Mac, and Linux, but other platforms will be supported later.
Online services in the game include everything that connects players and allows developers to create queues, rankings, voice communications, and more.
The online service was launched on March 20, the first being "game analysis". It tracks items such as the number of players, the number of launches of your game, the number of new players daily, etc.
The second feature is "ticketing". This is the basic system used by Epic for Fortnite and other games to allow players to report bugs, problems or other problems.
Epic has promised to expand these services over the next year. Here is their roadmap for online services (all dates are subject to change):
- Player Data Storage – May 2019
- Player Reports – May 2019
- Achievements, rankings and statistics – September 2019
- Communications – October 2019
- Overlay – October 2019
- Parties – October 2019
- Matchmaking – November 2019
- Identity of the player – December 2019
- Player Inventory – December 2019
You can see the full post on the Unreal website – Launch of Epic's free online services for all game developers
So, why should you care about these incredible new programs and initiatives?
You need to worry about this as it means that more and more games will come out with full online features and financial support.
This means that crazy new ideas that could not find their way without financial support can now become a reality.
Online services are one of the most difficult parts of game development. Setting up your own interfacing network for a game can be very expensive.
With the new free online services from Epic Games, developers can focus on creating the best possible experience for gamers without worrying about creating a massive back-end from scratch.
These ads and Google's stadiums reveal that we are moving quickly towards … new generation games. The term will return quickly in the usual discussions over the coming months, as the Xbox, Playstation and other developers begin to reveal how they will use and compete in the new generation of games.
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