Epic MegaJam Begins

The October event of Epic Games now has larger prizes, more award categories, and partner sponsorship. Take your chance to become one of the best Unreal developers. Let’s have a look at some of the details on the MegaJam. 

THE RULES

Work alone or with a team (up to 5 members) to make the most incredible project based on the theme in Unreal Engine 4, and submit before the deadline.

Detailed Rules

• Contest Rules
• Falcon NW
• Speedtree
• Intel
• Houdini

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

With the higher stakes, the company is altering the project requirements for this time around. Here’s the list of updated requirements:

• The game must not be an obvious extension of one of Epic Games’ official Unreal Engine tutorials.
• The game must include custom gameplay that exceeds that found in Epic Games’ starter templates.
• All art assets in the game must have a material other than the default applied to it.
• Must be packaged for Windows or Mac OS. No full, unpackaged projects. VR projects are accepted.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN ENTRY AND TIMELINE

Submit the following to the SUBMISSION thread before the end of the October 13 livestream and include the following info:

• Link to a download of your game
• Team name
• List of team members
• Name of your submission (Please format it with your team’s name attached ex. TeamName_GameName)
• Please remember to rename your project to [Team Name]_[Project Name] ex. TheEpicTeam_AwesomeGame
• List any content that was created before the jam that was included in the final submission.

Then, PM the following information:

• Team Name
• Project Name
• Each Team Member’s Real Name
• Each Team Member’s Email Address
• Each Team Member’s Mailing Address (Not a P.O. box)
• Each Team Member’s T-Shirt Size

AWARD CATEGORIES AND PRIZES

This year they have three raffles that all submissions will be entered into, three visual awards chosen by Allegorithmic, three special categories with prizes and a Grand Prize raffle, plus prizes, for the finalist teams. The company judges submissions for their aesthetic, unique use of the theme and gameplay on a 1-5 point scale and the top 3 teams will be declared the winners.

INTEL RAFFLE

All participants of the who submit a valid entry will be entered into a drawing to win a brand new NUC Kit. Based on the total count of qualifying submissions, they’ll be raffling off a number of NUCs! Here’s the breakdown.

• 0-75 submissions – 2 x NUCs
• 75-100 submissions – 4 x NUCs
• 150+ submissions – 6 x NUCs

SPEEDTREE RAFFLE

All participants of the who submit a valid entry will be entered into a drawing to win a SpeedTree swag pack. Based on the total count of qualifying submissions, they’ll be raffling off a number of packs that include a $150 Gift card + 1 year SpeedTree subscription + a SpeedTree t-shirt! Here’s the breakdown.

• 0-75 submissions – 1 x pack
• 75-100 submissions – 3 x packs
• 150+ submissions – 6 x packs

SIDEFX RAFFLE

All participants of the who submit a valid entry will be entered into a drawing to win a SideFX prize pack, which includes a Houdini Indie License, Houdini/SideFX swag and a t-shirt.

ALLEGORITHMIC’S PICKS

Just like last year, Allegorithmic will pick the top three most visually appealing entries to win licenses to Substance Live. The first place winner will receive a one year license per team member, second place gets a Substance Live six month license per team member, and for third place a Substance Live three month license will be given to each team member.

SPECIAL CATEGORY PRIZES

Epic Games has introduced “Special Categories” with prizes for teams who create amazing games and also have a certain something extra. Any team can win one of these plus other awards from other categories. These winners are chosen by Epic’s judges and the prizes are all from Epic Games. This year, Special Categories are:

“Coolest Character Design” for the game with the most awesome and unique characters.

“Best Game Under 100mb” for the best game that doesn’t take up too much space.

“Army of One” for the best game made by a team comprised of only one person

Winners of these special category prizes will be rewarded with Unreal Engine stickers/buttons, an Unreal Engine Game Jam t-shirt per team member, a Fortnite Alpha access key per team member, and a Shadow Complex Remastered key for Steam per team member.

FINALIST PRIZES

All entries will be judged for their aesthetic, unique use of the theme and gameplay. The top three entries will be declared finalists and will receive a prize package that includes the following:

An Unreal Engine Game Jam t-shirt per team member, a Fortnite Alpha access key per team member, a Shadow Complex Remastered key for Steam per team member, a one year license for Houdini Indie per team member, a Houdini Indie promotional material package per team member, a SpeedTree t-shirt per team member, a one-year subscription to SpeedTree per team member, and a $500 SpeedTree coupon (one per team).

FALCON NORTHWEST GRAND PRIZE RAFFLE

Every individual from the three finalist teams will also be entered into the Grand Prize Raffle, where only one lucky person will receive the Epic MegaJam’s biggest reward; a Falcon Northwest Oculus-Ready Tiki PC. Here are the specs:

• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 Founders Edition 8GB GDDR5X graphics card
• Liquid-cooled Intel® Core™ i7-6700K processor
• 16GB of 2,400 MHz DDR4 memory
• 1 Terabyte Micron SSD
• 3 Year Parts & Labor + 1 Year Falcon Overnight service

More information and details on the teams can be found here.