Epic issues first Unreal Dev Grants

Epic Games has announced the first recipients of development funds under its new Unreal Dev Grants scheme.

The initiative launched last month, promising a total of $5m in funds to innovative projects that are being built with Unreal Engine 4. 

Epic stressed that there are no strings attached: devs and artists retain ownership of their IP and are free to publish the final products however they wish. Grants range from $5,000 to $50,000.

Now the firm has announced the first three developers to receive such grant.

First up is Koola, a French artist using UE4 to create architectural visualisations and outdoor scenes. He aims for photorealism with his work, as you can see from the picture above, as shares his techniques with other developers. He has received a grant of $18,000 to help him continue his work.

A further $18,000 has been awarded to audio engineer Jake Kaufman and artist/voice actress Jessie Seely for their VR project Nuren: The New Renaissance. The title is billed as "the world’s first virtual reality rock opera".

Finally, developer Mike Buttsney has received $15,000 towards the development of his comic book-styled driving horror game Dead Static Drive. While he has some friends contributing where they can, the majority of development is being handled by Buttsney along.

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