The 2018 Epic MegaJam, our biggest #ue4jam of the year, is coming right up! This is a fantastic opportunity for you to have some fun while honing your Unreal Engine development chops - and you could win some fantastic prizes from our sponsors.
THE RULES
Work alone or with a team (up to 5 members total) to make the most incredible project in Unreal Engine 4 based on the given theme and submit before the deadline.
Epic MegaJam Official Rules
Intel Grand Prize Sweepstakes
Falcon Northwest Grand Prize Sweepstakes
Intel SSD Sweepstakes
DXRacer Sweepstakes
GameTextures Sweepstakes
GETTING STARTED
Here are some resources that will help you get prepared for the #ue4jam.
Looking for a team? Want to start your own? Head over to our Crowdforge.io page for some team building.
SideFX is offering a FREE 2-month Houdini license to all Epic MegaJam participants. These won’t be available once the jam gets started, so be sure to sign up for your license today!
Assembla will give all participants of the #ue4jam access to their platform for game development teams to build iterations of their game using their Perforce and SVN repositories. As a cloud version control provider with PM tools built in, Assembla is an effective asset to any gaming developer, and we are excited to watch Assembla’s continuing emergence within the game development community. To get access to the Perforce server, send us an email that you will need access and your team's email addresses. Please also check out tutorials on using Assembla and Perforce beforehand.
GameTextures.com is giving away 30 Free Material Functions, plus offering a 10% off new subscriptions! Find the files and more information on the discount here.
Need access to a sound library? Soundly has you covered! You'll get full access to Soundly and its massive sound effect libraryduring the jam. Enter promo code pUE4JAM after installing to get started.
Get FREE access to Quixel's Megascans library! Sign up for the Freelance 4K subscription by following the link here. Registration is open through November 15th. Take a look at this "Welcome to Megascans" to help you get started.
Chat with other jammers over at the Unreal Engine Epic MegaJam forum thread.
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS
Here's the list of submission requirements to win a prize:
- The game must include custom gameplay that exceeds the gameplay found in Epic Games’ starter templates.
- All art assets in the game must have a material other than the default applied to it.
- Submissions must be packaged for Android, iOS (development packaged builds), Windows or Mac OS. No full, unpackaged projects. VR and AR projects are accepted. Android games can be distributed via the Play store as well.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN ENTRY AND TIMELINE
In Unreal Engine game jam tradition, we'll be kicking this one off and announcing the theme at the end of the livestream on Thursday, November 8th at 2PM EST and giving participants the weekend to create and submit an awesome game built in the engine. The jam ends on Thursday, November 15th at 2PM EST.
You will need the following information:
- Team Name
- Each Team Member's Name and Email Address
- Game Name
- Name of your submission
- Please format your the name of your .zip file with your team's name attached, ex. TeamName_GameName
- List any content that was created before the jam that was included in the final submission.
- This does affect the score, as we judge on what is made during the jam's timeframe. Submitting an entry with pre-made content that is not disclosed may lead to disqualification.
- A link to gameplay footage to be included in our highlight reel on the Epic MegaJam results livestream, if you so desire.
- Please keep your video between 30-60 seconds.
>> You need to submit your game to the Epic MegaJam jam page in addition to uploading it to your Itch.io account page.<<
NOTE: In order to submit your game to Itch.io, your .zip file must be UNDER 1GB. This won't affect most projects, but please be mindful of the size of your game once compressed. If your file is more than 1GB, you may utilize the Butler tool to upload your files to Itch.io. More info on that here.
AWARD CATEGORIES AND PRIZES
The Epic MegaJam will feature a Grand Prize raffle, plus additional prizes for the finalist teams and special category winners. We judge submissions for their visual aesthetic, unique use of the theme, and gameplay on a 1-5 point scale. The top 3 teams will be declared our finalists.
All jam participants will be entered into a raffle to receive one of 10 one-month subscriptions to GameTextures.com.
DXRACER RAFFLE
All jam participants will be entered into a raffle to receive one of three Unreal Engine-branded RV001 gaming chairs from DXRacer.
LOGITECHG LIGHTSYNC CHALLENGE
Bring your game to life beyond its platform with Intel's LIGHTSYNC RGB technology! Each member of the team that best enhances the experience of their game using Intel's LIGHTSYNC technology will receive a set of G560 LIGHTSYNC PC Gaming Speakers.
NOTE: You don't need a LIGHTSYNC capable device to participate. Simply use their emulator to preview your effects!
For help, check out this tutorial on How to Setup the Logitech SDK to work with Unreal Engine 4 Blueprints by Rhys!
FINALIST PRIZES
All entries will be judged for their aesthetic, unique use of the theme, and gameplay. The top three entries will be declared our finalists. They will receive an Unreal Engine swag pack and additional prizes, yet to be announced.
All Finalists will receive:
- a 1-year Houdini Indie license from SideFx
- a 6-month subscription to GameTextures.com
- a G502 HERO Gaming Mouse and a G512 Mechanical Keyboard from LogitechG
- a 1-year subscription to Soundly Pro from Soundly
- a 6-month 8K Freelancer subscription to Quixel Megascans (which includes access to Quixel Mixer and Quixel Bridge), and a perpetual Quixel Suite 2 license from Quixel
- The Realtime Database and Extended Facebook plugins from gameDNA
- Any two packs from Dokyo
- an Unreal Engine swag pack per team member, including an Epic MegaJam t-shirt.
- a "Game Jam Finalist" forum badge
- a featured playthrough on the December 6th Unreal Engine livestream
- a highlight on the Unreal Engine blog
INTEL PRIZE RAFFLES
Many thanks to Intel for sponsoring the Epic MegaJam and supplying our community with rad prizes! We encourage you all to check out their Game Dev Program at https://software.intel.com/gamedev and sign up. They'd love to provide your team with resources to help you succeed -> Get ready. Get noticed. Get big.
Intel SSD RAFFLE
Each individual from the three finalist teams and the special categories winners will be entered into the Intel Software SSD Prize Raffle, where we’ll be giving away 280GB Intel® Optane™ SSD 900Ps.
GRAND PRIZE RAFFLE
Each individual from the three finalist teams will be entered into the Intel Software Grand Prize Raffle, where one lucky winner will be receiving a ASUS ROG Strix Gaming Laptop.
- Intel Core i7-8750H Processor
- NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 8GB
- 16 GB DDR4 2666MHz Memory
- 1TB Hard Drive
- Windows 10 Home
FALCON NORTHWEST GRAND PRIZE RAFFLE
Every individual* from the three finalist teams will also be entered into the Falcon Northwest Grand Prize Raffle, where only one lucky person will receive the Epic MegaJam’s biggest reward; a Falcon Northwest FragBox. (*except the recipient of the Intel Software Grand Prize)
- Falcon Northwest FragBox Small Form Factor PC
- Custom Unreal Engine paint them
- Intel 9th Gen i7-9700K 8 Core processor
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card
- 32GB DDR4 memory
- ASUS Z390 motherboard
- 2TB Samsung 970 EVO SSD
SPECIAL CATEGORY PRIZES
Our "Special Categories" are for teams who create amazing games, but have something just a little different.
- On the Go - Best mobile game on Android or iOS!
- Something Something Reality - Best AR or VR game.
- Army of One - Best game created by a solo developer.
Winners of these special category prizes will be rewarded with:
- a 1-year Houdini Indie license from SideFX
- a 6-month 8K Freelancer subscription to Quixel Megascans (which includes access to Quixel Mixer and Quixel Bridge), and a perpetual Quixel Suite 2 license from Quixel
- The Realtime Database plugin from gameDNA
- Any one pack from Dokyo
- a featured playthrough on the December 6th Unreal Engine livestream
- an Unreal Engine swag pack per team member, including an Epic MegaJam t-shirt
The wonderful Ben Mears of SideFX will be joining our panel of judges for the 2018 Epic MegaJam!
Happy developing, and good luck!
Streaming your work on Twitch? Let us know so we can follow along!
Are you on Twitter or Instagram? Show off your work using the #ue4jam hashtag!
Helpful Links for Jamming
Official Sites
Getting Started Docs
Reduce Your Package Size
Top Tips for Game Jams
Wiki Tutorials
Wiki Code Tutorials/Snippets
Training Videos
Tutorials and Guides
Blueprint Getting Started Thread
C++ Getting Started Thread
YouTube
Unreal Engine's Official YouTube Channel
Peter L Newton's YouTube Channel
TeslaDev's YouTube Channel
Mathew Wadstein's YouTube Channel
Luos' YouTube Channel
Tutorials and Guides
Tutorials by Tom Looman
Blueprint Guides by Romero
OUR SPONSORS
INTEL
FALCON NORTHWEST
LOGITECHG
SIDEFX
QUIXEL
ASSEMBLA
CROWDFORGE.IO
GAMETEXTURES.COM
SOUNDLY
DOKYO
GAMEDNA
DXRACER