Looking back on 2023
2023 Epic MegaJam winners and a new blockchain policy on the Epic Games store. Plus: reflecting on the past year in Unreal development.
Nick Pfisterer •
Welcome to our final newsletter of 2023. I hope you are enjoying the holiday season — spending time with loved ones, catching up on your backlog of games, and relaxing with a nice hot drink (or a cold one if you're in the Southern hemisphere).
It's hard to believe the year is already coming to an end, but we're just getting started here at Unreal Source. I'm excited to bring you new articles, new features, and more in 2024.
For now, sit back and enjoy our last newsletter before the new year.
📰 In this month's issue:
- 2023 Epic MegaJam winners
- Reflecting on the past year in Unreal development
- A UE5 horror game suprasses 100K sales in 2 weeks
Recently in Unreal news
- The 2023 Epic MegaJam winners have been announced. The announcement came during an Inside Unreal livestream on November 30 – VOD available here. Since the list has still not been published elsewhere following the stream, and Epic is on holiday break until January 7, 2024, I put together my own list. If someone knows the island code for Rail Riders, please let me know!
- Epic releases Unreal Stage iOS app + companion tutorial. For those of you working with Unreal in virtual production environments, the Unreal Stage app mirrors the dedicated ICVFX editor introduced in 5.1, with a touch-optimized UI. Download the app here. Epic also introduced an online course on the Epic Developer Community to help you get started with the app.
- Epic Games Store updates content policy for blockchain games. The Epic Games Store will now allow games rated AO if the rating was applied solely due to the usage of blockchain or NFT technology. These games are still required to comply with the Blockchain Technology Guidelines and other content prohibition policies.
- Unreal Challenge: Furious Elegance winners announced. The Unreal Engine/UEFN animation challenge ran from June 8, 2023 through July 6, 2023. See all the winners, runners up, and honorable mentions here.
- Get this month's free Marketplace content. It's still available, but only for a few more days! On January 2, Epic will cycle it out for January's free content. Remember: you're just "purchasing" an entitlement to use the content. You don't have to download any of it right away. I recommend grabbing everything, even if you don't need it — you might someday.
Looking back on 2023
I thought this would be a good opportunity to reflect on what happened in the world of Unreal Engine this year. Information moves quickly these days, so it's easy to lose track of the bigger picture. Let's take a walk down memory lane.
- February 7 – Unreal Engine 5.1.1 hotfix released
- February 22 – Old West sample project and asset packs released
- March 1 – Control Rig Samples and Mannequins Pack released
- March 9 – Self-service publishing for Epic Games Store launched
- March 22 – Unreal Editor for Fortnite public beta released
- May 11 – Unreal Engine 5.2 released
- May 17 – Hillside sample project released
- June 15 – MetaHuman Animator released
- June 20 – Electric Dreams sample project and RealityScan for Android released
- June 21 – Unreal Engine 5.2.1 hotfix released
- July 26 – Cropout sample project released
- September 6 – Unreal Engine 5.3 released
- September 14-21 – Epic MegaJam 2023
- September 27 – Unreal Engine 5.3.1 hotfix released
- September 28 – Epic Games lays off about 16% of their staff (more context given at Unreal Fest)
- October 3-5 – Unreal Fest 2023
- October 16 – Epic First Run and Now On Epic incentive programs launch on Epic Games Store
- November 6 – Epic v. Google trial begins
- November 7 – Unreal Engine 5.3.2 hotfix released
- November 30 – Epic MegaJam winners announced on Inside Unreal (Our writeup)
- December 11 – Jury reaches a verdict in Epic v. Google trial
Between 2 engine versions, 4 hotfixes, several sample projects, new apps, and new EGS features, Epic has been pretty busy this year. Given what we now know about the nature and scope of the layoffs, however, I do expect 2024 to be relatively low key – though not without significant changes. We already know they are planning to introduce a new licensing model for non-game projects using Unreal Engine. Time will tell what other significant changes Epic will need to make in order to stabilize the company and continue pursuing Tim's metaversal dream.
In other news:
- What are the top new PC & console games of 2023? – GameDiscoverCo crunches the numbers and attempts to analyze and rank the top new releases on Steam and consoles in 2023. The console results aren't terribly surprising if you have been following the market at all, but the Steam results – particularly when ranked by revenue – did surprise me. Sons of the Forest made more money than Starfield? F2P games were included in the analysis but none of them ranked in the top 20? Well worth reading the full analysis if you enjoy tracking game market trends, and may give us an idea of what to expect in 2024.
- Don't Scream: jumpscaring a giant 'hook' to >100K sales in 2 weeks! In our previous newsletter, I highlighted DON'T SCREAM as a compelling short horror game made with UE5. The "if you scream, you lose" concept is a great hook, and it seems a lot of people agree. GameDiscoverCo was able to catch up with Joe, one of the developers, who shared a lot of Steam data – sales, refunds, wishlists, and everything between – and talked about making and marketing the game. A useful case study if you're interested in breaking into the indie horror game market.
- Why am I not getting wishlists? Chris Zukowksi of How To Market A Game shared a comprehensive post regarding all the most common reasons your game is probably not getting enough wishlists on Steam. Chris presents each of the most common problems he sees, and explores the best ways to overcome them. It's a great resource for developers who are struggling to find success on Steam – particularly in pre-release marketing.
- What is indie? This question has been hotly debated for many years now, and it tends to ebb and flow as trends change. It recently resurfaced when Dave the Diver was nominated for Best Independent Game. While the game arguably looks and feels "indie", many people took issue with the nomination because Mintrocket, the developer, is actually a small subdivision of Nexon, a massive South Korean publisher with billions in annual revenue. Keighley defers to his TGA jury to decide what is "independent" or not, but what do you think?
Community highlights
- Bartosz Kamiński recently shared a video with 7 tips for improving your Unreal Engine workflow. Many of you probably know these already, but I bet there is at least one thing here that you didn't know you could do. My favorite – and something I just learned 2 years ago myself – is that you can "unplug" execution wires from one Blueprint node and "plug" them into another node by Ctrl+clicking where the wire meets the node. What a time-saver!
- Pasquale Scionti is back with another amazing scene called Haunted Memories (stills, video). Crafted in Unreal Engine 5.3.1 and making use of Lumen, this environment really sets the stage for a good horror scenario. I would love to play a game based on this.
- Luna, aka @calvinatorr, wrote a blog post all about optimizing shaders in Unreal Engine. The article is filled with lots of useful tips, and is aimed at helping artists avoid common mistakes.
- The Unknown is a fascinating, unusual mix of psychological horror and first-person platforming. Made with UE5, The game has you navigating deadly obstacles and solving puzzles that represent a man's inner demons. I love the concept and can't wait to see more. The Unknown is set to release March 4, 2024 on Steam, and you can wishlist it now.
- @boggodan shared a video showcasing a really fun experiment audio nerds will appreciate: a granular synth mapped to a mesh. The results are pretty mesmerizing, and I can imagine doing some really cool live music visualization with something like this. I hope he continues to develop the concept further.
- Have you ever wanted to see the Waldorf-Astoria ballroom in New York City rendered in UE5? Matt Kinson has you covered, and the results are impressive. The project served as a learning experience for Lumen, Nanite, and modular workflows. I love that the ballroom is rendered in several different scenarios to show its versatility as an event space.
- Sometimes – perhaps more often than we would all like to admit – the solution to a problem is not very elegant. @zakroutil wanted to populate a wrap box from bottom to top and shared the surprising solution he stumbled upon.
- Dylan Browne pointed out that the latest development build of UE5 on GitHub has a very early, experimental texture graph editor. It looks a lot like Substance Designer, which means we could someday have the option to create procedural textures right inside UE5. I'm really intrigued to see how something like this would integrate with other UE5 features. You may also notice the graph pictured has a very different style than we are used to. I wonder if these are just placeholder graphics, or a hint at a future design update for node graphs in UE5.
Until next year
That's a wrap on 2023. A lot happened this year, in our industry and beyond. I am optimistic about the future of real-time rendering, but I have some trepidation about where today's developers fit into that future. We're living through a period of rapid innovation and transition, which makes it more important than ever for developers to support each other.
I hope you enjoyed this issue. I have some exciting things planned for the new year, so stay tuned for updates in the coming months. If you can't wait until the next newsletter, I will be sharing breaking news, updates, and community finds over in our Notes feed.
Stay in touch, and send us anything you think is worth sharing. See you in 2024!
Thank you,
Nick aka pfist