31. Mai 2019

Unreal Engine evangelism expands throughout Europe

Von Milena Koljensic

The Unreal Engine community has been experiencing explosive growth throughout Europe as of late and, as a result, we've been expanding our evangelism team to accommodate developer needs. Up until recently, Epic's Sjoerd De Jong has been the only Unreal Engine Evangelist for all of Europe, but the team has grown substantially and is further covering the vast territories of EMEA. Wherever you are based in Europe, you can now connect with our evangelists:

Northern Europe and Scandinavia: Sjoerd De Jong @Hourences
Western Europe: Andreas Suika @AndiDev_
Southern Europe: Mario Palmero @sindromequijote
Central ad Eastern Europe: Krzysztof Pachulski @daltondotgd
Middle East and Northern Africa: Joseph Azzam @JosephRAzzam

Our newly formed team traveled across the continent this past winter, attending game conferences, visiting user groups and, most importantly, connecting with dozens of talented Unreal Engine developers.

While in Germany…

Powered by Unreal Engine area at White Nights

While at White Nights in Berlin, we were fortunate to host nine developers in the Powered by Unreal Engine zone, giving them the opportunity to share their passion projects with a captive audience. These shows help developers build a following and receive critical feedback that is essential to the success of any title - and we were thrilled that these great teams, among many others, joined us:

Lost Ember | Mooneye Studios

Explore ancient ruins and forgotten memories as a wolf with the ability to possess any animal you meet in order to find out what happened to humankind and your trusted spirit companion in a past life.

Sayri Adventure | Vidloonnya Reborn

Sayri Adventure is a family-friendly game about friendship. Sayri, the main hero, and inhabitants of the unknown world try to find a new homeland through various puzzles and challenges. Sayri is a clever and empathetic alien creature who is easy to love.

Gun Road | Bread Games

Indie game studio Bread Games are in the midst of developing the crazy top-down action game Gun Road. In the game, you'll ride a variety of vehicles through wastelands, create your gang, and join cooperative campaigns.

TauCeti Unknown Origin | BadFly Interactive

The action-packed coop sci-fi FPS TauCeti Unknown Origin drops players on the wild and unexplored TauCeti to fight for the survival of mankind. Players will craft, harvest, and upgrade a variety of collectables, build bases, and fly their way around this exotic jungle.

While in Turkey…

Joseph Azzam has visited the beautiful city of Istanbul and attended the biggest game conference in Turkey- GIST. He delivered two very informative presentations, "Epic Games and Unreal Engine in 2019" and "Building the next-generation VFX inside of Unreal with Niagara." Joseph has spent a full week in Turkey visiting game developers, giving advice, and learning about their projects. Below are some of the UE-developed titles that were on display:

Indie developers relaxing at the Unreal Engine refreshments and lounge area after a long day.

Project Beckon | Lee Hammoud

Project Beckon is a first-person gravity-based platformer where you hop and dash on top of upside-down buildings in a trippy tunnel of clouds. The player must take the fastest route possible and traverse through levels by gravity-shifting and using multiple abilities.

Potentia | Wily Pumpkin

Potentia is a single-player third-person shooter game. The main story is linear and features a post-apocalyptic setting. The game is set to release on PC in late 2019. For more updates on this ambitious project, you can follow Wily Pumpkin on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Buried Alive VR | Reddot Studios

Buried Alive is a VR zombie shooter game with large-scale maps and various themes. The gameplay is player-dependent, allowing players to do whatever they want. The game offers replayability and a satisfying story that encourages players on their journey. The story is based on the devil leaving hell to learn about mankind's motivations.

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If you are a developer based in the Middle East and are looking to connect with our evangelism team, then follow Joseph Azzam - Unreal Engine Evangelist based in Lebanon. He will be happy to answer your questions and meet up when he's traveling throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa to connect with the community.

While in Belguim...

We attended 1UP and met with local developers!

Sjoerd de Jong and Andreas Suika gave an overview of the Unreal Engine roadmap, focusing on the upcoming, free online services and features in 4.22. We also attended and sponsored the Belgian Game Awards and met with a very creative Belgian game developer community. In terms of honourable mentions, we would like to thank One Bonsai, which held a talk at game dev community meet-up, and Cronos Interactive for their game Hoverloop, which is a fun multiplayer arcade arena combat game.

Here’s a couple of Unreal Engine titles that were demonstrated at the show:

Hubris | Cyborn

Hubris is a VR narrative game where the player takes on the role of a special agent of the Order of Objectivity, in short OOO. His/her memory has failed him/her after a terraforming event on the dwarf planet TQD165 appears to have gone wrong. While travelling through the fascinating Hubris universe, the player quickly discovers that nothing really is what it seems, not even his/her own identity. The game is still under development, but is definitely worth keeping your eyes on!

BattleCoreArena | Cosmic Ray Studio

BattleCore Arena is a multiplayer shooting game in which you control a Core that you must maneuver to eject your opponents from a platform to win. The game is fast and dynamic and will appeal to thrill seekers.

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Looking to connect with the Unreal Engine Evangelists for Northern and Western Europe? Please follow Sjoerd De Jong and Andreas Suika to receive more information about their upcoming trips and to get in touch.

While in Poland...

Krzysztof “Dalton” Pachulski attended meetups and visited Tricity, Warsaw, Gdańsk, Kraków, and Poznań. During his extensive trip, he had the honour of meeting more than 400 developers.

We sponsored drinks and food and had a lot of fun. Big thanks to Stanislav Mishchenko, Łukasz Jagodziński, KNTG Polygon, 3D Community, and Hackerspace Trójmiasto for your help in organizing game dev communities in Poland. It was amazing meeting you! Below are a few UE-developed titles that we encountered on our visit:

Paradise Lost | PolyAmorous

Paradise Lost is a mystery adventure game about coping with loss, and balancing between destruction and creation. Your choices shape and uncover lives past and present, casting light on your true nature. In the end, you have to ask yourself a tough question: does humanity deserve another chance? The game is currently under development by a talented studio based in Warsaw, Poland.

Space Cows | Walkabout Games

Space Cows is a crazy physics-based action puzzler in zero gravity. After the mysterious crashy-bangy accident on space milk station Rodeo 808, you have to save space cows from death in the coldness of space. This game is perfect for fun nights with friends where you and your pals can try and save the cows from hostile environments.

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If Eastern Europe is your homebase then do not hesitate to reach out to Krzysztof “Dalton” Pachulski - Unreal Engine Evangelist for Central and Eastern Europe.

While in Serbia...

Milena Koljensic and Krzysztof “Dalton” Pachulski attended the biggest Serbian developer focused conference, Game Up, organised by Mad Head Games. We had an amazing opportunity supporting developers with an Unreal Engine Showcase area, where devs were exhibiting and networking during the day, and relaxing on our comfy bean bags in the late afternoon.

Milena Koljensic providing information about how Epic can help developers gain bigger discoverability and raise awareness of their projects.

For those who were interested in a technical session, Pachulski gave an inspiring technical talk about taking particles to the next level with the Niagara Editor.

While in Serbia, we travelled to both Novi Sad and Belgrade to meet up with Unreal Engine developers. We also paid a friendly visit to 3Lateral - a leading developer of digital humans technology that recently joined the Epic family.

Milena Koljensic and Krzysztof “Dalton” Pachulski with Serbian developers who recently released the hack-and-slash action game Pagan Online in Early Access.

Belgrade has been warm and very welcoming to us and we’re sure that we’ll be back soon to check up on the progress from our amazing community.

Elsewhere in Europe...

While in Western Europe, Andreas Suika has traveled to both Germany and Switzerland. He visited an Unreal Engine User Group meetup in Dusseldorf, Germany, where he held an inspiring talk about the ongoing evolution of Unreal Engine, and how Epic Games sees the future and how that will help developers succeed in today's games industry. His next stop was in Zurich, where he attended Ludicious and met up with local devs.

Meanwhile, Mario Palmero has traveled to sun-kissed Madrid, where he attended developer’s night. On the first Tuesday of every month, talented developers from Madrid gather to chat about game development, and he had the privilege to attend this enlightening and casual event to meet more than 30 developers. If you’re in Madrid, do seek out the amazing group and meet new friends!

Approximately 80 miles from Madrid in Guadalajara, Spain Freakend kicked off! Mario met more than 90 developers, and got to know them in a very cosy round table atmosphere.

See you soon...

Our team traveled extensively in the past few months, and if you have missed us - don’t worry - we are just about to head back on the road. Where can you meet us next?

For last minute schedule changes or updates, connect with our evangelists via their Twitter accounts.

and thank you!

Thank you, Unreal Engine developers, for all your effort and hard work. It was an amazing opportunity to see new places and meet new faces. We are proud to have an amazing, talented community of developers throughout Europe. Keep up the amazing work and we look forward to seeing you again, very soon, somewhere in Europe!

Devs on the rise…

Below you can view additional Unreal Engine projects that we encountered while on the road. If you have a few spare minutes, please check them out…

Awaceb - Project Caillou
Polished Games - Realms of Magic
DonkeyCrew - Last Oasis
Dario Argento's - Dreadful Bond
Byte Kinematics - Going Home
Digital Arrow - Aquanox Deep Descent
Bootsmann Games - UpBreakers
Ovid Works - Metamorphosis
District Zero - Soviet Experiment VR
Hel Run - Euclidean Studios