Indie Game Development

Every size team deserves AAA-caliber tools.

The same powerful technology used by AAA studios. An end-to-end ecosystem to create, ship, and operate games. The resources you need to switch from another engine. And a developer-first approach to revenue where you don’t pay us until your game makes over $1 million.

Learn about licensing

The latest news for indie game developers

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Changes coming to Epic MegaGrants Submissions in 2025

Want to apply for an Epic MegaGrant this year? Don’t miss this important change regarding the submission window. Read on to ensure you have all your bases covered when it comes to applying for an EpicMegaGrant.

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Explore the new updates to the Game Animation Sample Project in UE 5.5

The Game Animation Sample Project has been updated for UE 5.5 with over 300 animations, a new Experimental setup that provides better artist control without diminishing quality, setups that are 100% networked and ready for multiplayer, mobile support—and more!

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The latest events and highlights from the new Epic for Indies space

Check out all the latest Epic news and updates for indie game developers here, including upcoming live events, help pitching your project, indie dev success stories, and more.

Features for indie game development

Your ambition is the limit—not your team size. From small studios to solo devs, Unreal Engine gives teams of every size the power and control to create stand-out games with the same visual sophistication and fidelity as big-studio titles.

Currently using Unity and thinking about switching engines? Click here to learn more about what Unreal Engine can offer.

See all features

Built-in WYSIWYG tools and editors

UE5 comes with a range of out-of-the-box native tools and sub-editors that are deeply integrated with each other and with the wider editor. Highly visual and often node-based, these interfaces give small teams and solo devs the power to achieve showstopping games without programming.

Material Editor

Unreal Engine screenshot

High-fidelity rendering that scales across platforms

Achieve stunning visual results with UE5’s extensive set of rendering features. Whether you’re going for photorealism or stylized looks, Unreal Engine’s rendering pipeline scales smoothly from mobile to console, so you get the best possible results on your target platforms.

Nanite virtualized geometry

Lumen dynamic global illumination

The Sojourn screenshot

Blueprint visual scripting and full C++ source

UE5 comes with the intuitive Blueprint visual scripting system that means you can program complex actions, automations, and behaviors without writing a single line of code. There’s also support for C++, with the full source code at your disposal.

Unreal Engine Blueprints screenshot

Epic Online Services

Open online services help you streamline now— and scale freely later.

Logos of teams that use Epic Online Services

Logos of teams that use Epic Online Services

Featuring crossplay, multiplayer, accounts, and more, our free out-of-the-box services help small development teams manage their game operations without building their own infrastructure—and ensures teams are equipped to freely distribute across every store and platform if their game turns out to be a hit.

Logos of teams that use Epic Online Services

Logos of teams that use Epic Online Services

Indie success stories

Solo dev makes sophisticated sim Manor Lords using Unreal Engine

Discover how Unreal Engine empowered Slavic Magic’s deep dive into medieval strategy and city building.

—Slavic Magic

a monster from UE5-powered video game ‘The Axis Unseen’.

UE5 powers solo dev as heavy metal, horror, and hunting converge in The Axis Unseen

Explore how industry veteran Nate Purkeypile fused his love of heavy metal and horror to create an ambitious monster-hunting game in Unreal Engine 5, using features including Nanite, Lumen, and World Partition.

—Just Purkey Games

Squirrel with a Gun evolved from quirky test video to Unreal Engine-powered light-hearted action game

Discover how Eddie Izzard, Unreal Engine, and a floofy tail brought Squirrel with a Gun to life.

—Dee Dee Creations

The world is your weapon in UE5-powered physics playground Eternal Strands

Find out how Yellow Brick Games leverages Chaos, Nanite, Lumen, and more for magical mechanics and interactive environments in upcoming third-person action adventure game Eternal Strands.

—Yellow Brick Games

Let’s get started.

Whether you’re new to game development or just new to Unreal Engine, we’ve got a collection of learning materials, tutorials, samples, and guides to help you get up and running fast.

Tutorials

Unreal Learning Kit screenshot

Your First Hour in Unreal Engine 5

Epic Online Learning · 2yr ago

We’ll look at the launcher, Editor, creating a basic level including lighting and level layout, and Blueprint.

Stack 'O' Bot screenshot

Your First Game in Unreal Engine 5

Andi · 2yr ago

Dive into this practical in-editor demo showcasing UE5's rapid game creation from scratch.

BeginPlay screenshot

BeginPlay

Epic Online Learning · 3yr ago

Explore this developer focused overview of Unreal Engine’s features and tools.

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Documentation

Sample projects

Download, deconstruct, and learn from projects that are already built. Samples are simplified experiences created by our dev team designed to show you possible approaches to the different game types you can create in Unreal Engine.

Project Titan screenshot

Project Titan

You can now download the Project Titan Sample Game! Dive in and explore this huge open world environment created in an epic collaborative art jam.

Unreal Engine content screenshot

Game Animation Sample

The Game Animation Sample Project has been updated for UE 5.5 with over 300 animations, a new Experimental setup for improved artist control—and more!

Lyra sample game screenshot

Lyra Sample Game

A perfect starting point for those looking to jump right into Unreal Engine for game development.

Cropout screenshot

Cropout

A casual game sample that shows you best practices for creating cross-platform games.

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Licensing

We’ve streamlined our license terms to make your choices clearer. Need something designed just for you? Work with us to create a custom license. Visit our FAQ or reach out to the community if you have any questions.

Under $1 million USD in revenue?

Free

Game developers (royalties apply after $1 million USD gross product revenue)
Individuals and small businesses (with less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue)
For educators and schools (no revenue limits)

Access to the source code
All platforms & features
Forums and documentation on the Epic Developer Community

Download now View FAQ Licensing Terms

Over $1 million USD in revenue?

Royalty-based

If you're creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, you'll pay royalties and won't be required to purchase seats.

Seat-based

If you're using Unreal Engine for commercial purposes, have generated more than $1 million in the past 12 months, and are not creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, then a seat license fee is required.

Unreal Engine is just the beginning.

With Unreal Engine, you don’t just get powerful creative tools. You also have access to an entire ecosystem to publish, operate, and collect revenue from your game.

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

Quickly and easily create games using UE5 tools, then publish them to Fortnite for millions of players to enjoy.

MetaHuman

Customize and animate highly realistic digital human characters for use in your Unreal Engine projects.

RealityScan

Produce high-fidelity 3D models from laser scans and photos that you can use in your real-time scenes.

Unreal Engine Marketplace

Access a huge library of free and purchasable digital assets—3D models, materials, sound, VFX, digital humans, and more.

Epic Developer Community

Need a helping hand? Dive into the EDC and explore tutorials, learning resources, forums, Q&As, and code snippets.

Launching for Console?

There’s no fee or cost related to using Unreal Engine on a console but you’ll need platform holder approval to access the necessary SDKs.

Looking to use the Unreal Engine logo in your project? Access our brand guidelines and logos here.

Need help?

Connect with creators across industries and around the globe. Share everything from shortcuts to snippets to secret shader tricks. When you use Unreal Engine, you’re never alone—our community of hundreds of thousands of developers is here to support you as you bring your idea to life.

Dev Community Forums

Ask and answer questions; show off your work and get inspiration from others.

Unreal Source

Come hang out with us and our developer community on Discord.