Epic Games on Friday opened the call for submissions for the 2020 Epic MegaJam, seeking the most incredible projects built in Unreal Engine 4 based on this year’s theme of “It’s been a long time, but we’re not done yet.” Participants may work alone or in a team of up to five members, to submit their projects by 2:00pm ET on Friday, December 11.
All games must include custom gameplay that exceeds the gameplay found in Epic Games’ starter templates, and all art assets must have a material other than “DefaultMaterial” applied. Qualified submissions will be reviewed and scored on a 1-5 point scale by a panel of Epic MegaJam judges, on each of the following criteria:
- Unique use of contest theme
- Fun factor
- Visuals
- Audio
The judging panel will announce 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, as well as honorees in five special categories:
- Army of One: for the best game developed by a solo developer
- Is This Real Life?: for the best XR game
- Genre Bash: for the game with the most original bash of 2 or more genres
- Procedural Magicians: for the best game that used Houdini from SideFX
- Tiny Award: for the best game that is less than 100MB (total size of packaged playable game)
Prizes for all winners are generously provided by Intel, KitBash3D, SideFX, the IGDA, GameTextures.com, WholeTomato, DrowningDragons, JoeGarth, Rimaye, Falcon Northwest, and Microsoft. Winners will also receive a featured playthrough on the Inside Unreal livestream, and a highlight on the Unreal Engine blog.
In addition, all Epic MegaJam participants can take advantage of free resources provided by Assembla, SideFX, GameTextures.com, and WholeTomato to create their projects. All Unreal Engine users can also access the entire Quixel Megascans library for free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace.
For full entry details and requirements, please visit: https://itch.io/jam/2020-epic-megajam
