Unreal Engine aiming to be 'next level' Minecraft

Unreal Engine general manager Ray Davis says the team has been inspired by Minecraft, and wants to make its building tools as fun and easy to use as the popular game.

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Unreal Engine is generally seen as a powerhouse that fuels big-budget blockbusters, but Epic has made moves to open it to a wider range of users with the recent announcement of a subscription model. Engine general manager Ray Davis said this is part of an effort to make the engine more accessible, and that it's been inspired by more simple building game tools like Minecraft.

"I'm always super impressed with what folks do in Minecraft these days," Davis told Rock Paper Shotgun. "We’re definitely inspired by how creative people can be in there, and we feel like somebody who has a great time in Minecraft, can we get our tools and editor to a point where they can have an equally fun experience with a full engine--and kinda take it to the next level, potentially?"

He also said to that end, the studio had toyed with a tutorial for Unreal Engine that acted more like a game. "That’s one of the things we experimented with right before the holidays, and it was really fun," he said. "Unfortunately we decided to pull it out of this release, but it’s something we hope to revisit. We called it a gamified tutorial, actually."

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  • reply
    March 25, 2014 8:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Unreal Engine aiming to be 'next level' Minecraft.

    Unreal Engine general manager Ray Davis says the team has been inspired by Minecraft, and wants to make its building tools as fun and easy to use as the popular game.

    • reply
      March 25, 2014 8:32 AM

      Cool. Anything that fuels creativity is a-ok in my books.

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      March 25, 2014 8:45 AM

      I thought Project Spark was supposed to be nextlevel MC

    • reply
      March 25, 2014 8:48 AM

      [deleted]

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      March 25, 2014 10:42 AM

      I read that as 'Microsoft' and thought whoa whoa...wtf?!

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      March 25, 2014 12:43 PM

      Title is off/misleading:
      They're simply talking about how they made the tools/editor more accessible for people to create in. Not actually making a Minecraft game.

      If you want a "next level Minecraft" go play Everquest Next Landmark or Voxelfarm.

      • reply
        March 25, 2014 2:45 PM

        Yeah; I sighed at the title at first, thinking it was a reference to Fortnite, but making level design tools easier to use is a noble goal, considering how hard it's become, from what I've heard.

        Shame on me, though: I still haven't watched that level design DVD from the UT2004 special edition set. I should probably do that sometime.

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