Semi-finalists announced for $500,000 Games Development Challenge: Developing Beyond

Teams will create new games using Epic’s Unreal Engine, a platform for designing and building games. In the recent call for entries, developers were challenged to submit compelling, immersive and highly entertaining concepts based on the theme Transformations.

Comedian and broadcaster Susan Calman is chairing a panel of judges which will follow the games’ development throughout the competition. The judging panel includes games development legend John Romero; historian, author and broadcaster Bettany Hughes; Professor Ian Goodfellow, Head of Virology at the University of Cambridge; and Eurogamer’s Chris Bratt.

Each semi-finalist will receive $15,000 and be matched with a scientist to develop their concept further. The six semi-finalists are:

• Cure Me! by Sluggerfly – Multiplayer game in which three scientists try to prevent an evolving entity’s breakout from quarantine.
• Ecce Homo by Holy Warp – 3D action adventure game that explores the evolution of humans.
• Seed by All Seeing Eye – Virtual reality game where players are able to discover, grow and engineer generative plant life.
• Singularity by Random Logic Games – Interactive story game where an AI transforms constantly in order to adapt itself to new obstacles.
• Terramars by Untold Games – A game in which the player adapts the environment of Mars by exploring the physiological changes required for humans to live on a different planet.
• Winter Hall by Lost Forest Games  – Narrative exploration game about the legacy of the Black Death.

Judging panel chair Susan Calman said: “As a gamer, these are all games that I’d love to get my hands on!  It’s such a delight to be able to follow the developers’ journeys as they take this from initial idea to an early stage game. I can’t wait to see where their imaginations take these projects.”

In July 2017 the progress of the six projects will be judged at Develop:Brighton where three teams will be selected to go through to the final round, each receiving $60,000. The winning team will be awarded $150,000 in January 2018. Second place will be awarded $50,000 and third place will be awarded $30,000.

The Developing Beyond competition is designed to provide a sustainable platform for studios to create a minimum viable product of their title over the course of the year.

Iain Dodgeon, who leads broadcast, games and film work at Wellcome, said: “From a high-speed evolutionary arms race to the controlling of an AI newborn, these game ideas are brilliantly diverse in how they embrace the transformations theme. I may never actually live in an early hominin, medieval or Martian colonist community, nor may I be a successful horticulturalist, but these games can give me perspectives on what that life could be like and their relevance to my life today.”

Mike Gamble, European Territory Manager at Epic, commented: “The response to the challenge has been outstanding and we had a hard task to get down to the final six from a large field of excellent entries. Our semi-finalist teams are a diverse crowd, spread out across Europe, each bringing a unique style to the challenge. I’m confident that we’re going to have a fascinating competition over the coming year.”

This is the third collaboration between Epic Games and Wellcome, having previously undertaken Make Something Unreal Live and The Big Data VR Challenge.

For more information, visit the Developing Beyond website: www.developingbeyond.com