Epic Games, the studio responsible for the Gears of War and Unreal franchises, yesterday released its Unreal Engine 3 dev kit as a free download, aimed at offering prospective developers a chance to better understand the system which powers its PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 titles.
The 563MB Unreal Development Kit, which can be found on Fileshack, features a number of Unreal Tournament 3 assets as well as two UDK sample games (Whizzle and The Ball) to get users started.
“I’m excited about the possibilities the Unreal Development Kit opens to those who are looking to get into the game business but don’t otherwise have the means to acquire world-class technology and tools like ours,” said Epic VP Mark Rein. “UDK is Unreal Engine 3, which has been used to create games in a wide range of genres, as well as military simulations, 3D architectural walkthroughs, animated movies and more.”
Currently the Unreal dev kit only offers support for PC although PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 support is “under consideration”. According to Epic the kit features “”features and technological enhancements…that have yet to be seen in an Unreal Engine game,”
Among the titles powered by the Unreal engine are Gears of War 2, Unreal Tournament 3, Borderlands, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Shadow Complex.
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