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Documents about Engine
Stirling Rank: How He Sold 9 Million Copies Of His Game, 8 Years Of Dev, Unity v Unreal | Ep. #050
The development of a successful tactical shooter requires a delicate balance between maintaining artistic integrity and navigating the pragmatic demands of the global gaming market.
- Stirling Rank’s tactical FPS game, Ready or Not, has achieved 9 million copies sold after approximately eight years of development.
- The game’s success is attributed to its 'offensively honest' approach, incorporating controversial themes like drug trafficking and violence as core narrative hooks.
- Rank advocates for using Unreal Engine over Unity, citing concerns over Unity's historical royalty structures and tracking algorithms.
Which Game Engine Is Best In 2025? UNITY vs. UNREAL?
The choice between Unity and Unreal Engine remains a central debate for independent game developers, particularly those focused on first-person shooters.
- Both Unity and Unreal Engine face significant performance bottlenecks regarding real-time shadow casting, requiring developers to manually limit the number of shadow-casting lights to maintain acceptable frame rates.
- Unreal Engine is often preferred for 3D and FPS projects due to its out-of-the-box support for features like Lumen, which provides real-time global illumination that is more difficult to achieve in Unity.
- The choice of game engine is frequently driven by team familiarity with specific programming languages, such as C++ for Unreal, and the need for cost-effective development tools for early-stage studios.
What A Custom Game Engine (NOT UNITY) Looks Like Behind The Curtain (w/ Jeff Vogel)
Maintaining a bespoke, 30-year-old game engine written in simple C++ offers a viable alternative to industry-standard tools like Unity.
- Maintaining a custom C++ engine with a compact codebase of 50,000 to 70,000 lines provides a viable, efficient alternative to complex industry-standard tools like Unity.
- Bespoke engines can bypass the need for extensive external documentation or software by utilizing manual scripting and global variables for data management.
- A grid-based coordinate system and script-driven object management allow solo developers to efficiently build and iterate on isometric, open-world environments.
From Imagine Dragons Fame To Night Street’s Shooter: Last Flag
Night Street Games is carving a distinct niche within the competitive 5v5 hero shooter market through the development of its flagship title, Last Flag.
- Night Street Games has scaled from a small prototype team to a 50-person studio by fully integrating their outsourced partners into the core company structure to maintain cultural and creative alignment.
- The studio differentiates its 5v5 hero shooter, Last Flag, by prioritizing a capture-the-flag core loop over traditional shooter mechanics and embedding music into the gameplay to drive immersion.
- To compete in the oversaturated PC shooter market, the studio follows a strategy of avoiding direct competition with established titles like Overwatch, instead focusing on unique mechanics that appeal to a specific core player segment.
Session: Understanding The Creator-Driven Growth Engine For Mobile Games
The creator-driven growth engine for mobile games has evolved from a transactional model of purchasing ad space to a sophisticated, relationship-based strategy centered on long-term community engagement.
- Creator marketing has shifted from simple ad placements to long-term relationship building, requiring agencies or partners to manage collaborations at scale across the millions of available YouTube and TikTok channels.
- Successful creator programs, such as those used by Epic Games for Fortnite, utilize creator codes to link the game's economy directly to the creator economy, incentivizing influencers to drive both new installs and in-app purchases.
- Measuring success solely through direct install attribution is insufficient, as much of the value from creator-driven growth is evergreen, organic, and uncaptured by standard tracking models.
Jeff Vogel: Making Games Alone For 30 Years, Unity vs Custom Engine, Indie Survival | Ep. #046
Long-term survival in the independent game industry is best achieved by prioritizing sustainable business practices and niche creative focus over the pursuit of fleeting commercial trends.
- Survival as a solo indie developer for over 30 years is best achieved by cultivating a loyal, niche audience rather than chasing commercial hits.
- A sustainable indie business model relies on a large back catalog of titles and direct fan support through platforms like Kickstarter, which provides financial stability during industry downturns.
- Jeff Vogel’s studio, Spiderweb Software, has released 25 retro RPGs since 1994 by prioritizing consistent, manageable production over high-polish, high-risk projects.
Will AI Transform Movie and TV Tie-ins?
Artificial intelligence is poised to fundamentally transform movie and television tie-in games by enabling emergent, personalized gameplay experiences.
- AI is expected to transform game tie-ins by enabling emergent gameplay, where non-player characters (NPCs) adapt their behavior and dialogue based on individual player interactions.
- Industry leaders from Wizards of the Coast, Netflix, and AGBO emphasize that IP holders must be less precious about their characters to allow for the dynamic, unpredictable experiences that younger generations expect.
- The adoption of Unreal Engine across film, TV, and gaming has significantly streamlined cross-media production by allowing studios to share pre-visualization assets directly between mediums.
Is AI about to transform video game tie-ins with movies and TV shows?
The modern entertainment landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift as intellectual property holders move away from treating video games as mere marketing appendages for film and television.
- Entertainment IP holders are shifting from using video games as marketing appendages to prioritizing high-quality, authentic gameplay that functions as a cohesive extension of a broader narrative universe.
- Studios are increasingly developing games and screen projects simultaneously by using shared creative teams and unified technological pipelines to ensure narrative consistency.
- The use of tools like Unreal Engine for both pre-visualization and final production is becoming the industry standard for maintaining emotional resonance across film, television, and gaming mediums.
Epic’s State of Unreal: Building the Future of Games or Just Selling More Tools?
The annual State of Unreal keynote highlighted Epic Games’ ongoing efforts to expand its ecosystem through Unreal Engine 5.6, the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), and the Epic Games Store.
- Epic Games reported $2.1 billion in total payouts to developers, with $722 million of that revenue generated specifically by third-party creators within the Unreal ecosystem.
- Epic is aggressively expanding the Epic Games Store with mobile self-publishing tools and a 0% revenue share model on the first $1 million earned to compete with established platforms.
- Unreal Engine 5.6 and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) are the core of Epic's strategy, though UEFN currently faces significant criticism regarding its platform stability and user experience.
Epic's Tim Sweeney: "We can build an economy that's bigger and better than the one in Roblox"
Epic Games is strategically positioning its ecosystem—centered on Fortnite and Unreal Engine—to lead the transition toward an interconnected, metaverse-style economy.
- Epic Games has paid out $722 million to third-party creators within Fortnite and $2.1 billion to partners through the Epic Games Store, underscoring its commitment to a creator-led economy.
- Epic is positioning its ecosystem to compete with Roblox by utilizing Unreal Engine 5 and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) to prioritize high-fidelity, interoperable social experiences over predatory monetization like loot boxes.
- The company is lowering production barriers for small teams by integrating AI-powered NPCs, developer assistants, and Metahuman tools to facilitate the creation of AAA-quality content.
KRAFTON 1Q25 Investor Presentation
KRAFTON’s first quarter 2025 investor presentation outlines a period of record-breaking financial performance driven by the sustained growth of the PUBG intellectual property and a strategic expansion into new genres and platforms.
- KRAFTON achieved record 1Q25 financial results with KRW 874.2 billion in revenue (up 31.3% YoY) and KRW 457.3 billion in operating profit (up 47.3% YoY).
- Revenue growth was driven by strong performance across all segments, led by mobile at KRW 532.4 billion and PC at KRW 323.5 billion.
- The company is evolving the PUBG franchise into a comprehensive gameplay platform through Unreal Engine 5 integration, user-generated content beta services, and diversified game modes.
How Epic Games Served Apple Humble Pie
The return of Fortnite to Apple’s App Store in May 2025 marks the conclusion of a nearly five-year legal conflict, signaling a significant shift in the power dynamics between major technology platforms and game developers.
- Fortnite returned to the Apple App Store in May 2025, concluding a five-year legal battle that fundamentally altered the power dynamics between platform holders and developers.
- Epic Games successfully secured the right to bypass Apple’s standard 30% commission fee in the United States by utilizing third-party payment providers for in-game currency.
- The conflict is estimated to cost Apple approximately $4.1 billion in potential revenue due to lost commissions and the forced opening of its ecosystem.