December 11, 2018

Unreal Engine developers shine at The Game Awards 2018

By Jimmy Thang

2018's The Game Awards took place last week in Los Angeles where several Unreal Engine powered titles were recognized with award nominations for their releases over the past year. Dragon Ball FighterZ won best fighting game of the year while Fortnite took home awards for both best multiplayer game and best ongoing game. The event also revealed several upcoming titles made with Unreal Engine.

All in all, 15 UE4-made games were honored at the show representing 13 categories including best mobile game, best RPG, best VR game, and many more.

Congratulations to all of these outstanding developers! To showcase their success, we've rounded up all of the Unreal-powered projects featured at the show.

AWARD NOMINEES/WINNERS:

A Way Out | Hazelight Studios / Electronic Arts
NOMINEE: Best Game Direction

Dragon Ball FighterZ | Arc System Works / Bandai Namco Entertainment
WINNER: Best Fighting Game

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age | Square Enix
NOMINEE: Best RPG

Firewall Zero Hour Game | First Contact Entertainment Inc. / Sony Interactive Entertainment
NOMINEE: Best VR Game

Fortnite | Epic Games
NOMINEE: Best Mobile Game, Best Esports Game
WINNER: Best Ongoing Game, Best Multiplayer Game

Life is Strange 2: Episode 1 | Dontnod Entertainment / Square Enix
NOMINEE: Best Narrative

LIFF | ISART DIGITAL, the Video Game and 3D Animation / VFX School
NOMINEE: Best Student Game

Moss | Polyarc
NOMINEE: Best VR Game, Best Debut Indie Game

Octopath Traveler | Square Enix and Acquire / Nintendo and Square Enix
NOMINEE: Best Art Direction, Best RPG, Best Score/Music

Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 (Mobile) | PES Productions / Konami
NOMINEE: Best Sports Game

PUBG MOBILE | PUBG Corporation / Tencent Games
NOMINEE: Best Mobile Game

Sea of Thieves | Rare / Microsoft Studios
NOMINEE: Best Multiplayer Game

SOULCALIBUR VI | Bandai Namco
NOMINEE: Best Fighting Game

Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition | Capcom and Dimps
NOMINEE: Best Fighting Game

Tetris Effect | Monstars Inc. and Resonair / Enhance, Inc.
NOMINEE: Best VR Game

UNREAL REVEALS

In addition to all of the nominated, award-winning Unreal Engine 4-powered games, The Game Awards also showcased several upcoming titles and updates to games made with Unreal Engine. The following list encompasses the highly-anticipated games and new footage revealed at the show.

Ancestors: The Humankind Story | Panache Digital Games / Private Division
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a third person open world survival game that will bring players to Explore, Expand and Evolve to advance their clan to the next generation in the harsh, ruthless, yet beautiful land of Africa starting 10 million years ago.

Ashen | A44 Games / Annapurna Interactive
Ashen is an action RPG about a wanderer in search of a home. You can forge relationships in the game, inviting other players to join your camp - they might just help you succeed.

ATLAS | Studio Wildcard
At The Game Awards, Ark: Survival Evolved developer Studio Wildcard revealed a new game called Atlas. It is an MMO that the studio says will support 40,000 concurrent players and will feature a gargantuan map 1,200 times the size of an Ark server. Atlas features a naval theme coupled with large, fantastical beasts. The developer states that the goal for players is to build an armada, claim territory, and dominate the world.

Crackdown 3 | Sumo Digital / Microsoft Studios
The Game Awards debuted a new commercial for Crackdown 3. The trailer features actor and star of the game Terry Crews and confirms the title will be included day-one with Xbox Game Pass.

Dauntless | Phoenix Labs
While Phoenix Labs’s Dauntless is in open beta on PC, the developer debuted a new trailer at The Game Awards which revealed that the free-to-play action RPG will also come to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, mobile, and will be cross compatible across all platforms.

Dead by Daylight (“Darkness Among Us” update) | Behaviour Interactive / Starbreeze Studios
At The Game Awards, developer Behaviour Interactive revealed the new Darkness Among US update for their multiplayer survival-horror game Dead by Daylight. The update features a new survivor (Jeff Johansen), a new killer (The Legion), and a new map (Mount Ormond Resort).

Hades | Supergiant Games
Hades is the rogue-like dungeon crawler from the creators of Bastion and Transistor. It is available in early access, with updates to come every month until full release later in 2019.

Hello Neighbor Hide and Seek | Dynamic Pixels
Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek is the prequel to Hello Neighbor, the stealth-horror hit. Find out what happened right before the events of the main game.

Mortal Kombat 11 | NetherRealm Studios and Shiver / Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
Mortal Kombat made a surprise return at The Game Awards with a new violent cinematic trailer for the eleventh installment in the series. It showcases a bloody battle between longtime favorites Scorpion and Raiden.

Scavengers | Midwinter Entertainment
Developer Midwinter Entertainment revealed Scavengers at The Game Awards. The studio, who is comprised of veterans who worked on Halo 5, asserts that it’s a “co-opetition” game. This means players will both need to work together to survive Scavenger’s harsh landscape while ultimately competing with each other.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (Vikendi update) | PUBG Corporation
Winter is coming to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds as The Game Awards revealed a new frigid map for the popular battle-royale shooter. Known as Vikendi, the map will feature snowy terrain that will make footprints trackable. The update will also feature new gear, a new assault rifle, and introduces a snowmobile. The update is available on the test server now and will go live on PC on December 19. It will hit consoles later in January.

Psychonauts 2 | Double Fine Productions / Starbreeze Studios
At The Game Awards, we got the first story trailer for the long-awaited platformer Psychonauts 2. The footage shows off the Motherlobe, Psychonaut’s main headquarters.

Rocket League (McLaren 570S Car Pack) | Psyonix
Developer Psyonix revealed the new McLaren 570S car pack DLC for their smash hit game Rocket League at The Game Awards.

The Outer Worlds | Obsidian Entertainment / Private Division
The Outer Worlds is a new single-player first-person sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division. Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the furthest edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the Halcyon colony. As you explore the furthest reaches of space and encounter various factions, all vying for power, the character you decide to become will determine how this player-driven story unfolds. In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable.

The Pathless | Giant Squid
Become the Hunter, a master of archery who travels to a mystical island to dispel a curse of darkness that grips the world. Forge a connection with your eagle companion as you hunt corrupted spirits, but be careful not to become the hunted yourself. Explore misty forests full of secrets, solve puzzles in ancient ruins, and test your skill in epic battles. The bond with your eagle and the fate of the world hang in the balance.

EPIC GAMES STORE

In case you hadn’t heard the news, the recently-revealed Epic Games store aims to bring you great games, and to give developers a better deal: they receive 88 percent of the money you spend, versus only 70 percent elsewhere. This helps developers succeed and make more of the games you love.

Launched during The Game Awards 2018, the Epic Games store features titles including Hades by Supergiant Games, Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek by tinyBuild, and Ashen by Aurora44.

You can expect a plethora of other titles such as Darksiders III, Dauntless, Genesis Alpha One, Journey, Maneater, Outer Wilds, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, Satisfactory, Subnautica, Super Meat Boy Forever, World War Z, and more to hit the Epic Games store in the future.

The store will also feature one free game every two weeks throughout 2019. Epic is funding these free releases so you always have something new to come and check out. The first free game will be Subnautica, available from Dec 14th to Dec 27th, followed by Super Meat Boy from Dec 28th to Jan 10th.

The Epic Games store will be growing throughout 2019 and beyond, as it opens up more widely to other games.

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We congratulate all of the Unreal Engine developers whose projects were nominated or had their games debut at the prestigious event. If you're a game developer using UE4, feel free to share your work with us on Twitter @UnrealEngine and use the hashtag #UE4. If you'd like to work on your own game for a shot at being featured in a future game awards show, download Unreal Engine for free today.