One of the bonuses for developers using Epic Games’ middleware programme Unreal Engine, is the chance to be selected for one of the grants available. The fund launched last year to help support small independent studios finance videogames made with the software. Today Epic Games has announced five more developers who’ve received funding.
The five lucky winners are EVERSPACE by ROCKFISH Games, Jump Stars by Pixel Blimp, Thundersteed Ltd, The Siege and the Sandbox by Cardboard Sword and Stellar Overlord by Cubical Drift. They’ll all share in a $75,000 USD pot.
There’s usually one virtual reality (VR) title in the mix it seems and this time it’s EVERSPACE. While the videogame hasn’t been made solely for VR it does support the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive head-mounted displays (HMDs).
Back in April ROCKFISH Games held a closed alpha allowing players to explore the first four sectors in one of three spaceships set to be available in the release version. The closed alpha offered Oculus Rift support, with a closed beta scheduled to take place at the end of July including support for HTC Vive.
VR indie developers have doen alright through the Unreal Dev Grant programme. Previous winners include: RealityArts – Void Runner; Sam Macaroni – Terror Web; Innervision VR – Thunderbird; Hollow Tree Games – Shape of the World and Phosphor Games – The Brookhaven Experiment to name a few.
So far the fund has given out $1.4 million out of the $5 million available, and the money comes with no strings attached.
If any further VR developers happen to win a grant VRFocus will let you know.
