Epic: Unreal Dev Kit updated to support iPhones

[akugami]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/12/14/technology-behind-top-videogames-comes-to-iphone-ipad/

The Unreal Development Kit from Epic is scheduled for an update that will allow it to support iPhones and iPads. Cost is $99 licensing fee and 25% of all revenues above $5,000 on top of Apple's 30%.

While the tools may be great and the prospect of creating Infinity Blade quality games a pleasing one, the cost is looking steep when you consider that you'll be losing 55% to Apple and Epic.

 

[MrX8503]

The Unreal engine is impressive, but that is quite a big cut. Even with the cut, some developers may still find it beneficial as it would speed up development of games and make them prettier as well.

"Mr. Rein said he largely agrees with id Software’s John Carmack, who recently outlined his concerns about the Android platform in an interview with Ars Technica. Among them: the wide variety of Android phones available on the market makes writing applications that can work across the board challenging, and Google’s Android Marketplace doesn’t allow for applications above a certain file size, a definite problem for both Infinity Blade and id Software’s “RAGE,” which are rather large downloads."

What is this file size limit Rein speaks of? In another thread it was stated that you could just save it to the SD, so why would there be a file size limit?

 

[Deeko]

Writing a mobile-capable high quality 3D engine is a whole lot of work. Considering how much development time that's saving you, and considering how much that will improve the quality of your game (lets be serious, 99.9999% of game devs aren't going to make an engine like Epic's no matter how hard they try), it doesn't seem that expensive at all.

 

[MrX8503]

I would agree with that. The Unreal engine has been tested and developed for awhile now. Not only that, the games using the engine look fantastic. It would save developers a whole lot of time/money if they went that route.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

The Unreal engine is impressive, but that is quite a big cut. Even with the cut, some developers may still find it beneficial as it would speed up development of games and make them prettier as well.

"Mr. Rein said he largely agrees with id Software’s John Carmack, who recently outlined his concerns about the Android platform in an interview with Ars Technica. Among them: the wide variety of Android phones available on the market makes writing applications that can work across the board challenging, and Google’s Android Marketplace doesn’t allow for applications above a certain file size, a definite problem for both Infinity Blade and id Software’s “RAGE,” which are rather large downloads."

What is this file size limit Rein speaks of? In another thread it was stated that you could just save it to the SD, so why would there be a file size limit?

I think the max file size is 50mb for an Android Market app.

 

[MrX8503]

I think the max file size is 50mb for an Android Market app.

Is it possible for the Developer to have that 50mb be an app downloader? Then use that app to download the actual app to an SD?

If 50MB is the limit for apps across the board then games like Infinity Blade or RAGE is out of the question on the Android platform.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Is it possible for the Developer to have that 50mb be an app downloader? Then use that app to download the actual app to an SD?

From my understanding, yes.

I think that's a trivial problem for them compared to the fragmentation of OS versions and device specs.

 

[Patranus]

I wonder how much Apple threw at Epic to keep this on iOS.

 

[MrX8503]

I wonder how much Apple threw at Epic to keep this on iOS.

Its been known for a while now that a developer makes more money developing for iOS.

 

[ElFenix]

maybe they'll let me grind deeds on the bus