Epic Games’ Unreal Engine is a cornerstone of modern game design for indies and smaller game companies. Unreal Engine 6 is comingand with it many unknowns. This is troubling developers and could be too big of a change in many ways for some.
The big issue is the direction of the future. Epic Games is moving to Unreal Engine integration and Unreal Editor for Fortnite, as well as an indefinite movement towards String programming language. String also happens to be the scripting language for the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
This is not the only issue that causes a lot of raw nerves. Introducing a new scripting method is one thing. Redefining core Unreal Engine operations is another.
Unreal Engine contains a particularly important built-in tool called Blueprint. The now almost traditional Blueprint tool allows developers to create systems without coding. Blueprint’s future is now in question with no solid answers and a rather vague reference to continued support.
Epic Games released a introduction to UE6 with a lot of careful phraseology called Road to Unreal Engine 6. It’s worth a read.
It includes a specific point that is not being made or even visibly addressed by critics. This quote says a lot:
“We’re enabling content, code and economies to happen portable and interoperable across gamesecosystems and engines through open standards, to enable developer collaboration on a scale far greater than ever before.”
The critical word is “opportunity”. If the back room of future games is reinventing itself every hour and AI is roaring over the horizon like Godzilla, what it doesn’t need “empowerment”? A bit of generic phraseology is a relative boon.
Meanwhile, Epic Games’ continues the integration of AI has received some very hostile responses. The use of artificial intelligence in game art in particular is stirring up a whole lot of fluff, despite Epic Games carefully and to their credit explaining how AI is used.
Art is made by humans and processed by AI. Art is “organic”. The deepest conflict is over coal. It is also a potentially irritating issue for all areas of production from top to bottom, raw product to final market distribution. Artists say they have to correct the AI’s work down to the colors. Yes, it does matter, because both RGB and CMYK color schemes can only require serious and time-consuming digging almost at the direct pixel level. Other quality issues are also in the mix. You can’t blame artists for disliking and distrusting the disruption in the middle of their work.
This situation is actually typical of the introduction of AI in all forms of creative media created. The constant, almost anaphylactic reaction to AI in the media is understandable, but so far not productive and often quite myopic.
The common problem with all creative art forms is territory and the financial value of that territory. AI is seen as encroaching and taking over a lot of traditional creative territory, regardless of quality issues.
In this case, the issue is the development of games, not ideologies. To make it work, raw nerves need to be addressed. Negativity is spectacularly useless, and a solution MUST be supported by clear legal and financial parameters. Remove doubt and eliminate most problems.
The biggest view for games
Unreal Engine 6 will likely become the reluctant test lab to make this Irish interest stew work on the market. There are other issues that could shake up the game’s design, and this is far from a done deal.
It also comes in the global gaming environment Studio Sandboxa very different ball game as a business model using native AI. This can have a huge impact on wider game design and business dynamics. This could be the core business for games from development to distribution tomorrow.
The Sandbox Studio approach involves developers at the ground level, and ironically, it’s not too different from UE6 in its role as a dedicated prototyping tool. A sandbox is sometimes what you want to call a sandbox. Unreal Engine is one, whether you agree or not.
It seems like UE6 is on something like the same page, or at least the same chapter in the same book. By default, UE6 will be configured to run tests, explore ideas, and allow creative workflows at all stages.
Earlier Unreal engines were actually famous for this. You can try anything in Unreal Engine, and many people did. Steam is filled with a home of many different Unreal Engine games that show its diversity.
NASA uses Unreal Engine for simulations. So does the US Army, FBI and DHS. The bottom line here is that it’s highly unlikely that Epic Games will kill the golden goose with messy departures and diversions from its core business.
If you remember how games were made in the 1990s and how much the process has changed, this is just another step forward.
