Showcase your programming skills by
by participating in the studios sponsored
Unreal Engine challenge
Unreal Shmup - Autumn '22
Create a Shoot'em Up style game in Unreal Engine.
Sponsoring Studios
BRIEF & RULES
Everything you need to know to participate in the challenge
Ari Arnbjörnsson has designed an Unreal Engine task that can be completed in under 2 weeks. The Tech Leads of the three sponsoring studios are the judges, and they will present their winners on a panel hosted and moderated by Ari during the event.
Gameplay mechanic and core logic should be written in C++
There should be two different types of enemies.
The player should have a health bar and be able to take more than one hit before dying.
The game should have health and gun pickups.
The player should be able to pick up two different types of guns (in addition to the player's default gun).
You have a lot of freedom in how you implement the game or add to those requirements (not needed).
You're allowed to use Quixel Megascans or marketplace assets as long as they're assets only (no code or BP).
Cite your sources in your code comments if you use code/methods from elsewhere.
Feel free to break the mold or think outside the box as long as the above minimum requirements are roughly met.
Only one game entry allowed per participant (no team entries)
Take advantage of systems/features that Unreal Engine already provides.
The more you implement the more we'll have to critique. Sometimes less is more.
Our feedback will be as if you were turning in an interview assignment for a game company
This is a programming challenge, don't stress about your art and the like 😉
The submissions will be judged on 3 categories - Best Overall Concept, Best Technical Execution, and Most Creative
The judges are the tech leads from the sponsoring studios and each judge was in charge of one of the above categories
The judges attended a panel discussion where the individual judge announced his category winner and observations.
The live session took place online on 26th October at Games Job Fair Autumn 2022
Best Overall Concept
A monetary award of 500 Euros
Sponsoring Studio Swag
Recognition Digital Certificate signed by the sponsoring studios, Ari Arnbjörnsson, and Games Factory Talents
Best Technical Execution
A monetary award of 500 Euros
Sponsoring Studio Swag
Recognition Digital Certificate signed by the sponsoring studios, Ari Arnbjörnsson, and Games Factory Talents
Most Creative
A monetary award of 500 Euros
Sponsoring Studio Swag
Recognition Digital Certificate signed by the sponsoring studios, Ari Arnbjörnsson, and Games Factory Talents
Winners of the Unreal "Shmup" Challenge
BEST OVERALL CONCEPT WINNER
Best Overall Concept Winner Uğur Tunç Pugnac
Reviewing Judge Christian Kendall Lead Programmer | Slipgate Ironworks
BEST TECHNICAL EXECUTION WINNER
Best Technical Execution Winner Jan Paraska Busy Chef
Reviewing Judge Ville Valtiala CTO | Makea Games
MOST CREATIVE WINNER
Most Creative Winner Mert Yilmaz Vergillus
Reviewing Judge Mikko Uromo Co-Founder, CTO | Redhill Games
Unreal Engine "Shmup" Challenge Code Review
Watch the code review of winning entries hosted by Ari Arnbjörnsson at Games Job Fair Autumn 2022
Get to know the Judges
The judges will decide on the winners and review your code in a panel discussion at the event
Ari Arnbjörnsson
Unreal Engine Evangelist
Ari Arnbjörnsson is an Unreal Engine Evangelist at Epic Games. He has 15 years of varied games industry experience ranging from social, web and mobile games to console games. His latest work before joining Epic Games was as a lead programmer on Housemarque's BAFTA-winning Returnal for PlayStation 5.
Christian Kendall
Lead Programmer | Slipgate Ironworks
Christian is a Programmer that's been imported from the United States. Confidently confused, confidently unconfident. He started getting into game dev at the age of 15. He went to university for CS while playing for the ice hockey team. He went on doing various contract work for years before a short stint with Microsoft and joined on with Slipgate Ironworks working on multiple projects.
Mikko Uromo
Co-Founder, CTO | Redhill Games
Mikko has been working in the games and IT industry since late 1990s in various roles, but mostly as a programmer. He has worked on PC, console, mobile and web platforms and at companies like Mr.Goodliving, RealNetworks, Remedy Entertainment and Wargaming.
In 2018 Mikko returned to Finland to co-found Redhill Games to focus on free-to-play first person shooters using Unreal Engine 4 (and now 5).
Ville Valtiala
CTO | Makea Games
Ville is the Chief Technology Officer of Makea Games, a serial startup guy since 2013. He has worked in released titles and prototypes for PC, mobile and consoles. He is also a programmer in C# and C++ and tech artist.