I've always said that the most powerful things about the games that are out today are not there engines but their communities, specifically their mod (modification) communities. Well, Epic Games is taking this to a whole new level. They are sponsoring a contest (along with the usual suspects like nvidia) for people to create the best mod for their current Unreal game engine. Two catches: at www.masteringunreal.com you'll find a site they created to train people how to create the mods! According to the site, there are over 120 hours of training available for free! The first headline you read on the site screams 'WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF LEARNING.' Amazing. They aren't kidding ? here is the description for a 101 class:
'The Unreal Technology Level Editing 101 class is designed to teach the student the necessary skills to create their own game levels for use with Unreal. The first module will introduce the student to the latest version of UnrealEd, the powerful editor that is included with the Unreal Tournament 2003. The module will cover an introduction to the UnrealEd user interface, and an explanation of many of the necessary tools for level creation. The module lecture will actually walk the student through creation of their first level, including lights, textures, and population of the level with static meshes.'
Powerful stuff? but wait... there's more - the Grand Prize winner will receive a full license of the current Unreal engine and the next-gen version! hey people! That is a $350,000 (US) prize!!! It could turn that one person into to their own game publisher overnight! The winner will be announced at the Game Developers Conference on March 22, 2004. What does this mean for people clinging to their educational content like that is what is going to drive an economic engine?
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