I know it's only been 6 months since UDK went out to developers but a big selling point of the engine was the ability to get great performance with comparatively less effort. Thing is since Infinity Blade there hasn't been any games that really showcase the cost of developing for it. I mean, this game looks fun, but did it really need to be made with UDK? Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel And this is by Gameloft.. doesn't look any more impressive than their regular engine. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Compare this to other engines: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Not at all.. In any case, just because you're using the Unreal Engine, it doesn't mean that your game is going to look great. If you're an indie developer without any resources, the graphic engine isn't going to do anything for you. Let's just wait and see what Gameloft gives us before we make any judgment calls. We've only seen three "games" that've actually used the engine so far..Lol, you're also making it sound like every other graphics engine isn't meant to be competent enough to match up to the Unreal Engine..
It's easy to forget that an engine is just a blank canvas. Sure, Infinity blade looks awesome but it's amazing artists who make that come to life. I have no doubt that UDK can squeeze a tiny bit of extra performance out but it all comes down to who's hands the tools are in.
Which brings me to my question/opinion, if a dev/s was talented and skilled enough to make such a quality game as Infinity Blade, would they really want to pay the licensing for Unreal when they might be able to get almost similar performance out of a less expensive one?
Because we all know that when a game that runs near PS2 graphics in the palm of your HAND, that it's not good enough.
PS2 Graphics?, Of course thats not good enough, iPhone/iPad's Graphics Capabilities are FAR Beyond PS2. Aswell as Xbox,Wii,DS,PSP,3DS and Very soon: PS Vita. We're also close to Rivaling Xbox 360 and PS3 Graphics capabilities.
It's as I expected. There's not really any motivation for devs to maximium, either the potential of the iDevice as a whole, or the potential of the Unreal Engine on the iDevice. Cost prohibited would be the most appropriate term to describe the current situation. Casual games are the most successful, particularly for indie developers. Develop games cheap. Sell games cheap. Things are slightly different for major developers, like EA, but EA has access to their own internal gaming engines. They don't need to dabble in Unreal. Gameloft doesn't need to do it either. I'm not sure Gameloft is doing anything more than just that, by the way. They are dabbling in Unreal development. I'm not convinced that 2 games will suddenly become 10 games. Gameloft and Epic/Chair are the only companies that I suspect would ever utilize Unreal in serious, hardcore manner.
To me this really hits the nail on head, and applies to any development regardless of he engine used. large games are epensive to make. When you have multiple people spending months on a game the cost is in the tens of thousands. It takes a BUTTLOAD of sales at .99 cents to break even let alone make enough money to pay artists etc. If you don't already have a long time established name you may not sell anything if you dare charge more than that too. So yes, motivation is hard to find.
To some it is though, I use it all the time when I'm not on my 360 because my DS and PSP are to large to carry around.
That's the whole issue. Big devs will never treat this as a legitimate platform until we get reasonable premium pricing and maybe premium store to separate all the shovelware. Until then enjoy casual games and bland Gameloft games.
Are you crazy? As awesome as the 4th gen devices and iPad 2 are they have nothing on PS Vita, 360 and PS3. They're able to compete with the rest, I'll give you that.
This is the truth here, look on the top of the charts, what do you see? angry birds, tiny wing, cut the rope etc. How would using the unreal engine in any of those games make them better? Infinity blade sold well, but that had a large team behind it and a massive amount of hype, an indie dev can't expect to get that kind of success. Make games cheap, sell them cheap. That's the predominant philosophy on the iphone, and that's why if you want a great 3D gaming experience, you really need to look on another platform.
Frankly, Gameloft made a big deal about how there gonna use the Unreal engine, and I expected something that looked a shit ton better than what they have showed us here...I am dissapointed with them. The voice acting is just the cherry on top of the shit sundae.
Well, Infinity Blade sold more than just well. It made $10M, that is AFTER Apple's cut. It is still not Halo territory, but certainly justify close to PS3/Xbox 360 level of investment. Obviously not many games make that much though. Order & Chaos made $1M in the first like 20 days. So IB is not the only one making millions.
Most of your big PS3/360 games cost $50 million+ to make. In addition, games like IB and Angry Birds are the top end of the scale in terms of money made for iOS. If Angry Birds has made more than $10 million, they might be at $15 million by now, but not much past that. Compare that to top selling console games that end up making billions in revenue. I believe I read that WoW makes near or above a billion a month. The point is that iOS is pennies for these big developers with the current iOS pricing structure. So unless there is a mechanism to start premium pricing, we'll never get past this casual gaming phase we are in.
