Epic MegaGrants: 2022 Update

December 13, 2022
Animation
Architecture
Automotive & Transportation
Education
Epic MegaGrants
Film & Television
Games
Simulation
VR
Virtual Production
Four years in and the Epic MegaGrants program is still going strong. Across six continents, over 1,800 recipients and counting are now using the engine to realize new tech, new experiences, and long-held dreams. 

Whether it’s an indie developer getting their passion project off the ground or a company deciding, “The industry needs this tool,” the MegaGrants community is uniquely skilled at pushing real-time forward. And to our delight, they’ve even created a Discord to keep each other motivated. It’s been so much fun watching the community grow and flourish! 

On our end, we’ve been working hard to amplify and support these creators, giving them whatever they need to keep everything moving in the right direction. You might have seen our recent global Epic MegaGrants Spotlight that showcased four teams around the world doing amazing things. You might have checked out the MegaGrants Stories page or even followed #EpicMegaMondays and #EpicMegaGrants as a way to keep up with everything that’s going on out there—and there’s a lot.

But one of the things we’ve been most excited to put together was the Epic MegaGrants Perks Program. This is a list of Epic’s curated partners and Unreal Engine Ecosystem resources that past, present, and future MegaGrants recipients can tap to take their projects to the next level. 

AMD, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Intel, and Move.ai are already bringing in huge perks like free hardware, AWS Activate credits, marketing support, and more.

“We’ve been excited about Intel’s first discrete GPUs and their full support for Lumen, Nanite, and ray tracing in Unreal Engine 5.1 for a while now, so it’s wonderful to also welcome them to the MegaGrants family as a partner and sponsor,” says Chris Kavcsak, Head of Epic MegaGrants at Epic Games.

We’ll also be adding in our own perks from the Epic Ecosystem, including free licenses/premium accounts for Capturing Reality and Sketchfab. Expect even more news in the months to come. Recipients, check your inbox for an email with all the initial specifics. 

And to anyone else with big plans, check out how to apply for a MegaGrant. We’ll be accepting applications for 2023, starting in January.

Onto the fun part! Every year, we pull some of the most impressive and innovative projects from the new recipient list to showcase. Some come from small teams (though you’d never know it). Some are advancing noble causes. Others are just really, really fun.

Check them out below!
 

INDEPENDENT GAMES

Witchfire - The Astronauts - Poland

Hunt a powerful witch holding the key to your salvation with the help of strange weapons and forbidden pagan magic. Designed for both roguelite and non-roguelite fans alike, Witchfire is a dark fantasy shooter that is as challenging as it is satisfying. Find your road to victory in the latest title from the creators of Painkiller, Bulletstorm, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. 
 


Stormgate - Frost Giant Studios - United States

Brave the shattered remnants of a post-apocalyptic future Earth in a new real-time strategy game designed by genre veterans. Command human Resistance mechs—or take sides with the demonic Infernal invaders—as you fight epic battles that will decide the fate of the world. 
 


Kukoos: Lost Pets - PetitFabrik - Brazil

An experiment has gone wrong, turning peaceful pets into aggressive rebels. Travel through secret realms of a massive Kukoo tree to find your friends and end the pet rebellion in this charming 3D platformer.
 


Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) - Unreliable Narrators - Canada

Immerse yourself in the harsh wilderness of 17th-century Canada through the eyes of Maikan, a young Innu, and Jeanne, a French woman who crossed the Atlantic to start a new life. Decide how the characters will survive, and watch the impact of your choices unfold in a coming-of-age story that fulfills the studio’s objective to “give voice to those that too often go unheard.” 
 


Candle Knight - Dracma Studios - Mexico

Wield your flame to overcome menacing creatures lurking in the shadows of a ruined castle; use the dynamic difficulty system to your advantage; traverse challenging platforming sections; and solve cryptic puzzles inside surreal paintings, all within this 2.5D action-adventure platformer.
 


Spiral - Folklore Games - Canada

Witness the cognitive degeneration of a man from inside his mind in a poetic exploration game designed to raise awareness around mental health and what someone goes through when they are battling this heartbreaking form of decline. In the game, you accompany Bernard as you help him wish goodbye to his memories, and see what made him the man he is today.
 

FILM, TV & LIVE EVENTS

Little Bird - BIT FILMS LLC - United States

Written and directed by Chris Perry, Little Bird follows a brave young astronaut as she wrestles with a heart-wrenching choice. The non-photorealistic film has been captivating audiences since its Short Nite premiere, and was recently nominated for a Children’s & Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Program. The same plugin the creators developed to enable real-time compositing of multiple render passes, a customizable projection paint system, and special lighting tools in Unreal Engine is also available now.
 


BECKONING - Sava Zivkovic - Serbia

After a spaceship mistakenly travels back in time and crash-lands on medieval Earth, a group of astronauts struggle to survive a witch-hunt led by inquisition knights. If you wanted The Revenant meets Lost in Space, you got it. What begins in this new animated proof-of-concept is already being developed into a feature-length film. Stay tuned! 
 


The Silent Sea - Westworld - Republic of Korea

Now on Netflix, The Silent Sea is a riveting sci-fi, mystery thriller where most of the action takes place on the moon. By using virtual production techniques, LED walls, and Unreal Engine, Westworld were not only able to give actors realistic environments to play against, but designed a hyperrealistic crash landing that made the film even more enjoyable.
 


Mall Stories - Chromosphere - United States

Meet the endearing staff of fictional food court eatery Atilla the Grilla in this documentary-style short. More than just a creative exercise, director Elizabeth Ito’s (City of Ghosts, Adventure Time) characters are drawn from real people working at a Mongolian Grill in Burbank Town Center, grounding the interviews in the real-world minutiae of mall life.
 


Life Rendered - Anonymous Content & Evil Monster Dog - United States

Life Rendered is a hybrid live-action and virtual production short film directed by Unreal Engine Fellow, Emma Needell. Set in the near-future, the film follows a young gay man who leads a double life: one as caretaker to his disabled cowboy father; another in virtual reality, where he builds epic worlds and finds romance. Since the film debuted at the 2022 Tribeca Festival, it won the Best US Drama award at SF Indie, screened at HollyShorts, Spark Animation, and many other leading film festivals, and has qualified for the Academy Awards.
 


Kaia's Discoveries - Hype - Brazil

Kaia's Discoveries is a preschool series about the curious Kaia. Each episode is like a fresh day in a kid's life: full of discoveries! Through music and simple melodies, Kaia and her friends show a new world to everyone that jumps along them into this adventure. How does the sun shine? Why the moon don't fall to earth? Who invented the computer? What is the Internet? By exploring these themes, Kaia and her friends transform learning into a fun adventure.
 

TOOLS AND OPEN SOURCE

Real-Time AI Markerless Motion Capture - Move.ai Ltd - United Kingdom

Move.ai brings markerless motion capture to mobile, giving creators access to AAA-quality mocap that was previously only available to major studios. Powered by AI, the app enables anyone to capture high-quality motion data in any environment or location using mobile phones, with no suits, markers, or additional hardware needed. Move.ai has also been kind enough to offer some perks to its fellow MegaGrants recipients, so props to the team for that, as well.
 


Smart MetaHumans - Inworld AI - United States

Create generative NPCs or MetaHumans that think and speak for themselves—then ask them anything! Powered by AI, Inworld characters have memories, can carry on open-ended conversations, and make you laugh (or maybe cry). Use natural language and simple controls to design your character’s personality, and 20 machine learning models do the rest.
 


Ixora - Ixora Inc. - Canada

Ixora helps developers generate highly realistic vegetation that looks like it's been growing for years. By leveraging physical simulation, plants can grow and avoid objects while intelligently competing with one another for light and space—saving artists countless hours. Using the MegaGrant, Ixora developed a new set of forest generation tools called MetaFlora, which helps plants grow within Unreal Engine.
 


Replica AI Voice Actors - Replica Media Pty Ltd - Australia

Introducing Replica Studios, a library of AI voice actors for your games and films. Whether you're building a VR experience, fantasy RPG, or training and simulation content, these voices can create faster audio tasks for your production. One-click exports then make it easy to bring dialogue directly into the UE4 or UE5 editor. 
 

EDUCATION

Unreal Engine for Motion Graphics Artists - Jonathan Winbush - United States

Multi-award winning motion graphics artist Jonathan Winbush’s new course teaches artists Unreal Engine 5 In 5 Days. Designed for motion graphics artists, the course takes them from install to fully fledged renders in “no time flat.” Along the way, they’ll also learn key skills like how to approach logo animations, world-building, material building, and integrations with other Maxon/Adobe applications.
 


Girls Make Games - LearnDistrict/Girls Make Games - United States

Girls Make Games is a series of summer camps, workshops, and game jams designed to inspire the next generation of designers, creators, and engineers. While the program has already reached over 23,000 people since 2014, the MegaGrant is currently powering an additional set of workshops for 100 educators from around the world and teen girls/non-binary kids who want to learn how to create their own games in Unreal Engine.
 


University Lusófona Unreal Education - COFAC - Portugal

University Lusófona’s game and cinema students now have a joint path dedicated to Unreal Engine and virtual film production. Students can not only learn a widely sought-after skill set, but experience film/broadcast studios firsthand thanks to the support of partner, GTC.
 

ARCHITECTURE AND OTHER INDUSTRIES

Virtual Show Homes and Showrooms - Dyna 4 Studio LLC - United States

Dyna 4 Studio builds high-quality custom virtual showrooms and environments that can be streamed from the cloud for easy access. Investors, architects, product designers, artists—anyone who needs to show their product to the world can now do it in the most convenient way possible.
 


GORILLA STREAMING - MONKEYWAY - Germany

MONKEYWAY is building an interface for Unreal Engine’s Pixel Streaming feature via GORILLA STREAMING, a proprietary service that is already powering Pagani’s and Aston Martin’s real-time 3D configurator. Soon, UE creators can work and test locally with the same quality as the Pagani experience, simplifying the overall process and opening up real-time cloud streaming to even more people.
 


R.Design - Amocc Pte. Ltd. - Singapore

R. Design is an interior styling software that helps people visualize furniture and art ideas, even if they have no experience with 3D modeling. Whether it’s being used by an indie furniture shop owner or an everyday person who just wants to style their home, this customizable platform will quickly show them if a design is working.
 


V2i Sketchtime - V2i Realtime Pty Ltd - Australia

V2i Sketchtime is a cloud-based platform with 3D terrain and data overlay information for the entire globe. Because of its plug-and-play nature, V2i Sketchtime requires no technical knowledge, giving users an easy way to virtually collaborate in a spatially accurate 3D world, using any device and the power of AWS-backed web streaming.
 


Openhaus - Openhouse Technologies Private Ltd - India

Openhaus is building India’s property metaverse, a 1:1 scale 3D digital twin of urban India. This immersive property map will connect property seekers to their built environments, enabling seamless decision making. Sellers will understand their customers better, creating better customer experiences and tremendous value in the entire property ecosystem.
 

Below you can find the most recent list of Epic MegaGrant recipients that have agreed to be part of this announcement:

Games
Film, TV, and Live Events
Education
Tools & Open Source
AEC 
Other Non-Games

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