If you ever had a game idea that you wish someone would make, maybe now is the time to take a stab at putting it together yourself. Epic Games, the creator of Unreal Tournament, Gears of War and a number of other hit franchises, has just made is game developer engine, the Unreal Engine, free for use by anyone.
This drops the $20 a month charge which was implemented a few months ago and just leaves the engine free for anyone that wants to try it - though if you publish a game, expect Epic to take a five per cent cut of your revenue in payment for the engine's usage.
This isn't just a little demo of the engine though, or something that only AAA developers can use, but everything. Epic wants everyone and anyone to pick up UE4 and make something great with it.
"In early 2014, we took the step of making Unreal Engine 4 available to everyone by subscription for $19 per month. We put all of our source code online, available to all who signed up. We flipped the switch and crossed our fingers," said Epic's founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney.
"The past year has been a whirlwind for everyone at Epic Games. Our community has grown massively. The quality and variety of creative work being done has been breathtaking. When we asked people to submit their projects to be shown this year at GDC, we had the challenge of picking just eight from over 100 finalists that were all good enough to show."
With interest in the engine at its peak, Epic thought it would be a perfect time to welcome even more developers into the Unreal universe by making it free to use.
For those wanting to get started, you can . It also includes a bunch of pre-made concepts and games for you to play with and get the hang of.
