Epic awards $50,000 in Unreal Dev Grants to UE4 education projects

Epic has awarded $50,000 to six developers and organisations working on education projects for Unreal Engine 4.

The funding comes from the company's $5 million Unreal Dev Grants initiative that offers developers, designers, programmers and artists financial support for their Unreal Engine projects.

The latest round of $50,000 in dev grants will be split between each project.

Recipients of the financial support include:

Mathew Wadstein - A game developer who created a series of tutorials on his YouTube channel dedicated to exploring Unreal Engine 4 and the Blueprints Visual Scripting system. His MVP (Minimum Viable Product) series walks users through the process of creating a basic prototype for a first person shooter from scratch in UE4.

Muhammad A. Moniem - A gameplay programmer who has been publishing free tutorials on a weekly basis on his website, Muhammad has also published three books on mastering the engine, lighting and rendering essentials, and learning iOS game development on UE4.

Jan Kaluza - An independent game developer currently working on the UE4-powered precision platforming game, Floppy & the Sleepy Planet. He has shared a variety of tutorials with the community, from how to create the slow motion explosion effect from Epic’s “Showdown” demo to using Blueprints’ math to create objects.

Cedric Neukirchen - A student who has shared several free learning resources and tutorials for developers on Unreal Engine 4 including the comprehensive Network Compendium. He has also created a free Sound Visualization Plugin for the engine, and has continually released updates for the plugin.

VirtusEdu Learning Hub - Its YouTube channel features a number of video tutorials offering step-by-step guides on how to build video games, websites and software. The channel features an extensive collection of Unreal Engine 4 beginner tutorials, breaking down the basics of the engine for aspiring developers.

Fabrice Bourrelly - A 3D artist who has released a full course for designers to realise their architectural projects in Unreal Engine 4. His tutorials include a step-by-step guide from exporting models to the engine, creating textures and lighting, and post production.