WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.560 If you wanted to start a multi -million dollar 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:05.540 tech company today, you know, you would probably 00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:07.780 follow a very predictable script. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:07.860 --> 00:00:09.939 You'd have the pitch decks. Right. The slick 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:11.859 pitch deck. You'd be booking meetings with venture 00:00:11.859 --> 00:00:15.439 capitalists and sitting in these stuffy corporate 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:18.539 board rooms trying to secure massive bank loans. 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:21.920 Yeah. You really expect the origin story of an 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:25.679 industry titan to look, well... corporate. Exactly. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:29.519 We naturally assume there is this massive impenetrable 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:32.939 barrier to entry that, you know, only the already 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:35.140 wealthy or the exceptionally well connected can 00:00:35.140 --> 00:00:37.340 actually cross. But when you look at the actual 00:00:37.340 --> 00:00:39.960 history of game development, especially in the 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:43.740 early 2000s, that polished corporate boardroom 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.859 image completely shatters. It really does. It's 00:00:46.859 --> 00:00:49.000 totally different. Because the reality is some 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:51.500 of today's most successful independent million 00:00:51.500 --> 00:00:54.219 dollar game studios. didn't start in a boardroom 00:00:54.219 --> 00:00:57.320 at all. They started with teenagers and hobbyists 00:00:57.320 --> 00:00:59.619 hacking the code of video games they had already 00:00:59.619 --> 00:01:02.229 bought. working in their bedrooms for absolutely 00:01:02.229 --> 00:01:05.170 free. Just purely for the love of it. Yeah. So 00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:08.189 today, we are taking a deep dive into exactly 00:01:08.189 --> 00:01:10.870 how that happens. We have a fascinating stack 00:01:10.870 --> 00:01:13.129 of sources in front of us detailing the history 00:01:13.129 --> 00:01:16.810 of a colossal initiative run by Epic Games. Right. 00:01:16.930 --> 00:01:19.549 It was called the Make Something Unreal contest, 00:01:19.870 --> 00:01:23.189 and it ran these massive sporadic bursts from 00:01:23.189 --> 00:01:26.810 2004 all the way to 2013. It really is a remarkable 00:01:26.810 --> 00:01:29.489 piece of technological history to define In the 00:01:29.489 --> 00:01:31.790 premise for you, Make Something Unreal was a 00:01:31.790 --> 00:01:34.730 multi -million dollar initiative specifically 00:01:34.730 --> 00:01:37.569 designed to reward developers who created mods. 00:01:37.930 --> 00:01:39.950 Which is short for modifications, right? Exactly. 00:01:40.109 --> 00:01:43.049 Modifications using the Unreal game engine. Epic 00:01:43.049 --> 00:01:45.590 Games essentially put up massive cash prizes, 00:01:45.969 --> 00:01:48.129 high -end hardware, and incredibly lucrative 00:01:48.129 --> 00:01:51.069 commercial software licenses. all to see what 00:01:51.069 --> 00:01:53.109 ordinary players could build using the bones 00:01:53.109 --> 00:01:55.230 of their existing hit games. Now before we go 00:01:55.230 --> 00:01:56.730 any further, I want to make sure we are all on 00:01:56.730 --> 00:01:58.650 the same page. We are going to be talking a lot 00:01:58.650 --> 00:02:00.950 about game engines today. Oh, for sure. That's 00:02:00.950 --> 00:02:02.950 a crucial piece of the puzzle. Right. So for 00:02:02.950 --> 00:02:05.349 the listener who maybe doesn't code or work in 00:02:05.349 --> 00:02:08.909 tech, how should they visualize what an engine 00:02:08.909 --> 00:02:13.370 actually is and why a license, for one, is such 00:02:13.370 --> 00:02:15.750 a massive prize? That is a great distinction 00:02:15.750 --> 00:02:18.210 to make. Think of building a video game like 00:02:18.210 --> 00:02:21.009 building a house. If you don't have a game engine, 00:02:21.449 --> 00:02:23.449 you have to build absolutely everything from 00:02:23.449 --> 00:02:25.370 scratch. I mean, you have to invent the concept 00:02:25.370 --> 00:02:27.960 of gravity so things fall down. Wow. Yeah, you 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:30.419 have to write complex math just to determine 00:02:30.419 --> 00:02:33.020 how light bounces off a wooden table versus a 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:35.620 metal pipe. You basically have to build the plumbing 00:02:35.620 --> 00:02:37.979 and the electrical wiring before you can even 00:02:37.979 --> 00:02:39.759 think about the fun stuff. Which would take a 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:42.599 small indie team years to do, right? Decades, 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.159 potentially. But a game engine is like buying 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:47.539 a house where the foundation, the plumbing, and 00:02:47.539 --> 00:02:49.879 the electricity are already perfectly installed. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:51.919 So you don't have to invent gravity. Exactly. 00:02:51.979 --> 00:02:53.979 The engine already knows how gravity works. You 00:02:53.979 --> 00:02:56.219 just get to jump straight to building, designing, 00:02:56.360 --> 00:02:58.990 and decorating. the rooms. In the commercial 00:02:58.990 --> 00:03:02.370 world, a license to use a top -tier engine like 00:03:02.370 --> 00:03:06.229 Unreal Engine 3 usually costs a studio millions 00:03:06.229 --> 00:03:10.830 of dollars. Millions. That is wild. And whether 00:03:10.830 --> 00:03:13.729 you are a coder yourself, a creator of any kind, 00:03:14.009 --> 00:03:16.270 or honestly just someone who loves a truly great 00:03:16.270 --> 00:03:18.509 underdog story, this deep dive is going to be 00:03:18.509 --> 00:03:20.819 a masterclass for you. It really is. It shows 00:03:20.819 --> 00:03:24.020 exactly how giving people the right tools, removing 00:03:24.020 --> 00:03:26.740 those traditional barriers, and dangling a massive 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:30.319 financial carrot can literally spawn entirely 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:33.039 new industries out of thin air. Completely. So 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:35.979 to really understand how wild this was, we have 00:03:35.979 --> 00:03:39.159 to go back to the beginning. The sheer chaotic 00:03:39.159 --> 00:03:41.960 scale of early crowdsourced game development 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:44.699 long before the indie game scene was the highly 00:03:44.699 --> 00:03:47.080 commercialized machine it is today. It was a 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:49.379 vastly different landscape back in 2004. You 00:03:49.379 --> 00:03:51.580 didn't have the digital distribution storefronts 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:53.840 we have now. Right, no app store or easy downloads. 00:03:53.979 --> 00:03:56.300 No, there was no easy one -click way for amateur 00:03:56.300 --> 00:03:58.659 developers to monetize their hobbies. If you 00:03:58.659 --> 00:04:00.539 were making a mod, you were spending thousands 00:04:00.539 --> 00:04:02.780 of hours doing it purely for the love of the 00:04:02.780 --> 00:04:04.919 game and to share it freely with the community. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:08.039 OK, let's unpack this. The massive 2004 launch 00:04:08.039 --> 00:04:10.900 of the $1 million Make Something Unreal contest. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:13.900 The scale was just incredible. Epic Games didn't 00:04:13.900 --> 00:04:16.639 just quietly put up a web page. They partnered 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:19.360 with massive hardware and software heavyweights. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.579 We are talking NVIDIA, Digital Extremes, and 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:27.319 Atari. Huge names. Yeah. And the stats for this 00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:30.240 first contest are just staggering. They had 1 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:33.540 ,000 entrants, submitting mods across 13 different 00:04:33.540 --> 00:04:35.839 categories. That thousand entrants is massive 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:38.860 for that era. And here is the kicker. All of 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:41.199 these qualifying entries had to be completely 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:44.279 freely available for download. You were building 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:47.459 these mods for Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal 00:04:47.459 --> 00:04:50.459 Tournament 2004 and giving your hard work away 00:04:50.459 --> 00:04:53.160 to the player base for nothing. Which means the 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.240 financial incentive of the contest itself was 00:04:55.240 --> 00:04:57.279 the only potential payout for these creators. 00:04:57.740 --> 00:04:59.720 And Epic made sure that payout was life -changing. 00:04:59.819 --> 00:05:02.079 Oh, absolutely. The grand prize wasn't just a 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:05.620 plastic trophy. It was $50 ,000 in cash. Plus 00:05:05.620 --> 00:05:07.800 that commercial license for Unreal Engine 3 we 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:10.519 just talked about. A literal multi -million dollar 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:14.220 value. Yes. And Epic wasn't just rewarding individuals. 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:17.920 They were giving away $300 ,000 worth of computers. 00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:22.399 They gave 50 computers just to the schools of 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:25.160 students or faculty who submitted an entry. They 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:27.360 were really investing in the whole ecosystem. 00:05:27.540 --> 00:05:30.220 And you even had people winning big outside of 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:32.720 traditional running and shooting gameplay. A 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:36.410 creator named Friedrich Kirchner won $25 ,000 00:05:36.410 --> 00:05:39.410 for a short film called The Journey. Oh, right. 00:05:39.529 --> 00:05:42.310 Using the engine to make a movie. Exactly. He 00:05:42.310 --> 00:05:44.910 won that in the best non -interactive real -time 00:05:44.910 --> 00:05:48.209 movie category, using game tech to essentially 00:05:48.209 --> 00:05:51.050 render an animated film. But wait, I have to 00:05:51.050 --> 00:05:52.769 play devil's advocate here. Go for it. Giving 00:05:52.769 --> 00:05:55.269 away commercial licenses that usually cost millions, 00:05:55.589 --> 00:05:57.490 plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash 00:05:57.490 --> 00:05:59.790 and hardware. That sounds incredibly generous, 00:05:59.889 --> 00:06:02.050 like almost too generous. Yeah. What was the 00:06:02.050 --> 00:06:03.829 catch for Epic? I mean, they aren't a charity. 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:06.220 That is exactly the right question to ask. They 00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:08.279 absolutely were not a charity. What's fascinating 00:06:08.279 --> 00:06:10.420 here is how Mark Ryan, the vice president of 00:06:10.420 --> 00:06:12.600 Epic Games at the time, actually spelled it out 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:15.759 after the 2004 contest. What did he say? He noted 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:18.040 that the ultimate beneficiaries were the games 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:20.180 industry as a whole because they uncovered, and 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:22.819 this is a quote, incredibly talented people. 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:27.350 But practically speaking for Epic. They had accidentally 00:06:27.350 --> 00:06:29.870 created the cheapest, most effective R &D department 00:06:29.870 --> 00:06:33.250 in the world. How so? Well, think about the mechanics 00:06:33.250 --> 00:06:36.069 of quality assurance testing. Usually, a company 00:06:36.069 --> 00:06:38.329 pays a team of testers to try and break their 00:06:38.329 --> 00:06:41.509 software to find the bugs. By running this contest, 00:06:41.810 --> 00:06:44.509 Epic convinced thousands of the smartest, most 00:06:44.509 --> 00:06:47.189 dedicated hobbyists in the world to stress test 00:06:47.189 --> 00:06:49.829 their brand new engine for free. Oh, wow. Yeah. 00:06:50.290 --> 00:06:52.490 These modders were pushing the code past its 00:06:52.490 --> 00:06:55.410 intended limits, finding bugs, and creating entire 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:58.800 new mechanics. Epic saved untold amounts of money 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:02.339 on QA testing, generated massive PR, sold more 00:07:02.339 --> 00:07:04.620 copies of their base games, and simultaneously 00:07:04.620 --> 00:07:07.579 identified the top tier of unhired talent in 00:07:07.579 --> 00:07:09.800 the world. That's just brilliant business logic. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:12.220 And for the developers, it was the ultimate lottery 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:14.500 ticket. It really was. The real Cinderella story 00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:17.620 of 2004 is the grand prize winner, a team called 00:07:17.620 --> 00:07:20.680 Tripwire Interactive. Oh yes, Tripwire? They 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:24.279 built a World War II shooter mod called Red Orchestra. 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:27.879 combined arms. Over the course of the contest's 00:07:27.879 --> 00:07:30.980 phases, they walked away with nearly $80 ,000 00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:34.199 in cash and computer hardware. That is huge for 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:36.339 an amateur team. But more importantly, they got 00:07:36.339 --> 00:07:40.180 that engine license. Tripwire Interactive explicitly 00:07:40.180 --> 00:07:43.160 cites this contest as the singular reason their 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:45.939 studio exists today. Because it removed the primary 00:07:45.939 --> 00:07:48.240 barrier. They didn't have to spend years trying 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:50.779 to secure a bank loan just to afford the digital 00:07:50.779 --> 00:07:52.939 foundation for their game. They already had it. 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:55.399 To put this in perspective for you, it's like 00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:58.040 someone giving you the keys to an entire fully 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:00.540 staffed manufacturing factory just because you 00:08:00.540 --> 00:08:03.120 build a really cool custom attachment for their 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:05.800 tractor in your own garage. That's a great analogy. 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:07.459 They looked at your homemade tractor attachment 00:08:07.459 --> 00:08:09.620 and said, here's the factory, go start a business. 00:08:10.180 --> 00:08:13.360 And once Epic realized how effective this crowdsourced 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:16.180 crucible was, they didn't just repeat it, they 00:08:16.180 --> 00:08:19.149 scaled it up. Precisely. They brought the contest 00:08:19.149 --> 00:08:21.889 back in 2008, partnering with Intel this time. 00:08:22.170 --> 00:08:24.209 The goal was to refine the competitive structure 00:08:24.209 --> 00:08:26.670 and pull even more high level development out 00:08:26.670 --> 00:08:29.110 of the community. Right. They asked for mods 00:08:29.110 --> 00:08:31.769 built using Unreal Engine 3 for the game Unreal 00:08:31.769 --> 00:08:33.990 Tournament 3. And they really dragged out the 00:08:33.990 --> 00:08:37.750 tension with a brutal phased structure. Phase 00:08:37.750 --> 00:08:40.309 two winners were announced in February 2009, 00:08:40.889 --> 00:08:44.129 distributing $70 ,000 in cash. Which is a lot 00:08:44.129 --> 00:08:46.070 of money to keep people motivated. Definitely. 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:49.820 But then, those Phase 2 -winning mods were actually 00:08:49.820 --> 00:08:52.860 showcased at the 2009 Game Developers Conference 00:08:52.860 --> 00:08:56.019 in San Francisco. Imagine being an amateur modder 00:08:56.019 --> 00:08:58.000 working in your basement, and suddenly your work 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.080 is playable on the floor of the biggest professional 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:02.259 industry conference in the world. It's mind -blowing 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:05.279 exposure. And it all culminated in February 2010 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:07.960 for Phase 3, giving out a share of about $100 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:10.820 ,000 in cash and hardware. The overall winner 00:09:10.820 --> 00:09:13.360 that year was a team led by Michael Hedgeman. 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:16.220 They created a game called The Haunted. It took 00:09:16.220 --> 00:09:19.620 the $50 ,000 first place prize and that coveted 00:09:19.620 --> 00:09:22.279 Unreal Engine 3 license. You're haunted, right? 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:25.840 Yeah. Epic praised it heavily for blending intense 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:28.820 survival horror, rich multiplayer mechanics, 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.120 and truly nightmarish graphics. And even if you 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:34.179 didn't get first place, the contest was still 00:09:34.179 --> 00:09:36.690 a total kingmaker. Just look at the fifth place 00:09:36.690 --> 00:09:39.309 runner -up in that 2008 contest. Oh, this is 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:41.570 a great example. It was an abstract project called 00:09:41.570 --> 00:09:44.230 Hazard, The Journey of Life, which took home 00:09:44.230 --> 00:09:48.950 $10 ,000. That bizarre experimental project later 00:09:48.950 --> 00:09:51.850 became the critically acclaimed, mind -bending 00:09:51.850 --> 00:09:55.309 puzzle game, Antichamber. Antichamber was huge. 00:09:55.429 --> 00:09:57.809 So even placing fifth could be the springboard 00:09:57.809 --> 00:10:00.629 for a massive indie hit. It was a wildly successful 00:10:00.629 --> 00:10:03.419 model. But as we move into the next decade, the 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:06.039 entire format of how Epic ran this talent search 00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:08.320 changed dramatically. Yeah, they abandoned the 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:10.840 purely online, asynchronous format of people 00:10:10.840 --> 00:10:12.899 coding in their bedrooms and submitting files 00:10:12.899 --> 00:10:15.320 over the internet. Right, because by 2012, the 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:17.500 industry was shifting, and Epic needed to prove 00:10:17.500 --> 00:10:20.799 something new. Exactly. The 2012 iteration, dubbed 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:23.919 Make Something Unreal Live, was a massive pivot. 00:10:24.299 --> 00:10:26.820 The goal was to increase the pressure, the visibility, 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:28.960 and the stakes. The stakes were incredibly high. 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:32.110 To do that, Epic turned game development, which 00:10:32.110 --> 00:10:35.509 is traditionally a very slow, isolated, behind 00:10:35.509 --> 00:10:38.610 closed doors process, into a live spectator event. 00:10:38.710 --> 00:10:41.029 Which is such a weird concept. They also partnered 00:10:41.029 --> 00:10:43.509 with Train2Game. a distance learning resource 00:10:43.509 --> 00:10:45.850 for game development, and the tech requirements 00:10:45.850 --> 00:10:48.730 shifted entirely too. They really did. Instead 00:10:48.730 --> 00:10:51.809 of just modifying an existing PC game, teams 00:10:51.809 --> 00:10:54.509 had to use the Unreal Development Kit, the free 00:10:54.509 --> 00:10:57.470 version of Unreal Engine 3, to develop a completely 00:10:57.470 --> 00:10:59.950 standalone game for the iOS mobile platform. 00:11:00.110 --> 00:11:02.409 That is a huge difference. Which means you aren't 00:11:02.409 --> 00:11:04.750 just tweaking a gun's firing rate anymore. You 00:11:04.750 --> 00:11:07.710 are building menus, optimizing for a phone's 00:11:07.710 --> 00:11:10.710 battery, and handling touch controls. It's a 00:11:10.710 --> 00:11:13.879 massive leap in re - It really reflects the explosion 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:16.399 of the App Store at the time. Epic needed to 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:18.580 prove to the industry that their engine was the 00:11:18.580 --> 00:11:20.940 premier tool for mobile development, not just 00:11:20.940 --> 00:11:23.440 high -end PC shooters. So they set up this grueling 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:25.539 gauntlet. It started with a two -day game jam 00:11:25.539 --> 00:11:28.179 to weed the applicants down to ten teams. And 00:11:28.179 --> 00:11:30.740 the theme they were given? Guy Fawkes. A very 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:34.379 specific, culturally resonant theme. Right. You 00:11:34.379 --> 00:11:37.370 can't just rely on pre -built... generic sci 00:11:37.370 --> 00:11:41.009 -fi or fantasy assets, when the prompt is a 17th 00:11:41.009 --> 00:11:44.029 century historical figure, it forces immediate 00:11:44.029 --> 00:11:46.950 lateral thinking. It really does. The survivors 00:11:46.950 --> 00:11:50.549 from that initial Jam 3 top teams, plus a fourth 00:11:50.549 --> 00:11:52.690 team made up of the most talented people pulled 00:11:52.690 --> 00:11:55.269 from the losing groups, were chosen for the main 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:57.779 event. Okay. They had to spend the next six months 00:11:57.779 --> 00:12:00.279 developing role -playing games based on the classic 00:12:00.279 --> 00:12:02.519 fighting fantasy game books. On brutal six months, 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:05.580 I'm sure. All of this led up to a final live 00:12:05.580 --> 00:12:07.919 two -day development sprint at the Gadget Show 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:11.460 Live in April 2012. They were placed on stage 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:14.460 in front of massive screens with the public actively 00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:16.539 watching them work. Wait, I have to stop you 00:12:16.539 --> 00:12:18.139 there. Yeah. They put these developers in front 00:12:18.139 --> 00:12:20.240 of large screens to be watched by the general 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:23.159 public at a gadget show. I love video games, 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:26.519 I really do. But isn't coding incredibly tedious 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:28.740 to watch? It can be, yeah. You're essentially 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:31.179 watching people type lines of text, stare at 00:12:31.179 --> 00:12:34.659 spreadsheets, and debug error messages. Why try 00:12:34.659 --> 00:12:37.259 to make game development a spectator sport? That 00:12:37.259 --> 00:12:38.960 sounds like watching paint dry, but with more 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:41.200 math. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:43.159 it wasn't just about watching the keystrokes. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:46.980 It was about the mentorship and the human drama 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:49.840 of creation. OK, I'm listening. Epic brought 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.240 in industry legends to guide these teams live 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:55.279 on stage. You had Peter Molyneux, Cliff Blazinski, 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:59.080 John Hare Hare, absolute giants of game design 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:01.440 mentoring these relatively unknown developers 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.899 in real time. Oh, wow. That changes things. Exactly. 00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:08.559 By putting this on large screens, it demystified 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:11.440 the magic of game design for the public. It turned 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:14.080 an isolated technical process into an accessible, 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:16.600 high -stakes narrative. You could see the problem 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:18.799 -solving, the frustration, the breakthroughs, 00:13:18.820 --> 00:13:20.919 and the interactions with these legendary mentors. 00:13:21.340 --> 00:13:23.679 It was educational theater. Okay, I want you 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:26.960 to imagine you are that amateur coder. You have 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:29.320 maybe slept three hours in the last two days. 00:13:29.460 --> 00:13:32.059 Probably less. You have a massive monitor projecting 00:13:32.059 --> 00:13:34.559 your screen to a live audience. The clock is 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:37.139 literally ticking down above your head, and Cliff 00:13:37.139 --> 00:13:39.240 Blazinski is literally breathing down your neck 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:41.240 asking why your lighting code keeps crashing. 00:13:41.940 --> 00:13:44.360 The psychological toll is immense. It's a pressure 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:47.019 cooker. The pressure was unbelievable, but it 00:13:47.019 --> 00:13:50.230 produced undeniable results. It did. A development 00:13:50.230 --> 00:13:53.610 team named Commander Kiwi won the 2012 contest. 00:13:54.090 --> 00:13:57.490 They built a fantasy RPG called Warlock of Firetop 00:13:57.490 --> 00:14:01.090 Mountain, lost chapters, securing the full commercial 00:14:01.090 --> 00:14:04.190 license for Unreal Engine 3. Good for them. But 00:14:04.190 --> 00:14:06.610 the real victory, the thing that proves this 00:14:06.610 --> 00:14:09.570 live crucible actually worked, is that all four 00:14:09.570 --> 00:14:12.149 of the finalist's games were successfully released 00:14:12.149 --> 00:14:15.129 on the iOS app store after the gadget show live. 00:14:15.509 --> 00:14:18.639 They all shipped a real commercial product. The 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:20.840 live event proved they could forge diamonds under 00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:23.279 pressure. But to secure the future of the medium, 00:14:23.659 --> 00:14:26.460 the contest made one final pivot, focusing entirely 00:14:26.460 --> 00:14:28.179 on the next generation. Here's where it gets 00:14:28.179 --> 00:14:30.919 really interesting. Oh, the 2013 shift. Yes. 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:33.980 In late 2012, they announced Make Something Unreal 00:14:33.980 --> 00:14:36.919 Live 2013. And this time, they closed the doors 00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:39.379 to the general public. The competition was open 00:14:39.379 --> 00:14:41.340 strictly to students. Just spooning. Right. They 00:14:41.340 --> 00:14:43.360 were tasked with making pitches for a PC game 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:45.889 using the Unreal development kit. And if you 00:14:45.889 --> 00:14:48.110 thought Guy Fawkes was a weird constraint, the 00:14:48.110 --> 00:14:50.830 prompt they gave these students is wild. The 00:14:50.830 --> 00:14:54.169 theme was Mendelian genetics. Mendelian genetics. 00:14:54.450 --> 00:14:57.629 It's a brilliant, highly restrictive constraint. 00:14:57.990 --> 00:15:00.289 Right. For this iteration, Epic partnered not 00:15:00.289 --> 00:15:02.470 just with gaming entities, but with educational 00:15:02.470 --> 00:15:05.289 and scientific institutions. They had Staffordshire 00:15:05.289 --> 00:15:08.309 University as their educational partner, UCHI, 00:15:08.850 --> 00:15:12.169 the Games Industry Trade Association, and, incredibly, 00:15:12.649 --> 00:15:16.100 the Welcome Trust, a massive biomedical research 00:15:16.100 --> 00:15:18.580 charity. It's an amazing lineup of partners. 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.440 It's like asking a group of master pastry chefs 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:23.600 to bake a wedding cake, but telling them they 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:25.399 can only use ingredients found in a hardware 00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:27.750 store. That's a great way to put it. It forces 00:15:27.750 --> 00:15:30.529 pure, desperate innovation. You couldn't just 00:15:30.529 --> 00:15:32.909 build another World War II shooter or a zombie 00:15:32.909 --> 00:15:35.690 survival game. You had to conceptualize highly 00:15:35.690 --> 00:15:38.309 innovative mechanics based entirely on the hard 00:15:38.309 --> 00:15:40.750 science laws of heredity and genetic inheritance. 00:15:41.110 --> 00:15:44.090 Exactly. And 12 teams made the shortlist in November, 00:15:44.429 --> 00:15:46.509 presenting works in progress. And the judges 00:15:46.509 --> 00:15:48.750 whittled it down to four teams to compete again 00:15:48.750 --> 00:15:51.330 at the Gadget Show Live in 2013. Back to the 00:15:51.330 --> 00:15:54.090 live stage. Back to the live stage. They followed 00:15:54.090 --> 00:15:57.159 that same high pressure live format. with mentors 00:15:57.159 --> 00:15:59.720 like Peter Molyneux returning, and new judges 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.379 like Bioware producer Mike Gamble stepping in 00:16:02.379 --> 00:16:05.220 to evaluate the final products. And the winner 00:16:05.220 --> 00:16:08.200 they chose was a team called Dead Shark Triple 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:12.039 Punch. They built a game called Epigenesis. And 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:14.460 how did they interpret Mendelian genetics under 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:16.440 all that pressure? They made a first -person 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:18.080 ball game. Which no one would have expected. 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:21.019 No. The judges were so blown away by the mechanics 00:16:21.019 --> 00:16:23.600 they actually described it as a potential e -sport. 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:27.080 For winning first place, Dead Shark Triple Punch 00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:29.539 won a commercial license for Unreal Engine 3 00:16:29.539 --> 00:16:32.379 and a license for the brand new Unreal Engine 00:16:32.379 --> 00:16:34.960 4. Setting them up for the future. Completely. 00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:38.059 Even the second -place team, Kyro Games, walked 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:40.820 away with a UE3 license for their game Polymorph. 00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:42.879 It seemed like the contest had finally found 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:45.639 this perfect, sustainable rhythm. They had built 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:47.960 a pipeline that pulled students out of the classroom, 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:51.019 subjected them to intense, scientifically rigorous 00:16:51.019 --> 00:16:53.100 design challenges, and launched them straight 00:16:53.100 --> 00:16:55.159 into the commercial industry. So what does this 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:57.759 all mean? We have this incredible engine of creation. 00:16:58.139 --> 00:17:01.159 This proven pipeline from dorm rooms to commercial 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:04.700 storefronts. And then the twist. Make something 00:17:04.700 --> 00:17:07.299 unreal never returned after the 2013 event. It 00:17:07.299 --> 00:17:10.140 just ended. That was it. The million dollar mod 00:17:10.140 --> 00:17:14.799 contest simply vanished. But Epic Games didn't 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:17.460 stop funding creators. They just completely changed 00:17:17.460 --> 00:17:20.960 the model. Fast forward to 2019 and Epic launches 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:23.970 something called Epic Mega Grants. The huge shifts. 00:17:24.049 --> 00:17:27.150 Not a contest, a grant -based scheme. And the 00:17:27.150 --> 00:17:28.690 funding pool didn't just go up a little bit. 00:17:28.829 --> 00:17:32.069 It was a massive $100 million program. This raises 00:17:32.069 --> 00:17:34.269 an important question about the evolution of 00:17:34.269 --> 00:17:37.190 industry funding. We watched Epic move away from 00:17:37.190 --> 00:17:39.670 this high -stress winner -takes -all gladiator 00:17:39.670 --> 00:17:42.490 arena. Yeah, no more live stage sweating. Exactly. 00:17:42.690 --> 00:17:44.690 For a decade, developers had to fight through 00:17:44.690 --> 00:17:47.190 phases, survive live on -stage game jams, and 00:17:47.190 --> 00:17:49.289 conform to highly specific themes just to get 00:17:49.289 --> 00:17:52.000 their hands on a commercial license. The MegaGrants 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.599 shift represents a maturing of the ecosystem. 00:17:55.180 --> 00:17:57.460 Instead of making developers jump through theatrical 00:17:57.460 --> 00:18:00.559 hoops to prove their worth, Epic created a system 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.240 that simply funds promising creators outright 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:06.759 with no strings attached. It relies on the sheer 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:09.980 volume of a hundred million dollar fund to elevate 00:18:09.980 --> 00:18:12.819 the entire industry without the bottleneck of 00:18:12.819 --> 00:18:15.640 a competition. It is a totally different philosophy. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.619 We've spent this deep dive tracking how a company 00:18:18.619 --> 00:18:21.720 literally birthed studios by giving away free 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:25.099 tools and setting seemingly impossible challenges. 00:18:25.180 --> 00:18:27.619 From the ground up. Yeah. From the Wild West 00:18:27.619 --> 00:18:30.859 to the 2004 modding scene where Tripwire Interactive 00:18:30.859 --> 00:18:32.859 won enough cash and tech to build a company from 00:18:32.859 --> 00:18:35.720 nothing, to the live stage pressure cookers of 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:39.140 2012 and 2013 that forced exhausted students 00:18:39.140 --> 00:18:42.140 to turn genetics into a competitive esport. they 00:18:42.140 --> 00:18:44.440 really pushed people to the limit. They changed 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:47.579 the PC and mobile gaming landscapes forever by 00:18:47.579 --> 00:18:50.019 just daring people to build something cool and 00:18:50.019 --> 00:18:51.900 giving them the underlying plumbing to do it. 00:18:52.099 --> 00:18:54.000 And while the new grant system is objectively 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.240 more supportive and provides a massive safety 00:18:56.240 --> 00:18:58.440 net for modern developers, it does leave you 00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:00.180 with something to consider. What's that? Well, 00:19:00.259 --> 00:19:02.779 if this crowdsourced high -pressure crucible 00:19:02.779 --> 00:19:06.079 model worked so perfectly to uncover unproven 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:08.980 genius in video games, Why aren't we seeing this 00:19:08.980 --> 00:19:11.079 in other critical industries? Well, that's an 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:14.059 interesting point. Imagine a make something unreal 00:19:14.059 --> 00:19:17.019 contest for medical research or green energy 00:19:17.019 --> 00:19:20.039 infrastructure. What if ordinary people were 00:19:20.039 --> 00:19:22.480 given the corporate keys, a massive financial 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:25.619 incentive and a bizarre constraint and simply 00:19:25.619 --> 00:19:28.819 told to solve a problem? Are we missing out on 00:19:28.819 --> 00:19:31.140 rapid innovation in other fields because we are 00:19:31.140 --> 00:19:33.480 too attached to the traditional corporate boardroom? 00:19:33.619 --> 00:19:35.839 Man, it really makes you wonder how many incredible 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:37.960 solutions are just sitting in someone's bedroom 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:40.579 waiting for the right kind of chaotic invitation 00:19:40.579 --> 00:19:43.240 to come out. Absolutely. Thank you for joining 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:45.960 us on this deep dive. Keep questioning the process, 00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:48.160 keep exploring, and we'll catch you next time.