GDC 2015: Demo Your Project at the Unreal Engine Booth!

General Announcements
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If you’re making an awesome Unreal Engine 4 project, and you’d like to seize the opportunity to get it in front of the fine people attending GDC, then we want to hear from you! Epic is offering up a limited number of demo pods to the community for showcasing UE4-based games and applications at our booth, #1024 Moscone South, right next to our friends at Oculus and NVIDIA. It’s a great chance to share your work, get valuable peer feedback, and hang with our team.

To get started, send an email to [EMAIL=“gdcsubs@unrealengine.com”]gdc2015@unrealengine.com using the pitch template below. A few of us will be checking the inbox and triaging submissions, and we’ll begin replying to everyone next week. Thanks, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Pitch Template

  • Title (project code name is fine)
  • Platform(s), e.g., Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One, iOS, Android, VR, HTML5
  • Description (3-4 sentences)
  • Link to in-engine video, 30-60 seconds; YouTube, Dropbox, Vimeo are all fine
  • Contact name and title / role
  • Email address
  • Any other helpful links, e.g., website, social handles, etc.

FAQ

What’s your timeline for making decisions?
We’ll begin looking over pitches and triaging them this week, with emails going out acknowledging submissions next week. Ideally we’d like to have all submissions in hand by January 31, 2015. We plan to make final selections the following week.

How many pods are up for grabs?
Our current booth design allows for eight (8) third-party demo pods.

What will Epic cover in terms of passes and costs?
We’ll take care of getting you and up to three team members (four people total) into the show with an exhibitor badge, which will grant admittance to the expo area an hour before the show opens each day. You’ll be responsible for your own travel and lodging. We’ll provide refreshments at the booth during show hours. And laughs. And maybe hugs, but not in a creepy way.

What will be expected in terms of logistics?
We’ll need any key creative assets, e.g., team logo, game logo, key art, so we can personalize your demo space with dedicated signage. Epic is happy to provide a Tiki PC setup with a beefy NVIDIA graphics card, keyboard and mouse to ensure your project handles optimally. If your demo is on console, mobile or VR, you’ll need to bring that hardware - and, naturally, a build of your game. We’ll have internet access at the booth, but note that conference connectivity is notoriously spotty! Tech setup will take place on Tuesday, March 3, and you’ll be responsible for staffing your demo during expo hours (Wednesday - Friday).

What sort of promotional exposure does this entail?
You’ll be a part of our GDC presence, so you can count on inclusion in at least a blog post or two, social media promotion and mentions in our news and media pitches. You may even appear in one of our videos from the show, assuming you’re cool with that. Lastly, the Unreal Engine booth is in the middle of the main floor, South Hall - so there will be lots of traffic!

For reference, check out what we did for EGX 2014:
Call for submissions for EGX 2014
Announcement of games at our EGX booth
Interviews with developers at EGX 2014

Please feel to ask more questions here!

2

Ahh I wish my project was further along… I hope Epic does something similar next year.
This is a fantastic initiative from Epic, I’m sure it will help folks out substantially.

3

Next time…GDC 2016 I’ll definitely be there. :slight_smile:

4

Hope something like this will happen at GDC Europe some day. Maybe when my game is far enough to show it off some :smiley:

5

Looks great. Quick question. Is this only for games, or can I submit a tech demo based on modifications to the engine? Working on real time GI inside UE, that’s why I ask ;D

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@RyanTorant - We’re open to the idea of heavily groundbreaking work that isn’t necessarily game specific, feel free to apply.

7

Great then! Let’s see if it is more polished in a few weeks. Got till the 31 right?

8

Lots of great submissions rolling in. Keep up em comin!

9

+1
can you give us the deadline for applying?

10

Will a similar thing be happening at EGX again this year? I should have some awesome stuff to submit then.

11

In the FAQs, we call out the end of Jan. as our ideal endpoint. Not to say we absolutely wont take anything after that, but it’ll be increasingly difficult to get everything in order after the end of the month.

12

how finished the game have to be? prototype version allowed it? final assets must be showed?

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Typically speaking, that’s up to you I think. But think about the impression you want to give people of both yourselves, and how epic want their engine to be presented too :wink:

14

I wouldn’t go for this with a mere prototype; I hope something like this happens when my project is ready for Steam :eek:

15

Do these submissions require game-play or can they be conceptual in-engine set pieces and assets along with an in-engine scripted teaser?

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Hopefully we can submit something at the end of the month. That would be sick! :slight_smile:

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Hey Chance Ivey,

What is the definition for “in-engine video” for the submission?
Is this in-game cinematic trailer or in-game gameplay trailer, or what are the requirements or would the judge like to see?

18

I see that you said you’re hoping to have all submissions in-hand by the 31st of January but you also said you would be reviewing and getting back to people before then so does that mean the deadline to submit has passed or we can submit by the 31st?

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We’ll be taking submissions until at least that time, any later would mean higher difficulty in travel planning for developers trying to book flights and hotel. We want to make sure we give enough time for that :slight_smile:

20

We just want to make sure the content you submit is representative of the game itself. So send in video of your game running in UE4 :slight_smile: