Is it possible to apply for Megagrants for the necessary hardware to learn game development in Unreal Engine as a newbie?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hi,

I have always been passionate about movies and video games but recently gained an interest in game development and would like to learn to create content. I don’t have a lot of experience in game development but I have some ideas for new exciting games and I would like to learn and create some content that I hope could lead to me developing real games based on my ideas.

I recently downloaded Unreal Engine 4.27 in hope of doing so but it turns out that my current computer doesn’t meet the requirements to use the program. I was wondering since I don’t have a concrete game project to refer to if it is still possible to apply for megagrants to get the necessary hardware or funds to acquire the hardware that fits the requirement for Unreal Engine so I can learn and explore and hopefully create amazing games in the future.

2

Of course it’s possible.

Of course your application will be ignored and rejected without comment a year later.

3

You’re probably right. The best thing to do is to apply and don’t have any expectations.

5

Megagrants are first and foremost a marketing tool. They are given to projects that already have a significant following or just make the engine really look good, making Epic look good in turn when they give them a grant. Or they are given to companies creating tools that will drive more people to the engine.

Or they are given to something like godot, which makes Epic look good while increasing competition for Unity with no real drawbacks…

6

Not saying that’s my case, since I always released the tool as Open Source… but they also give them out to tools they blatantly steal from.
At the same time they also ignore all feedback they get, so go figure.

There’s a few notable exceptions though.
Mathew Wadstein deserves any grant he got, and ShadowRiver should just be an epic employee for game jam purposes.

There’s also a few notable game development grants that went out.

But yes, they won’t give you a grant for equipment. Nor do they actually hook you up with equipment if you already have a grant.
The problem isn’t the cost, as much as the fact that GFX aren’t on the market for more than a millisecond…