Hehe I just found out Unreal is giving their UDK for freeeeeee. Man and I thought I have to make my engine from scratch lol. Can't wait for it to download, physics, particles, shadows, hoooollllyyy coooooow. Mawnster Kill!

From what i can see its:

Quote:
UDK is free for noncommercial and educational use. Licensing terms are available to those who wish to sell UDK-powered games or to create commercial products for business use at www.udk.com/licensing.

Commercial licenses seem to start at $99 + 25% of any revenue above $5000 (Not a bad deal for a startup imo)

From what I remember reading you also cannot use any of the included art/meshes/etc... for a commercial game (obvious but often overlooked by newcomers).

If you're looking at making a whole game out of it, UDK might be a good idea. But if you're just looking to do some mapping or modding without creating a lot of your own art assets you should just look into getting a copy of Unreal Tournament 3 (probably like $20 on Amazon/Steam). UT3 retail has about 10x the art content than UDK from what I've seen. (Not to mention you get a game out of it)

Of course you could always start in UDK and see if you like the editor enough to go to UT3...

Yeah I've read a little about the EULA. I guess it's not that bad, yet 25% seems kinda chilly... I have the game also, but just thought to make a completely different game using the engine. It would probably take me a year or two if I wanted to make an engine on my own, so I am happy anyways.

25% is pretty small. Microsoft takes up to 65% of XBLA games. You should be happy enough to be able to play with such an extremely pricey engine for free. And with that type of game development chances are that a) you won't make $5000 or b) you'll make a lot more.

Unity is also available free for indie use, with fairly reasonable prices for the other licenses if required.

Quote: Original post by LockePick
25% is pretty small. Microsoft takes up to 65% of XBLA games. You should be happy enough to be able to play with such an extremely pricey engine for free. And with that type of game development chances are that a) you won't make $5000 or b) you'll make a lot more.

I think that's XNA games not XBLA games. XBLA games are negotiated individually as far as I've heard as the publisher varies. XNA also has a pretty huge distribution service attached to it, and I think it only goes up to 65% when they advertise for you.

Once you include distributors a UDK game probably would net you a lot less money than you expect. Not to say it's not worth it, as I mess with it myself. Just saying UDK is solely development not distribution and advertising.