LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Mark Rein was at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas for DICE 2010 to award the winners of the Intel $1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest with their prizes during a luncheon that officially kicked off the annual videogame conference. The grand prize winning mod team from Germany was awarded an Unreal Engine 3 commercial license in addition to a check for $50,000 for The Haunted, with runner-up winners receiving $40,000 for The Ball, $30,000 for Angels Fall First: Planetstorm, $20,000 for Prometheus and $10,000 for Hazard: The Journey of Life. Educational category winners also received a total of $25,000 in cash, for a grand total well in excess of $1 million in cash and prizes awarded through all phases of the competition.
“We’re beyond impressed with the level of talent we’ve uncovered as a result of our latest Make Something Unreal Contest,” said Rein. “The mastery of the Unreal Engine 3 tools shown by these teams is fantastic. This year’s winners have created the most ambitious mods we’ve seen to date. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to help these gifted programmers, designers and artists launch their professional careers.”
After the awards luncheon, Rein could be found playing with his iPhone, which had a brand new Unreal Engine 3 tech demo running in full 3D. Rein, who also attended Apple’s iPad reveal in San Francisco last month, said that UE3 is now being used by developers for 3D iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Rein talks about the new portable direction for Epic Games and gives his thoughts on the impact all of Apple’s devices will have on videogames moving forward in this exclusive interview, which includes a first look at UE3 running on a portable.
