Epic Games Is Just Trolling Fans at This Point With New $50k AI Game Contest

Epic Games is going beyond pushing its developers to use artificial intelligence and is now rounding up fans for an AI-based game development competition called the Epic AI MegaJam. Participants are encouraged to use AI tools to make a game in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). This so-called creativity competition is yet another controversial move, and at this point, it feels like Epic Games is just adding fuel to the fire.

Epic Games is hosting an AI MegaJam from Nov. 12 to Nov. 15. During these three days, participants have unlimited AI tools at their disposal, and their goal is to create the best game in the competition and win $50,000. According to the rules, they can use assets that they didn't make, as long as they have a license, and AI to code and generate assets, audio, video, and writing. Teams retain legal rights to their submissions and may use them as they wish after the contest.

The FAQ states that participants do not have to use AI. While it would be great to see an all-human team win, the competition only lasts three days, which would make it extremely hard for them to create a game and deliver it within the time limit — and Epic is fully aware of this.

Epic pushes AI usage to speed up the game development process

To announce the competition, the official Unreal Engine X account posted a link to the sign-up page as well as a meme. The meme featured two hands: one with six fingers holding up a red pill saying "ship awesome games in a weekend," and one with five fingers holding up a blue pill saying "wait months to prototype." The description of the red pill suggests Epic accepts that AI does not create a perfect product but can deliver it much faster; the comfortable reality of the blue pill prevents the game development process from speeding up.

This post and recent decisions have made it clear that Epic Games is turning into an AI-first company. Developers have been told to stop handwriting code and stick to AI tools. Epic showed pride in telling the world that its new store launcher was vibe coded because "programming is hard."

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is using social media to advocate for the use of AI in video games, claiming that it will lead to a "golden age of gaming." These ideas are increasingly aligned with Elon Musk's, the AI-loving billionaire. Musk wants to cement artificial intelligence's place in game development. His goal is to refine artificial intelligence to produce AI-generated games.