Side Track: Unreal Development Kit

OK, I've been working (slowly) over the last month on refactoring my flow, but I'm not ready to post stuff.  However I decided that I was going to download the Unreal Development Kit and see if I could get 'Epic Citadel' to compile and install my own version.  Step 1 is to boot up a windows box and download the development kit.   It's a 1.1 GB download.  

The UDK is Windows only, but interestingly enough it can send data directly to your iphone for testing and running.  For submission to the developer program you need to use your Mac.  I'm not sure if that means you can't use Objective-C stuff directly in it, probably not.

It was trivially easy to get stuff running on the iPhone.  I installed the application, started the Mobile Editor, and used their sample map.   I then ran play install on iOS device, and it prompted me for my provisioning certificate, my developer certificate and for some plist information.  I just moved those over from my mac, and boom I had a level running on my iPhone 4.

I don't have much knowledge of the unreal editor, I played with the very first version when Unreal first came out.  It looks like a non-trivial learning curve, however for those with skills creating models, textures and scripting, I think getting a really nice game has just become a lot easier.  I look forward to a good game in the Epic Citadel map.  (If I read their licensing terms correctly, you can use those models in your game, your milage may vary, I'm not a lawyer.)   (Infinity blade is OK, but not my style of game).

Epic did a great job of getting a third party editor working with iOS.  I'm sure there are pitfalls in moving forward with a real game, but the first impressions are VERY impressive.
(Epic requires the following text when writing documentation about using the Unreal Development Kit, since they are providing this for FREE, I think it's quite reasonable to comply with their legal requirements.)




Note this blog post is not endorsed by Epic games. 
Unreal Development Kit (UDK) © 2009, Epic Games, Inc. Epic, Epic Games, Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Unreal, AnimSet Viewer, AnimTree Editor, Unreal Cascade, Unreal Content Browser, Unreal Development Kit, Unreal Editor, Unreal Engine, Unreal Kismet, Unreal Lightmass, Unreal Matinee, Unreal PhAT, UnrealScript and Unreal Tournament are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the pr