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The first Unreal Engine 4 mobile game is ... a Flappy Bird clone
The Unreal Engine has been known throughout its various iterations for pushing the limits of visual fidelity. High-definition textures, spectacular lighting, complex real-time physics, etc. You won't find any of that in the first mobile game created in Unreal Engine 4, though. What you will find is Tappy Chicken, a Flappy Bird clone. Tappy Chicken may not be a graphical powerhouse, but it's not supposed to be. Instead, the game is intended to be an example of how easy the newest iteration of the Unreal Engine can be to program - a lesson taught earlier this year at GDC. Tappy Chicken was created by a single artist using a scripting system called Blueprints, which is part of Unreal Engine 4. Game development was started and completed within the span of just a couple of weeks. Tappy Chicken is now available for iOS and Android devices, at the low, low cost of free. If its life story has inspired you to unleash your inner game developer, you can get Unreal Engine 4 for $19 per month. [Image: Epic Games]
Epic's Unreal Engine 4 'Flappy Bird' homage 'Tappy Chicken' now available for free (update: video!)
Epic Games can crow all it wants about how easy its next-gen development toolset is to use, but until we actually see results, those words are pretty hollow. That changes today with the release of Tappy Chicken, the first Unreal Engine 4 game released for Android, HTML5 browsers and iOS. Yeah, it's a far cry from the fiery demon we've come to associate with anything UE4-related (and it looks more than a little bit like another flying fowl), but the key here is that Epic says it's the work of exactly one person using a sort of simplified scripting system called Blueprints. What's more, the developer isn't even a coder -- he's an artist by the name of Shane Caudle. Caudle designed the game-play loop for the procedurally-generated game in an evening and spent around a week on the menus and squashing bugs. Epic says that it could even be ported to consoles pretty easily. The reason for the free game? To show how easy it is to mod and add-on with UE4 even by someone who doesn't know a lick of typical programming languages like C++. If you want to give it a go for yourself, all it takes to start is $19.
Seen@GDC: Unreal Engine 4 showcases power with Tappy Chicken
Epic Games has harnessed the power of its Unreal Engine 4 with videos like Infiltrator and Elemental, but today the company took it to a whole other level with Tappy Chicken. Featuring graphics that won't be experienced until the next-next gen, the game is remarkably similar to the so-cool-it's-gone sensation Flappy Bird. "I confirm that the Tappy Chicken game is included with the download of Unreal Engine 4," said a representative for Epic Games. Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney mentioned during the company's reveal of the engine's new subscription model option that the company is "not shipping an Unreal Tournament game" and is "not developing anything in the Unreal Tournament universe at all at the moment." He did reiterate that Epic is working on Fortnite and other unannounced game projects.
