Kite & Lightning’s ‘Bebylon Battle Royale’ Nabs Unreal Dev Grant

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Kite & Lightning, the studio behind some of VR’s earliest experiences, is one of 13 developers receiving a portion of over $200,000 in ‘Unreal Dev Grants’, a program set up by Epic Games to showcase and provide financial support to projects using Unreal Engine 4. Bebylon Battle Royale is the team’s first major VR game, described as a “vehicular melee party brawler,” and is due to release in 2018 on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Unreal Dev Grants was established in February 2015 as a $5 million development fund, offering no-strings-attached financial awards from Epic Games, and includes the upcoming PSVR title Moss as one of its previous recipients. The latest round of grants has been awarded to a diverse range of projects, including a number of non-VR indie games, a full-length animated film, and The Machines, a MOBA-inspired AR PVP game.

Bebylon Battle Royale was first revealed in 2015, and represents a radical departure from Kite & Lightning’s previous work. Co-founder Ikrima Elhassan described the gameplay as a “hybrid of Mario Kart party mode and Super Smash Bros.” In 2016, the team received a major financial boost in the form of $2.5 million in seed funding to expand the scope of the title. The game is currently in closed beta.

“Unreal Dev Grants is our way to reward and highlight the incredible talent that makes up the Unreal development community,” said Chance Ivey, Partnership Manager, Epic Games. “These projects show what is possible when you combine passion with creative technology, and stand as examples of why we do what we do.”

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The trial version of Microsoft’s Monster Truck Madness probably had something to do with it. And certainly the original Super Mario Kart and Gran Turismo. A car nut from an early age, Dominic was always drawn to racing games above all other genres. Now a seasoned driving simulation enthusiast, and former editor of Sim Racer magazine, Dominic has followed virtual reality developments with keen interest, as cockpit-based simulation is a perfect match for the technology. Conditions could hardly be more ideal, a scientist once said. Writing about simulators lead him to Road to VR, whose broad coverage of the industry revealed the bigger picture and limitless potential of the medium. Passionate about technology and a lifelong PC gamer, Dominic suffers from the ‘tweak for days’ PC gaming condition, where he plays the same section over and over at every possible combination of visual settings to find the right balance between fidelity and performance. Based within The Fens of Lincolnshire (it’s very flat), Dominic can sometimes be found marvelling at the real world’s ‘draw distance’, wishing virtual technologies would catch up.
  • crim3

    Ok, no one dares to say it, it seems, so I’ll say it: Those “babies” aren’t funny at all and they are very unpleasant to look at! Weird stuff!

    • Jackie

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