Epic Games Appoints New Director

 

EPIC
GAMES APPOINTS BRUCE SHANKLE DIRECTOR, UNREAL ENGINE TECHNOLOGY AND SUPPORT

 

Raleigh,
NC — November 6, 2000 — Epic Games today announced the appointment of Bruce
Shankle as director, Unreal Engine Technology and Support. Bruce oversees the
creation, organization and promotion of information, tools and resources for
supporting and empowering developers using the Unreal Engine technology.

 

"On
the Unreal development team, we’ve always taken pride in supporting our
partners directly by having Unreal Engine licensees get answers straight from
the developers who created the technology," said Tim Sweeney, lead
programmer and company founder. "Bruce’s extensive experience in support,
training, and development tools enhances this team and allows us to continue
the expansion of our licensing program."

 

Bruce
became deeply involved with the Unreal technology was when he developed UnDox,
an Unreal Engine developer productivity tool which generates HTML navigational
maps and documentation from UnrealScript source code, enabling development
teams to manage and navigate large projects.

"There
is an unlimited amount of power and potential in the Unreal Engine and I am
looking forward to helping developers further their games with this
industry-leading technology," said Shankle.

 

As
co-founder of CodeMarine, Inc., a developer training company in Raleigh, NC,
Bruce created developer tools and assisted in complex software design projects
for such companies as Microsoft, IBM, and Orbital Sciences. Bruce created
courseware and delivered classes to developers on emerging software
technologies. His articles and essays on software development have earned him
a place on the cover of several Microsoft developer journals, and his
documentation, samples, and source code can be found in the Microsoft
Developer Network (MSDN).

 

"Now
that Unreal engine supports the PC, X-box, and PlayStation2, and can render
unprecedented character animation and large outdoor environments with ease,
the market potential for licensing our engine has increased
exponentially," said Epic Vice President Mark Rein. "Epic is highly
committed to expanding our engine licensing business and through moves such as
hiring Bruce to support our developers, we will continue to aggressively
expand our market share."

 

The
Unreal Engine includes the Unreal Editor for level creation, Unreal Script
programming language, source code for the engine, editor & all
Epic-created tools, complete game source code for Unreal and Unreal
Tournament, unlimited support from Epic’s award-winning technology team and
access to updates and new features, such as the new skeletal animation system
and large-scale terrain system.

 

The
Unreal Engine is being used to power games from several top game developers
including 3DRealms who are using the Unreal Engine to create Duke Nukem
Forever and renowned role-playing designer Warren Spector at Ion Storm who
created Deus Ex which recently won the prestigious Best PC Game title at the
annual British Academy of Film and Television Arts Interactive Awards.

 

Epic
is the only major 3D game engine provider with games available for the PC and
PlayStation 2. The unified codebase employed by the Unreal Engine allows
developer making games for PC, Xbox and PlayStation®2 console platforms to
effortlessly retarget their code and content between platforms. Because of the
unified codebase Epic was able to, during the development of Unreal Tournament
for PlayStation 2, recompile and run the exact same version of the game on
both PC and the console platform. The provided a real cost savings and huge
productivity boost. Unreal Engine source code for Sega Dreamcast, Apple
Macintosh and Linux versions are also available at no extra charge to
developers.

 

Epic
Games Inc., based in Raleigh, N.C., and established in 1991, is a developer of
cutting-edge PC games. The company is best known as the creator of hit PC 3D
action games Unreal, an award-winning blockbuster hit having sold more than 1
million copies, and Unreal Tournament which has been recognized as the Game of
the Year by leading gaming media outlets including Computer Gaming World, the
No. 1 PC games magazine. Epic’s Unreal Engine has been licensed to several top
PC game developers for games in a variety of genres. In the past Epic was well
known for it’s shareware games including Jill of the Jungle, Jazz Jackrabbit
and Epic Pinball. Additional information can be obtained through Epic’s Web
site at http://www.epicgames.com.