Work on the future of Unreal Tournament begins today, and we’re happy to announce that we’re going to do this together, with you. We know that fans of the game are as passionate about Unreal Tournament as we are. We know that you have great ideas and strong opinions about where the game should go and what it should be. So let’s do something radical and make this game together, in the open, and for all of us.

Here’s the plan:

We’ve created a small team of UT veterans that are beginning work on the project starting today .

. From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers. We’ll be using forums for discussion, and Twitch streams for regular updates.

If you are a fan and you want to participate, create a free account and join the forum discussion.

All code and content will be available live to UE4 developers on GitHub.

The game will be true to its roots as a competitive FPS.

Development will be focused on Windows, Mac and Linux.

So what’s the catch?

It will take many months until the game is playable by gamers. This is real development from scratch.

When the game is playable, it will be free. Not free to play, just free.

We’ll eventually create a marketplace where developers, modders, artists and gamers can give away, buy and sell mods and content. Earnings from the marketplace will be split between the mod/content developer, and Epic. That’s how we plan to pay for the game.

A lot of this is brand new for Epic, and we don’t yet have everything figured out. Things will probably definitely go wrong from time to time, and when they do, we’ll have to work through them together. There will be a lot of tough decisions to make, and not every feature will make it into the game. But if you’re a fan of Unreal Tournament, a UE4 developer, or a future modder – or if you just want to learn how we make games – we hope you’ll join us. It’s going to be fun.

Want to get involved?

Want more detail on the project? Read our wiki.

Want to participate & give feedback? Check out the forums, and sign up for a free account here to join Unreal Engine 4 community.

Just interested in getting updates? Subscribe to our newsletter here at the bottom right of our page.

In case you want to check out the classic Unreal Tournament games, you can get them for 50% off right now!

Follow us at /UnrealEngine on Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, Instagram and Google+.