"For years the Unreal engine has only been available to professional game developers," explained Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games. "Companies would come in, sign a big business deal with us, all the lawyers agree to the terms, and then you have access to this really powerful tool kit. But our recent initiative is to take all of these tools that we've made available privately to developers and to make them available to the general public as the Unreal Development Kit. This is a complete download of a tool kit that you can get from the Internet without any hassle at all. You can download the full Unreal Engine and start going to game scenes or movie scenes. You have access to our full animation tool and the full scripting capabilities and the full graphic capabilities. You can do that without purchasing anything or without signing any agreements or anything. Besides the tools, there's a full documentation website and a community forums with how-to videos and everything so you can get online and learn quickly about it and start getting productive fast."

There is no charge for noncommercial use of UDK, and gratis terms extend to educational use. Over 100 academic campuses currently use Unreal Technology as part of teaching game development-related courses like The Guildhall at SMU, and colleges with plans to incorporate UDK into their curricula include the University of Pennsylvania, The Art Institute system of schools, Drexel University, Westwood College, DeVry University, and Atlantic College.
"I think that if you have Epic's Unreal technology available to build professional quality games, that will make our annual Indie Game Challenge much more viable as far as the commercial application of the products once they're done," said Elizabeth Stringer, lecturer in game studies at The Guildhall at SMU. "It can be fully realized in that engine in the course of that particular contest and then evaluated by a publisher from that point of view, which would be phenomenal from that perspective knowing that these people can create something at that level. I think allowing aspiring developers to realize the full potential of a current engine out there is brilliant. I just think that it will help gaming overall."

Games created with UDK run entirely on their own with no additional software required. This means anyone can make UDK content and distribute it for free. Those looking to sell games made with UDK can do so by signing a deal with Epic Games in which Epic received 25 percent of the game's revenue after the first $5,000 in revenue is made. (Full details are available at www.udk.com/licensing.)