Unreal Engine on the iPhone?

So this un-named person at AnandTech met with Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games recently and was allowed to play with an iPod Touch running an Unreal Engine 3 demo loaded on it. Looks cool so far. The control scheme needs to be worked out though, (as playing a first person shooters with your thumbs blocking a third of the screen can’t possibly help your kill score). People who’ve tested it must have said the same thing since Mark stated that they are experimenting with different control schemes.

As of now, there is a virtual thumbstick on the left side of the screen which is used for controlling movement, while the camera is tracked by moving your right thumb around the screen. To fire, just tap the screen. I don’t know what they’re doing for jump, maybe ackwardly shaking the device. Here’s a video of the demo, looks fun but pointless since there is only a single respawning enemy.

So why is this interesting, you ask? Well, perhaps it’s because Epic is planning to make the engine available to licensees in the near future; allowing anyone and their mom, (who can afford the license), to make a decent looking game on a mobile device. The current engine doesn’t run on the iPhone 2G or 3G as it requires  OpenGL ES 2.0.

From AnandTech - “For Epic, expanding UE3 into the portable market makes a lot of sense – it will eventually increase the base of paying UE licensees as well as help move the entire portable gaming industry forward… by releasing iPhone and other portable versions of UE3 it helps secure Epic’s position as a supplier of game engines, regardless of platform“.

Epic is looking to the future and never looking back, so too bad for you folks who jumped on the bandwagon early, (HAHA). Mark also said that Epic is going to be seeing the engine on another mobile platform at CES. Could that mean UT or Gears of War on Android? We’ll have to wait an see.