Unreal Engine makes Royal Division a reality
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Control Rig
Brings the mech to life, allowing for expressivity and dynamic movement.
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World Composition
An expansive world to bring out the player's inner tactician.
About Me
Hi, my name is Henry Ventura.
I have a software development background of working on full-stack web products since 2013. Over the course of my career, I worked at a tech incubator, moved to the Bay Area to participate in startup-life, and led front-end development on an influential Google Cloud product that is a first-of-its-kind in the industry.
In 2018, I dove into motion graphics and instantly fell in love with how it felt to create through these kinds of tools.
I released my first video short in early 2020 as I began to step away from web-work and dip into my savings to explore this new world. While I am very grateful for the opportunities that Unity provided me in the past, Unreal Engine's diverse and vast built-in solutions, such as virtual cinematography, made it obvious to use Unreal Engine going forward.
Empowered by the creative tools in Unreal Engine and fueled by my love of mechs, my next objective in life became clear. I quickly put out a look-dev trailer of Royal Division and received overwelmingly positive feedback.
Unreal Engine is an absolute privilege and joy to use. It allows for rapid prototyping, enabling me to build fun weekend projects without slowing down the rest of development.
Working on Royal Division has been one of the most rewarding times of my life. Being able to create experiences in an interactive medium is truly a privilege, and I am excited to have folks hop in the cockpit to start creating memories of their own.
Royal Division is not just a "mech game". It is a medium to express creativity, feelings, meaningful interactions, shared experiences, and fun. Unreal Engine makes this possible!
Thank you very much.
Next Steps
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Complete art assets for the Mech
At present, the art assets for the mech are being commissioned on a shoe-string budget. Commissions are being done iteratively at a slow pace.
Ideally, we would use the grant to hire a 3D generalist to assist the development of this task.
If the grant were large enough to pay for a salary, it could still afford us more substantial commissions to speed up development.
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Create bespoke terrain
Terrain has a special place in in our hearts. It is the canvas onto which players paint their own stories.
Thanks to the Unreal Marketplace (product), we were able to figure out at minimal-cost the type of terrain topology that complements gameplay.
Given the opportunity, the next priority after the mech is to create a bespoke terrain that is able to leverage existing gameplay systems to maximum effect.
Similar to the mech, ideally we would use the grant to hire a 3D generalist to help with this task. Otherwise, a smaller amount of grant money can help with affording commisions.
