A veteran Unreal Engine developer and evangelist has left Epic Video games after 12 years, saying he has to adapt to modifications within the trade.
Sjoerd De Jong began his profession on the age of 15, when he began making ranges for the unique Unreal again in 1999. He went on to make a reputation for himself among the many Unreal group for his quite a few maps and Unreal Match mods, finally resulting in contract work at Epic Video games.
Within the 27 years since he began engaged on Unreal maps, De Jong has labored at quite a lot of studios, together with Guerrilla Video games and Starbreeze, in addition to founding his personal studio Teotl Studios (The Solus Venture, Unmechanical).
In 2014, De Jong then joined Epic Video games as a ‘lead evangelist’, whose job was to go to studios, conferences and academic institutes to introduce Unreal Engine 4 to builders and set up it as a number one recreation improvement engine.
De Jong then grew to become Epic’s senior director of developer expertise between 2020 and 2025, earlier than taking up a senior director of product function earlier this 12 months for “a brand new and unannounced mission”.
In a put up on LinkedIn, nevertheless, De Jong has now introduced that he left Epic Video games final week, suggesting that “this period has come to an in depth” and that he needed to “come to phrases” with the truth that his means of working is being changed.
“After 27 years of Unreal Engine, and 12 years at Epic Video games and Unreal Engine I’ve determined to maneuver on,” De Jong wrote. “Final week was my final week at Epic.
“This has been an superior trip that has been really life altering in so some ways. I didn’t have a straightforward childhood or youth and issues weren’t going anyplace, however all of that modified totally once I found Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine 1/2/3 put me on a really attention-grabbing trajectory for all times, which in flip had a profound influence on myself as an individual, my private progress, and alternatives that opened up.
“After which Unreal Engine 4 and 5 did it another time. Having gone by the entire of the Unreal Engine 4 period, after which the Unreal Engine 5 period whereas at Epic it gave me a tremendously extensive and deep view throughout the trade and the world. Dozens of nations visited, tons of of studios visited, tons of of talks offered, tens of 1000’s of individuals met, and thousands and thousands of builders supported yearly.
“I’ve seen a lot through the years, however what’s going to follow me probably the most is the group and everybody on the market making cool issues, and all of the vitality and keenness that comes with doing so. That’s what it’s all about on the finish of the day, to create, have enjoyable doing it, and to assist one another.
“However all of that being stated, I really feel like this period has come to an in depth, and it’s time to transfer ahead. The trade is in a really attention-grabbing place. The video games trade has at all times been an trade the place change is relentless and inevitable, nevertheless it seems like we’re reaching a pivotal level now and a potent mixture of issues.
“As a lot as I like the previous means of working, I feel it might be strategic to come back to phrases with the place that is heading, and to work out tips on how to adapt and excel at fixing the challenges and alternatives that we face. Let’s see the place we find yourself.”
Though he didn’t explicitly state precisely what he was referring to, De Jong’s departure got here in the identical week Epic Video games began speaking in regards to the upcoming Unreal Engine 6 and its heavy give attention to integration with AI fashions like Claude and Gemini.
Final week at a State of Unreal occasion in Chicago, Epic confirmed how AI giant language fashions (LLMs) can be utilized straight with Unreal Engine 6 to generate content material. Throughout an illustration, it used a Claude immediate window to furnish a digital residence by asking for objects, which have been then pulled from the belongings library.
It later confirmed the way it might change the lighting in a metropolis scene by asking Claude to change the time of day, and even use a static picture as a reference. Epic pressured that builders could have closing management over their creations and may manually change their outcomes.
In response to Epic, UE6 will introduce integrations with AI fashions comparable to Claude, Gemini, and others, which can act as “creativity and productiveness multipliers,” enabling groups to “focus their efforts on the important artistic and technical duties of improvement reasonably than time on time-consuming handbook duties”.
Throughout State of Unreal, the Fortnite maker offered examples of such duties builders might want to use AI to hurry up, together with “setup of ranges, character rigs, particle methods, skinning bone weights, in addition to adjusting lighting”.
