Epic Gives Away $12M Worth Paragon Assets for Free

[FrgMstr]

Remember Paragon? Not many people do, but it was Epic Games' attempt at a Free-to-Play MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game. It was made to compete with the likes of League of Legends, Dota, and Heroes of the Storm, however it never gained the traction it needed to be successful and will be shutting down on April 26. You can check out a full round of gameplay below, and no matter what your thoughts are on playing the game and its attraction, it is hard to argue that it does not "look good." Epic is not letting all those game assets go to waste thankfully. Epic is giving away the character models, skins, animations, voice overs, and most of the environmental eyecandy in its Unreal Marketplace. Good on those guys! It would be a shame to watch all work not go to good use in the community. Even if you are not a game dev or content creator, the asset list if very impressive.

Check out the video.

Epic Games today announced that Unreal Engine 4 developers now have access to a full array of assets from Paragon, the company’s high-end multiplayer online battle arena game. The assets, built at a cost of over $12 million, include 20 AAA-quality characters, with their respective skins, animations, VFX and dialogue, along with over 1,500 environment components from Paragon. This content is now available free of charge in the Unreal Engine Marketplace, where developers may download Paragon packs to use in their own UE4 projects.

 

[Gigus Fire]

Lol. I guess Epic's strategy besides the unreal engine is to create clones of existing games. Paragon never stood a chance against league, but fortnite being free is actually competing against pubg.

 

[modi123]

That's awfully nice of them. I should dust off my old Unity project and give it an update and push the rock further to a completed game.

 

[Seventyfive]

Paragon looked great but had issues. Their upgrade system using cards was confusing and running back to the battle from base sucks in a 3rd person game. At least in LOL you can click where you want to go and then quickly click around the map to get a feel for what's happening in other lanes, then click the button to center on your guy. When you're locked into following your guy it kind of sucks.

 

[Gasaraki_]

Thanks Epic.

 

[scojer]

Are they going to let the community run their own servers?

I've not played but it'd be cool to see them allow that.

 

[Xavious7]

Actually had a bit of fun playing this one, sad to see it end.

 

[rgMekanic]

Very cool, but I would have been happier if they sold them and used the money to make Bulletstorm 2

 

[focbde]

Very cool, but I would have been happier if they sold them and used the money to make Bulletstorm 2

+1 for Bulletstorm 2. Loved the first one. To me was almost a modern homage to Duke Nukem and/or Serious Sam due to the intentional over the top silliness.

 

[Chunder]

fortnite being free is actually competing against pubg.

Being Fortnite is the most played game on the planet right now. I'd say they're doing more than just competing.

 

[evt]

That's awfully nice of them. I should dust off my old Unity project and give it an update and push the rock further to a completed game.

It states that all EPIC-released content usage is forbidden outside of UE4.

 

[F.E.A.R.]

That's too bad I was getting into it. The game was a nice change from Overwatch. I started playing after the revamped system and after watching a few videos I was getting the hang of it. It probably was the best looking game I've ever played.

 

[Gigus Fire]

Being Fortnite is the most played game on the planet right now. I'd say they're doing more than just competing.

free vs paid.

 

[Azphira]

lawyers vs anticheat

 

[ryno9100]

That's really nice of EPIC. I played a small amount of Paragon, and loved the concept, but absolutely hated the card system they had in place. I'm the worst at "deck building" systems.

 

[rudy]

Lol. I guess Epic's strategy besides the unreal engine is to create clones of existing games. Paragon never stood a chance against league, but fortnite being free is actually competing against pubg.

I think its important to note that fortnite actually offers a very uniquely different experience from pubg, the building is the most notable feature. but on top of that you have the major difference of a very cartoony / tf2 art style vs a realistic art style. All that on top of pubg being very much like counterstrike originally was a terribly programmed game that barely runs on a lot of systems.

With paragon I felt epic just wants offering anything different, the big competitors were already f2p, and the game art and style while good looking was still of similar fantasy taste. It may be a total accident but fortnite somehow accidentally arrived at the right combination of game features at the right time and its worked out great.

 

[Gigus Fire]

I think its important to note that fortnite actually offers a very uniquely different experience from pubg, the building is the most notable feature. but on top of that you have the major difference of a very cartoony / tf2 art style vs a realistic art style. All that on top of pubg being very much like counterstrike originally was a terribly programmed game that barely runs on a lot of systems.

With paragon I felt epic just wants offering anything different, the big competitors were already f2p, and the game art and style while good looking was still of similar fantasy taste. It may be a total accident but fortnite somehow accidentally arrived at the right combination of game features at the right time and its worked out great.

Look. Pubg + lightversion of minecraft is still a pubg clone. Everything about survival mode screams pubg. Even how you start out in a field, then get loaded onto a plane of sorts (blimp plane thing) to parachuting down, to having to search in houses for weapons, to supply drops to the bubble which shrinks down (and crates which is a little bit different but not that much).

Yes the building adds a new dimention of gameplay that's not in pubg (basically attacking from above). Every single little thing else (even crawling around when hurt in duo/squad mode) is literally the same exact thing. Art style aside because i'm talking about gameplay, not graphics.

Ohh and pubg has vehicles while fortnite does not. But i have a sneaking suspicion that it's probably going to be added at some point in the future.

 

[skydriver]

Thumbs up to epic. So many things will come from these assets

 

[Lakados]

It seems like a rare thing that developers do things or release content that doesn’t piss off everybody. So yay for good news?

 

[rudy]

Look. Pubg + lightversion of minecraft is still a pubg clone. Everything about survival mode screams pubg. Even how you start out in a field, then get loaded onto a plane of sorts (blimp plane thing) to parachuting down, to having to search in houses for weapons, to supply drops to the bubble which shrinks down (and crates which is a little bit different but not that much).

Yes the building adds a new dimention of gameplay that's not in pubg (basically attacking from above). Every single little thing else (even crawling around when hurt in duo/squad mode) is literally the same exact thing. Art style aside because i'm talking about gameplay, not graphics.

Ohh and pubg has vehicles while fortnite does not. But i have a sneaking suspicion that it's probably going to be added at some point in the future.

I am not in any way disputing that the game is cloning or influenced or inspired by PUBG. Just pointing out the reasons why it has become so popular. We all know that more or less Epic doesn't make original content, this is why I mentioned it was sort of an accident, first Epic is trying to copy minecraft / terraria then they miss the boat and end up just throwing pubg on top of that. But I don't think anyone would dispute fortnite was a hell of a lot better progammed and polished and visually appealing game than either minecraft or terraria, and it beats PUBG on programming and polish as well art direction is an opinion. One thing epic is pretty good at his making a game fairly polished. It all started with unreal which was basically a quake clone without a direction. But even at that a lot of people loved unreal. And as a person who played at least a little of all the major games I was always jealous of how Epics games were just well polished games compared to games like quake and halflife I always felt if valve could have learned how to polish a game like epic they would be the ultimate company. Unreal games actually had decent GUIs that had many of the options you needed vs being forced to teach new players how to use the console just to get a the basics in games like quake and halflife. The games seemed to be less bug ridden and typically looked pretty good if you accepted the artistic direction, as well as just being easier to install and play at any level even for someone with little to no PC expertise. The point is plenty of companies are strait up trying to copy PUBG, but fortnite is actually offering a little more. And now they are going mobile to expand even more as well as show off what the engine can do.

 

[Gigus Fire]

I am not in any way disputing that the game is cloning or influenced or inspired by PUBG. Just pointing out the reasons why it has become so popular. We all know that more or less Epic doesn't make original content, this is why I mentioned it was sort of an accident, first Epic is trying to copy minecraft / terraria then they miss the boat and end up just throwing pubg on top of that. But I don't think anyone would dispute fortnite was a hell of a lot better progammed and polished and visually appealing game than either minecraft or terraria, and it beats PUBG on programming and polish as well art direction is an opinion. One thing epic is pretty good at his making a game fairly polished. It all started with unreal which was basically a quake clone without a direction. But even at that a lot of people loved unreal. And as a person who played at least a little of all the major games I was always jealous of how Epics games were just well polished games compared to games like quake and halflife I always felt if valve could have learned how to polish a game like epic they would be the ultimate company. Unreal games actually had decent GUIs that had many of the options you needed vs being forced to teach new players how to use the console just to get a the basics in games like quake and halflife. The games seemed to be less bug ridden and typically looked pretty good if you accepted the artistic direction, as well as just being easier to install and play at any level even for someone with little to no PC expertise. The point is plenty of companies are strait up trying to copy PUBG, but fortnite is actually offering a little more. And now they are going mobile to expand even more as well as show off what the engine can do.

I disagree with the premise that it's more polished. Minecraft is a 3d voxel game in which you can deform the ground and build up. In fortnite, you cannoit deform the ground and basically dig. This makes it a lot easier to work and allows for better graphics. You calling it a more polished version i think is related to the graphics aspect only and not in the other aspects of the game. The game itself has crashed on numerous occasions for me and friends that i know that play the game. It just crashed on me last night when i was in the menu hitting loot pinatas.

Also It's like they just don't have a direction in the game. The characters are really cartoony. The buildings, cars, everything and general art style is very cartoony which is fine. There isn't a sense of realism in the art style, yet they copied pubg so much they included semi-realistic bullet travel and drop off. To me this screams of not having a very good idea and direction with the game. Combine that with instant builds and creating ramps on the fly which is extremely non realistic, it just confuses things.

In addition, i don't believe you can knock down preexisting structures like people can known down the constructions you create. That's just a sloppy game engine because there's no reason it couldn't be done. I've knocked down supports of bridges in that game and the damn thing just floats there. It was more than likely a design decision to be less taxing on the servers to calculate this sort of thing but it's also very lazy.

 

[Nickbaldwin86]

if this was EA they would have tanked the game and never released anything, all would have gone to waste... just like every other EA game has

 

[Gigus Fire]

if this was EA they would have tanked the game and never released anything, all would have gone to waste... just like every other EA game has

EA Doesn't make most of it's money by leasing out it's game engines like Epic does with it's unity engine. I'm not saying it's not a good thing to release those assets, i'm just saying it makes total sense for them to do this.

 

[Nickbaldwin86]

EA Doesn't make most of it's money by leasing out it's game engines like Epic does with it's unity engine. I'm not saying it's not a good thing to release those assets, i'm just saying it makes total sense for them to do this.

I know I was just make a jab at EA....

 

[refraxion]

Being Fortnite is the most played game on the planet right now. I'd say they're doing more than just competing.

Pretty sure judging by twitch followers alone, Fortnite has already taken over PUBG and its not looking back.

 

[Nickbaldwin86]

Pretty sure judging by twitch followers alone, Fortnite has already taken over PUBG and its not looking back.

Fortnite is just new on the block, hopefully it will fizzle off and people will go back to PUBG.... sorry just not into cartoon games

 

[ryno9100]

Fortnite is just new on the block, hopefully it will fizzle off and people will go back to PUBG.... sorry just not into cartoon games

It's all personal preference. I prefer the cartoony look of games like TF2, Overwatch and Fortnite to the nitty gritty realistic look of PUBG, CoD and the like. I like the creativity and sporadic aspect of being able to build on the fly, others like a more realistic gun and cover system. I don't hold that against PUBG, and I own it and have had fun with it with some friends who prefer it, but it all comes down to my personal preference is less focus on realism, and more focus on fun mechanics. The problem here is, most people don't have the sensible attitude that you and I have. You and I and agree to disagree, while others feel if someone doesn't like PUBG or Fortnite better, they're stupid.
When it comes down to it, more people play Fortnite for the simple fact that it doesn't have an entry fee. If both were free, I have a feeling they'd be neck and neck, just because different people like different games.

 

[Nickbaldwin86]

It's all personal preference. I prefer the cartoony look of games like TF2, Overwatch and Fortnite to the nitty gritty realistic look of PUBG, CoD and the like. I like the creativity and sporadic aspect of being able to build on the fly, others like a more realistic gun and cover system. I don't hold that against PUBG, and I own it and have had fun with it with some friends who prefer it, but it all comes down to my personal preference is less focus on realism, and more focus on fun mechanics. The problem here is, most people don't have the sensible attitude that you and I have. You and I and agree to disagree, while others feel if someone doesn't like PUBG or Fortnite better, they're stupid.
When it comes down to it, more people play Fortnite for the simple fact that it doesn't have an entry fee. If both were free, I have a feeling they'd be neck and neck, just because different people like different games.

Agree 100% I have played both and I prefer PUBG. I also like other " real feel" games as such, the cartoon and the building is what I don't like.

I will give this props for having a solid butter smooth game, PUBG is very buggy and not smooth.

Either way I will stick to PUBG and realize the rest of the world might not be playing with me, oh well.

 

[rudy]

I disagree with the premise that it's more polished. Minecraft is a 3d voxel game in which you can deform the ground and build up. In fortnite, you cannoit deform the ground and basically dig. This makes it a lot easier to work and allows for better graphics. You calling it a more polished version i think is related to the graphics aspect only and not in the other aspects of the game. The game itself has crashed on numerous occasions for me and friends that i know that play the game. It just crashed on me last night when i was in the menu hitting loot pinatas.

Also It's like they just don't have a direction in the game. The characters are really cartoony. The buildings, cars, everything and general art style is very cartoony which is fine. There isn't a sense of realism in the art style, yet they copied pubg so much they included semi-realistic bullet travel and drop off. To me this screams of not having a very good idea and direction with the game. Combine that with instant builds and creating ramps on the fly which is extremely non realistic, it just confuses things.

In addition, i don't believe you can knock down preexisting structures like people can known down the constructions you create. That's just a sloppy game engine because there's no reason it couldn't be done. I've knocked down supports of bridges in that game and the damn thing just floats there. It was more than likely a design decision to be less taxing on the servers to calculate this sort of thing but it's also very lazy.

Both minecraft and terraria were very buggy games for a long time. They also had little in the way of UI, heck terraria you couldn't even join other peoples games without knowing the ip for the longest time. Minecraft has no art direction either its boxes.... Maybe polished isn't the right word, go ahead and tell me what the right word is then.