Capps: I’m giving devs their chance on new games

Longstanding developers at Epic Games now have their chance to shine, company president Mike Capps has said, as resources are stretched to build five new projects simultaneously.

In the first part of a new interview with Develop, Capps said the average developer at Epic Games has been in the industry for ten years – an advantage that becomes problematic when there’s not enough projects for everyone to take charge of.

“We’ve got guys who anywhere else they’d be the art director or the lead producer and they just didn’t have that opportunity with us,” he said.

“So, basically I’m going to give them a chance. We’re taking some really senior folks and say, well, it’s your project now, see how you do.”

Capps, who is in charge of Epic’s portfolio of projects, said the risk in handing great responsibility to untested staff is already showing encouraging signs – with new ideas and approaches to development emerging.

“I’m looking forward to being really surprised by what people come up with, and so far I have been,” he said.

Epic recently announced it is working on five game projects, as well as building Unreal Engine 4 and supporting its existing range of technologies.

But with the Gears of War trilogy now in the past, some staff are relishing new work at the North Carolina studio, Capps said.

“It’s interesting, we have some people who are fierce lovers of Gears of War, and there are other people that think ‘ten years of Gears, please god let me do something else’.

"So that’s why I think people love it when they get the chance to work on Infinity Blade or Bulletstorm.”

Only one of Epic’s five new projects has been named; the iOS title Infinity Blade 2 is due for release later this year.

The company previously suggested that new Unreal Tournament and Shadow Complex games were not in production, while it is thought a sequel to Bulletstorm is not underway.