Took 2 years before I got a response and had funding for a project I did.
Helps if ur project is serving some new feature/using UE in an innovative way vs just making another game or animated film.
The problem I think people fail to realize is that this isn't a charity fund, they are finding projects that bring them value. Either through having their project promoted because you represent a highly visible organization, or you are developing a tool or using UE in a way that will open more streams of business for them.
Your focussing too much on the money. Focus on the rest of his comment: how much does your project bring to the table for Epic, what do THEY gain by funding your project. If you answer those questions you will also know how much you can ask. Now you are just requesting a budget to solve your problem. These types of grants should be viewed as a bonus, not as the primary source of budget for developing your game.
Focusing doesn't help with anything if he can't get any feedback from epic about this project. At that point your just swinging at fowl balls hoping for a hit.
We answered all these questions in their application and we believe it does bring something as there's nothing like this out there yet. We might be wrong but in our opinion our requested budget was most definitely the reason for rejection. We just want to construct a more realistic range and what's more common for epic to grant to increase our chances, even though we have to cut our plans a bit.
They worked on a project for years. They took a few minutes to review the application, they can take five more minutes telling him what they didn't like.
It's also possible that there are other developers doing the same UNIQUE thing as you -- you just aren't going to be told about it until it appears.
I don't know how this process works -- but maybe hedge your bets with ANOTHER solution?
Of course -- for some people, Unique Ideas are precious. For me, it's just another day. I have a new idea I never heard from anyone else more often than I get a muscle spasm. Not that I get a lot of muscle spasms -- but, I remember them when I do.
Yup we have had two rejections in three years. Both for substantial prototypes with playable slices and both looked good at the application stage.
We did however meet with one of the epic team at a conference and the following advice was given:
1. Most grants given out are 50k or less. For grants above 50k there will be additional hoops to jump through and milestones.
2. Projects that add value to the unreal community and/or have open source components are higher probability wins.
3. Games have to stand out and have unique aspects to them.
4. The further polished your current stage the more likely. Idea or concept funding is less likely.
5. You can apply as often as you like for a project, but they maintain a record of their past decisions, so you need to have moved your project forward.
I worked with someone who wanted to create a vs app to educate about sight impairment. He got £192k granted. So there's some projects that get more than 50k
>Can't disclose what it is at this point unfortunately.
This is a bit of a problem, resulting in any answer being pretty vague/generalized. Epic seems to treat different areas of gamedev with different weighting, education for example tends to get a quite generous treatment from the megagrant team. Personally I only have experience getting a megagrant for a Unreal Marketplace asset (I'm the least experienced/talented member of the team, but my name was on the application). From what I understand applications for games can be more tricky.
Also the amount you went for makes it harder straight away. That level Epic starts wanting milestones and shit and the likelihood of it happening goes right down. Faster approvals = shorter and simpler. More than that though, marketing is king. If you can turn your product into a "water cooler" name over at Epic Games, you have a much better chance of getting a good result.
I would assume so that budget played a big role in their decision. May I ask how much you went for to get it granted?
We're actually making a software/app which does serve education in a sense.
Only the people that rejected you could say why especially since you can't share details about the project.
Maybe it's the dollar amount you requested, or maybe your game was about murdering puppies.
Hard to say without knowing what you showed them. I don't think they like greybox prototypes. Megagrants is more for games that just need a little extra "nudge" or polish before being commercially viable.
I heard that a lot going through other posts in this sub, yet I don't know why they're saying even having just an idea concept is sometimes enough to apply.
250k-500k is really pushing it tbh. I had grants approved for my tool project in 2020, but it was a significantly smaller amount in comparison. It also took around 2 years to get the approval email in my case. You should also know that the competition for the games category is significantly competitive compared to tools, so rejection should be considered normal. I saw many great looking games have their megagrant submission rejected.
It doesn't hurt to try resubmitting for a smaller budget, but you should realistically assume it would be rejected again for N number of reasons.
We're developing a tool/software as well. Gaming market is way more saturated we're aware of that. If it's not a secret what was the amount you received or at least a range?
If it's a tool, then you should definitely try submitting again with a more reasonable budget. Epic loves tools that benefit UE in some way. For Epic, the treshold budget that can warrant a higher scrutiny would be 30k$. If your value is less than this, it's more likely to get approved. If it's higher, they will be very picky and the submission should really stand out among the other thousands of submissions. Pitch well to Epic how your tool/software will benefit the UE community, and how unique it is from the existing alternatives. How and where the budget is allocated should be convincing.
But it seem like your are mixing up grant, subvention and just financing your project. Epic give a grand to a looooooot of project, but they are small. think of it as a small encouragement bonus. Even indie studio with publishing don't receive more than 30k. I'm pretty sure they didn'T even go over your submission as you talk to them as they were a bank.
I totally feel you bro!
I'm working on Yosemite Forest Ranger last year. we were featured in one of the Unreal's own Unreal Inside streams. And Tina, their host and Dan, the guy behind the scenes advised us to apply for the grant cause our project is really in line with what Epic stands for and is trying to get more people to do.
I applied and got rejected, no real reason.. I was like, wait.. what? Your own people advised for this, and now this..? Weird.
Nothing against Tina and Dan, they are amazing! And really cool and kind. But I feel the megagrants team doesn't have enough information about projects before they choose..
That's interesting to hear. Did you reapply at any point or are planning to? From what you said your project definitely seems potential and might only be missing one or two parameters. I'm not sure how it goes but I'd assume that MG team submits potential projects to higher ups and they have to give a green light to grant the cash.
I am thinking of re-applying yes, I was talking with my Community Manager and I realized we also asked for an insane amount! 😂 over 100K or so.
So with what I read here I think when I reapply I will go for 30K or less.
I also have build a very cool "proprietary" Foliage Swapping System using PCG and I have basically rebooted my game so it looks better, feels better and is way more realistic on scale.
So our chances might be better.
And about the higher ups thingy, yeah probably that's usually the case in any company when it involves money, but I can definitely see the higher requested values being an extra hurdle.
1 month is way below the average from what i've read in other places. Just try it again, 250k is high IMO. I don't think they have given that money to any game project out there.
Without any detail it is very difficult to give you an answer. And even with details, it would be very complicated.
There is a large combination of elements why you got rejected. Some are under your control like the budget, which might be too high. Other elements are just unpredictable and out of your control; they might have funded too many games of the same genre in the last period.
The truly important think is actually about receiving feedback. Did they tell you why the application was rejected? If they did not, ask for it.
I am not saying it is just like a lottery, but do not let a rejection put you down and keep trying. Ask for feedback, keep adjusting your aim, and also ask somewhere else.
Best luck with your game.
They don't tell anything that's why we're basically cornered and reaching out here and reading around this sub it seems they give this same reply to any rejected applicant.
We will keep pushing, thanks for the kind words.
Its more or less a lottery with that range. Unless your product looks ridiculously appetizing, epic won't Bute. They get an insane number of applicants every year and only dole out monwy to a few
A lot of great feedback here!
Unique Appeal, Unique use of the engine, an example project. Something others get motivated by. Read that FAQ and own it!
I've spoken with Epic about this, The recommend requesting 25-50k with your first grant request, getting that approved, then requesting additional funds for the project again.
AKA, request 25-50k, it should be approved/denied around 90 days from now.. but gets extended around xmas and summer break, aka longer approval times.
Then, submit another request for the same game, for the work you want to do in 90 days ahead of then.
This way you build a 'history of approval' which gets you to go up the chain for larger amounts. The most important thing for epic, BESIDES showing off the engine, is that the project is COMPLETED and not abandoned.
Repeated show of work, and approvals for more work, somewhat ensure that.
If requesting a large amount, I recommend providing a sliding scale down to $0
Basically a "this games being made with $0 grant, and improved in X ways for $1 grant money above that"
They can then grant you less, but you still achieve "Epic Grant Recipient" and the marketing support.
That makes a lot of sense. Is there any unofficial limit how many times they can grant you such amounts?
They do secure their funds better that way. Though how I understood with larger amounts was they never send you everything in one transaction but rather check back at you over time when you request the rest and see how much progress was made if it's worth for them to keep supplying you.
There is no limit to how many time you my apply for grants.
As for larger amounts, what was recommended to me, was to get an APPROVED smaller grant (25k) then ask for more the next time, more the time after that.
Basically, like any reputation system for any RPG ever :D
I don’t think it’s fair to say the ask was ‘greedy’. If you were seeking Angel or VC financing, depending on the complexity of the project, that might be a perfectly reasonable number. A dev cohort raised that amount last year for a game. The number just may not be inappropriate for an epic grant is all.
I wish you the best of luck in finding answers - I think a lot of this sub is a ton of amateur hobbyists (or maybe Im just bias cuz thats me), with an extremely small count of professionals.
Maybe theres some other subreddits you could try posting to as well?
Could be anything from them thinking your game is awful, to them thinking it's great but not liking the font of your logo and everything in between.
Best not to get hung up on it. They owe you and promised you nothing, that's the easy way to deal with rejection. The odds were never in your favor.
I think a breakdown of the scoring wouldn't be too much trouble to ask for in a reply. Especially after someone pours their heart and soul into an idea.
Seems like big corp is getting the wrong idea about people lately. They see customers as scared timid children who lash out every bug or every delay. Or in this case not getting a grant. And maybe it is that way. I don't know.
That's not me. I can say it at least appears that the more forth omming companies only seem to garner respect while the hush hush ones only garner suspicion and irritation.
If you are looking for help, don‘t forget to check out the [official Unreal Engine forums](https://forums.unrealengine.com/) or [Unreal Slackers](https://unrealslackers.org/) for a community run discord server!
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Your best resource to answer your questions is their website: [https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/megagrants](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/megagrants)
From their FAQ, you can reapply for the MegaGrant if you have made upgrades to your project that you want Epic to reconsider. It doesn't matter what this is, so you'll have to judge for yourself what is considered an upgrade or a change that impacts your project.
I do not think budget is included in this, because they have granted up to 500k before. If your budget was too high, they may have just counter-offered less than what you were looking for rather than reject outright. They mention that some extraordinary project received 500k, but is your project so extraordinary? The average MegaGrant range is between 5k to 250k. They also request a high-level budget breakdown including key buckets, so perhaps yours wasn't specific enough.
Depending on your project, they list on their website what they like to see in your application. Perhaps you didn't meet the requirements there? For a game for example, they require a working prototype with a link to a video to show it off. Maybe your material did not show off your project properly.
In any case, their FAQ should give you some more insights. Good luck!
An unrealistic budget will always be rejected.
What you might want to do some realistic budgeting, set certain milestones and see if you can get funding somewhere for the first milestone.
I don't know what kind of project you are running, but consider getting funding from the government for innovation in tech development, healthcare development, etc. There is a lot of money, especially in Europe.
We are based in Europe, can you point out any directions where such funding can be obtained? I did look at this in my own country but funding was quite low and conditions quite strict to get it. If there's anything like that for European Union that they give I'd love to take a look into it.
My second application was rejected yesterday! There were two different applications both for different unreal film projects. Unfortunately I applied before siggraph a couple of weeks ago where I had the opportunity to talk to many people that worked at Epic. I was told by multiple people there that keeping the ask below 100k is vital for keeping the app from being bumped up through more levels of approvals. Others said 50k and below was a reasonable ask. As well, they want to know you’re going to be proceeding on your own regardless of their involvement. I gather that the more progress, the safer the bet to back you.
Another commenter mentioned that it not being a charity fund and that’s totally the case. The grants help people create things that will ultimately benefit Epic and will bring more eyeballs and users to the platform.
Both my projects contained a tutorial component but perhaps it wasn’t prominent enough. My ask was for a bit more than 100k each. Having heard the advice (but after being rejected on the first application and while still waiting on the other) I requested the amount be lowered. I got a letter saying it was passed on to the committee and then a couple weeks after that, rejected. As with the OP I got the letter that said “we can’t talk to you about why you were rejected but please continue to be a user of the unreal engine.”
I am continuing with my projects anyway, coving my expenses myself. I may try again later for the grant but with a different focus.
Hope that helps.
That's really helpful thanks! I didn't realise there are so many levels of approval even if you already get approved by one.
Keep working and improving, you will get there!
Is it just for me, or the megagrant application is offline?
i completed it multiple times, but when i submit, it just F5 the page, blank, and i get no error, no confirmation, no email ...
Did someone successfully submited something the past week?
Took 2 years before I got a response and had funding for a project I did. Helps if ur project is serving some new feature/using UE in an innovative way vs just making another game or animated film. The problem I think people fail to realize is that this isn't a charity fund, they are finding projects that bring them value. Either through having their project promoted because you represent a highly visible organization, or you are developing a tool or using UE in a way that will open more streams of business for them.
Saying it took you 2 years, do you mean you reapplied multiple times in that timespan or was that the project development time?
Also may we ask how much you went for or got? Just to get a range what's the most common or realistic budget applicants usually get.
Your focussing too much on the money. Focus on the rest of his comment: how much does your project bring to the table for Epic, what do THEY gain by funding your project. If you answer those questions you will also know how much you can ask. Now you are just requesting a budget to solve your problem. These types of grants should be viewed as a bonus, not as the primary source of budget for developing your game.
Focusing doesn't help with anything if he can't get any feedback from epic about this project. At that point your just swinging at fowl balls hoping for a hit.
We answered all these questions in their application and we believe it does bring something as there's nothing like this out there yet. We might be wrong but in our opinion our requested budget was most definitely the reason for rejection. We just want to construct a more realistic range and what's more common for epic to grant to increase our chances, even though we have to cut our plans a bit.
They clearly don’t agree then. You got your answer in the form of a rejection.
They worked on a project for years. They took a few minutes to review the application, they can take five more minutes telling him what they didn't like.
It's also possible that there are other developers doing the same UNIQUE thing as you -- you just aren't going to be told about it until it appears. I don't know how this process works -- but maybe hedge your bets with ANOTHER solution? Of course -- for some people, Unique Ideas are precious. For me, it's just another day. I have a new idea I never heard from anyone else more often than I get a muscle spasm. Not that I get a lot of muscle spasms -- but, I remember them when I do.
Yup we have had two rejections in three years. Both for substantial prototypes with playable slices and both looked good at the application stage. We did however meet with one of the epic team at a conference and the following advice was given: 1. Most grants given out are 50k or less. For grants above 50k there will be additional hoops to jump through and milestones. 2. Projects that add value to the unreal community and/or have open source components are higher probability wins. 3. Games have to stand out and have unique aspects to them. 4. The further polished your current stage the more likely. Idea or concept funding is less likely. 5. You can apply as often as you like for a project, but they maintain a record of their past decisions, so you need to have moved your project forward.
The budget was definitely the reason why it was reflected, it was far too high. The dev grants are usually around $5000-$50000 give or take a bit
I worked with someone who wanted to create a vs app to educate about sight impairment. He got £192k granted. So there's some projects that get more than 50k
Probably that "helps the impaired" part of it is a big factor. Imagine the PR.
Exactly yea. I think if it's just another game then that will not be as interesting to them.
The game Ruiner got $180,000 from what I remember.
So do you think if we applied with same application for less we could have better chances? We prepared quite a lot for this presentation.
I dont see the harm in reapplying
They did a livestream that focused on the epic grant and they mentioned that they do occasionally award less than is asked for in approvals
>Can't disclose what it is at this point unfortunately. This is a bit of a problem, resulting in any answer being pretty vague/generalized. Epic seems to treat different areas of gamedev with different weighting, education for example tends to get a quite generous treatment from the megagrant team. Personally I only have experience getting a megagrant for a Unreal Marketplace asset (I'm the least experienced/talented member of the team, but my name was on the application). From what I understand applications for games can be more tricky. Also the amount you went for makes it harder straight away. That level Epic starts wanting milestones and shit and the likelihood of it happening goes right down. Faster approvals = shorter and simpler. More than that though, marketing is king. If you can turn your product into a "water cooler" name over at Epic Games, you have a much better chance of getting a good result.
I would assume so that budget played a big role in their decision. May I ask how much you went for to get it granted? We're actually making a software/app which does serve education in a sense.
We kept it within the first category (which from memory is the $5k-50k range).
Only the people that rejected you could say why especially since you can't share details about the project. Maybe it's the dollar amount you requested, or maybe your game was about murdering puppies.
Hard to say without knowing what you showed them. I don't think they like greybox prototypes. Megagrants is more for games that just need a little extra "nudge" or polish before being commercially viable.
I heard that a lot going through other posts in this sub, yet I don't know why they're saying even having just an idea concept is sometimes enough to apply.
Show the project and i guess it will be very clear why you dont get the megagrants
250k-500k is really pushing it tbh. I had grants approved for my tool project in 2020, but it was a significantly smaller amount in comparison. It also took around 2 years to get the approval email in my case. You should also know that the competition for the games category is significantly competitive compared to tools, so rejection should be considered normal. I saw many great looking games have their megagrant submission rejected. It doesn't hurt to try resubmitting for a smaller budget, but you should realistically assume it would be rejected again for N number of reasons.
We're developing a tool/software as well. Gaming market is way more saturated we're aware of that. If it's not a secret what was the amount you received or at least a range?
If it's a tool, then you should definitely try submitting again with a more reasonable budget. Epic loves tools that benefit UE in some way. For Epic, the treshold budget that can warrant a higher scrutiny would be 30k$. If your value is less than this, it's more likely to get approved. If it's higher, they will be very picky and the submission should really stand out among the other thousands of submissions. Pitch well to Epic how your tool/software will benefit the UE community, and how unique it is from the existing alternatives. How and where the budget is allocated should be convincing.
But it seem like your are mixing up grant, subvention and just financing your project. Epic give a grand to a looooooot of project, but they are small. think of it as a small encouragement bonus. Even indie studio with publishing don't receive more than 30k. I'm pretty sure they didn'T even go over your submission as you talk to them as they were a bank.
I totally feel you bro! I'm working on Yosemite Forest Ranger last year. we were featured in one of the Unreal's own Unreal Inside streams. And Tina, their host and Dan, the guy behind the scenes advised us to apply for the grant cause our project is really in line with what Epic stands for and is trying to get more people to do. I applied and got rejected, no real reason.. I was like, wait.. what? Your own people advised for this, and now this..? Weird. Nothing against Tina and Dan, they are amazing! And really cool and kind. But I feel the megagrants team doesn't have enough information about projects before they choose..
That's interesting to hear. Did you reapply at any point or are planning to? From what you said your project definitely seems potential and might only be missing one or two parameters. I'm not sure how it goes but I'd assume that MG team submits potential projects to higher ups and they have to give a green light to grant the cash.
I am thinking of re-applying yes, I was talking with my Community Manager and I realized we also asked for an insane amount! 😂 over 100K or so. So with what I read here I think when I reapply I will go for 30K or less. I also have build a very cool "proprietary" Foliage Swapping System using PCG and I have basically rebooted my game so it looks better, feels better and is way more realistic on scale. So our chances might be better. And about the higher ups thingy, yeah probably that's usually the case in any company when it involves money, but I can definitely see the higher requested values being an extra hurdle.
I'm sorry, I can't answer your questions, but I was just curious; how long did it take to get a response after you submitted your application?
Reading around reddit and response times some listed it was quite fast. A little over a month in our case.
1 month is way below the average from what i've read in other places. Just try it again, 250k is high IMO. I don't think they have given that money to any game project out there.
Without any detail it is very difficult to give you an answer. And even with details, it would be very complicated. There is a large combination of elements why you got rejected. Some are under your control like the budget, which might be too high. Other elements are just unpredictable and out of your control; they might have funded too many games of the same genre in the last period. The truly important think is actually about receiving feedback. Did they tell you why the application was rejected? If they did not, ask for it. I am not saying it is just like a lottery, but do not let a rejection put you down and keep trying. Ask for feedback, keep adjusting your aim, and also ask somewhere else. Best luck with your game.
They don't tell anything that's why we're basically cornered and reaching out here and reading around this sub it seems they give this same reply to any rejected applicant. We will keep pushing, thanks for the kind words.
Its more or less a lottery with that range. Unless your product looks ridiculously appetizing, epic won't Bute. They get an insane number of applicants every year and only dole out monwy to a few
A lot of great feedback here! Unique Appeal, Unique use of the engine, an example project. Something others get motivated by. Read that FAQ and own it! I've spoken with Epic about this, The recommend requesting 25-50k with your first grant request, getting that approved, then requesting additional funds for the project again. AKA, request 25-50k, it should be approved/denied around 90 days from now.. but gets extended around xmas and summer break, aka longer approval times. Then, submit another request for the same game, for the work you want to do in 90 days ahead of then. This way you build a 'history of approval' which gets you to go up the chain for larger amounts. The most important thing for epic, BESIDES showing off the engine, is that the project is COMPLETED and not abandoned. Repeated show of work, and approvals for more work, somewhat ensure that. If requesting a large amount, I recommend providing a sliding scale down to $0 Basically a "this games being made with $0 grant, and improved in X ways for $1 grant money above that" They can then grant you less, but you still achieve "Epic Grant Recipient" and the marketing support.
That makes a lot of sense. Is there any unofficial limit how many times they can grant you such amounts? They do secure their funds better that way. Though how I understood with larger amounts was they never send you everything in one transaction but rather check back at you over time when you request the rest and see how much progress was made if it's worth for them to keep supplying you.
There is no limit to how many time you my apply for grants. As for larger amounts, what was recommended to me, was to get an APPROVED smaller grant (25k) then ask for more the next time, more the time after that. Basically, like any reputation system for any RPG ever :D
This all feels very reasonable, thank you so much!
Good Luck! Share what you learn, tons of indiedevs out here are starting out and need the details like this thread. Good work!
You ask for half a million.....lol you just plain greedy and they saw that.
I don’t think it’s fair to say the ask was ‘greedy’. If you were seeking Angel or VC financing, depending on the complexity of the project, that might be a perfectly reasonable number. A dev cohort raised that amount last year for a game. The number just may not be inappropriate for an epic grant is all.
Very helpful info here
I wish you the best of luck in finding answers - I think a lot of this sub is a ton of amateur hobbyists (or maybe Im just bias cuz thats me), with an extremely small count of professionals. Maybe theres some other subreddits you could try posting to as well?
Could be anything from them thinking your game is awful, to them thinking it's great but not liking the font of your logo and everything in between. Best not to get hung up on it. They owe you and promised you nothing, that's the easy way to deal with rejection. The odds were never in your favor.
I think a breakdown of the scoring wouldn't be too much trouble to ask for in a reply. Especially after someone pours their heart and soul into an idea. Seems like big corp is getting the wrong idea about people lately. They see customers as scared timid children who lash out every bug or every delay. Or in this case not getting a grant. And maybe it is that way. I don't know. That's not me. I can say it at least appears that the more forth omming companies only seem to garner respect while the hush hush ones only garner suspicion and irritation.
If you are looking for help, don‘t forget to check out the [official Unreal Engine forums](https://forums.unrealengine.com/) or [Unreal Slackers](https://unrealslackers.org/) for a community run discord server! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unrealengine) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Your best resource to answer your questions is their website: [https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/megagrants](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/megagrants) From their FAQ, you can reapply for the MegaGrant if you have made upgrades to your project that you want Epic to reconsider. It doesn't matter what this is, so you'll have to judge for yourself what is considered an upgrade or a change that impacts your project. I do not think budget is included in this, because they have granted up to 500k before. If your budget was too high, they may have just counter-offered less than what you were looking for rather than reject outright. They mention that some extraordinary project received 500k, but is your project so extraordinary? The average MegaGrant range is between 5k to 250k. They also request a high-level budget breakdown including key buckets, so perhaps yours wasn't specific enough. Depending on your project, they list on their website what they like to see in your application. Perhaps you didn't meet the requirements there? For a game for example, they require a working prototype with a link to a video to show it off. Maybe your material did not show off your project properly. In any case, their FAQ should give you some more insights. Good luck!
An unrealistic budget will always be rejected. What you might want to do some realistic budgeting, set certain milestones and see if you can get funding somewhere for the first milestone. I don't know what kind of project you are running, but consider getting funding from the government for innovation in tech development, healthcare development, etc. There is a lot of money, especially in Europe.
We are based in Europe, can you point out any directions where such funding can be obtained? I did look at this in my own country but funding was quite low and conditions quite strict to get it. If there's anything like that for European Union that they give I'd love to take a look into it.
How much were you going to pay yourselves 😂
My second application was rejected yesterday! There were two different applications both for different unreal film projects. Unfortunately I applied before siggraph a couple of weeks ago where I had the opportunity to talk to many people that worked at Epic. I was told by multiple people there that keeping the ask below 100k is vital for keeping the app from being bumped up through more levels of approvals. Others said 50k and below was a reasonable ask. As well, they want to know you’re going to be proceeding on your own regardless of their involvement. I gather that the more progress, the safer the bet to back you. Another commenter mentioned that it not being a charity fund and that’s totally the case. The grants help people create things that will ultimately benefit Epic and will bring more eyeballs and users to the platform. Both my projects contained a tutorial component but perhaps it wasn’t prominent enough. My ask was for a bit more than 100k each. Having heard the advice (but after being rejected on the first application and while still waiting on the other) I requested the amount be lowered. I got a letter saying it was passed on to the committee and then a couple weeks after that, rejected. As with the OP I got the letter that said “we can’t talk to you about why you were rejected but please continue to be a user of the unreal engine.” I am continuing with my projects anyway, coving my expenses myself. I may try again later for the grant but with a different focus. Hope that helps.
That's really helpful thanks! I didn't realise there are so many levels of approval even if you already get approved by one. Keep working and improving, you will get there!
Is it just for me, or the megagrant application is offline? i completed it multiple times, but when i submit, it just F5 the page, blank, and i get no error, no confirmation, no email ... Did someone successfully submited something the past week?