Make Something Unreal Live contest is live, Mendelian Inheritance is this year's theme

The next Make Something Unreal Live competition kicks off this month. Are you a team of "six to 10 members consisting off current full-time university students?" Then you might want to consider signing up here and then submitting a pitch here before the November 2 deadline. If you're successful you'll become part of a 12 team shortlist tasked with building a game based on "Mendelian inheritance" before judgement day at the Gadget Show next April.

Mendelian inheritance is the process by which traits are passed genetically from one generation to the next. Mutations in the process introduce variety into the gene pool, which is pared back down by natural selection leading to the gradual species shifts. The theme should hopefully encourage more detailed evolution mechanics than Spore's "you've gained a point, whack a horn on it" approach.

The four final teams will have to demo their game in front of an audience at the Gadget Show Live next summer. The winning team will walk away with an Unreal Engine 4 PC license with which to build their next project. Check out the Make Something Unreal Live team brief for full details on how to enter. Good luck!

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.