Unreal deal: Ars talks Unreal dev kit with Epic's Mark Rein

Early this month, Epic Games released the Unreal Development Kit, a free version of the popular Unreal Engine 3 available for anyone to download. The UDK gives students, independent developers, or just enthusiasts the chance to use the same tools as the developers behind games like Gears of War 2 and Unreal Tournament 3. Ars spoke with Mark Rein, vice president of Epic, about the UDK and what it means for aspiring game developers.

"We aimed UDK at anyone who wants to play with our tools, but the tools we provide with it are the same professional, world-class tools with which our developers work," Rein told Ars. "It isn't watered down in any way, so we could expect to see anyone from beginners to professional developers using it. Over 50,000 users installed UDK in the first week, so clearly there are a large number of people who want access to our game technology."

But while the UDK is similar to UE3, the free version doesn't get you everything that a full license would.