Many people in the gaming community have been seeing Epic Games pop up recently because of their currently smoldering battle royale title Fortnite. Several know the company from a few different creations, such as the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War franchises, plus the Unreal Engine that they are developed with. However, before Fortnite reached its current status, another game from Epic was trying to make it on the market. That title has since been cancelled, but Epic Games has recently announced that they released $12 million worth of Paragon assets for creators to use free of charge.

With “20 AAA-quality characters, with their respective skins, animations, VFX and dialogue, along with over 1,500 environment components from Paragon” being released, creators using Unreal Engine 4 can now bring the components from the cancelled game into their own projects at no additional cost. When it was learned that the title would not be continuing on, Epic also announced that they would be issuing refunds to all of the players. Needless to say, the company is treating the closure of Paragon fairly decently. Here’s a short video announcing the release of the assets:

Here’s more on what will be included with the free Paragon assets:

• Characters: 20 Paragon Hero characters will be initially available including all skins for distinct character variants. The release also includes base meshes, thousands of textures, VFX and animation cycles, and dialogue with hundreds of sound cues. The character Shinbi comes with an animation Blueprint which can be tailored to specific needs. Epic sends special thanks to OTOY and 3D Scan Store for granting permission to keep intact the high-quality character materials using their facial and body scanning technologies as part of this release.
• Environments: The Paragon release includes over 1,500 environment assets created for the Agora and Monolith maps, including a sample map for developers to use and customize as desired.
• More to Come: Epic will release millions of dollars worth of additional Paragon asset packs beyond the initial $12 million offering through spring and summer 2018.

Even though Fortnite is absolutely killing it on the market right now for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and mobile, the title’s success is partly responsible for Paragon going down. On the bright side, $12 million worth (and more to come) of Paragon assets being available for free will allow aspiring developers to further their creations, maybe even bringing on the next round of great video games. It’s sad that a promising title didn’t make it, but there’s no denying that this is a great move by the company.

What say you, gamers? Will any of you be taking advantage of the now free Paragon assets to help with your Unreal Engine 4 creations? Are you still upset that the game didn’t survive, or does Fortnite help ease the pain? Sound off in the comments section below, and be sure to follow DFTG on Twitter for live gaming and entertainment news 24/7! For other gaming goodness going on right now, check out the following:

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