With Unreal Tournament returning to claim the shooter crown, there had to be a few updates. Updating the game with a whole new… game… was obviously the first step, but fancy graphics and new mechanics don’t always scream “THIS IS NEW” to potential players.
No, for that you need an eye-catching, informative, groovy logo. And you can see Epic’s choice in the big image above. Isn’t that just smashing?
The new logo was revealed on the Unreal Tournament live stream, and is the work of Henrik Ryosa, an Unreal fan. Epic had been looking to the community for logo ideas, but soon found that a specific group of talented designers were putting out consistently great designs. Henrik was among them, and was finally picked as the winning artist.
Henrik’s design was not a one-off, but one of “around 500” different ones that he contributed. It features that classic Unreal ‘U’ element, but has a distinct whiff of eSports with that italic font that will look great on tournament banners.
Take a look at the stream video for a few more reveals beyond the new logo. Senior Designer Nick Donaldson plays a new version of his NickTest1 map, which has proved a community favourite. A few adjustments are being made based on community feedback and internal ideas. The coolest addition in the works is a wall that players will be able to see ‘through’ in order to anticipate enemy movements. In sci-fi themed maps this could be an X-Ray panel where you can see a skeleton sprinting by, or in fantasy themed maps torches on the wall could light up as the player runs through.
Despite being in very early stages, Unreal Tournament looks like its grasped the spirit of its heritage and is doing a fine job of bringing it to the HD, eSports generation.