Epic Games has released over $12 million worth of high-quality assets from their soon-to-be-defunct title Paragon for Unreal Engine developers to work with according to a blog post on the company's website.
Paragon is a MOBA created by Epic Games that unfortunately did not find much in the way of commercial success. The game limped along in a beta state for some time before the developer announced that they would be pulling the plug for good on April 26, 2018. The game had nearly over three dozen distinct characters created with all of the bells and whistles, and now some of those assets have been made available for any developer hooked up with the Unreal Engine to use in their own projects however they see fit.
The assets page for these new goodies has 20 of the game's heroes - more than half of the roster. A male announcer pack and props & special effects from the Agora and Monolith maps have also been made available. The heroes are not simply models - these are complete, comprehensive releases of the game's playable characters including rigging, animation, sounds, textures, and alternate skins. Unreal Engine developers looking to make use of the assets may find the related F.A.Q. on the Unreal Engine forums helpful. Use of the assets requires version 4.19 of the engine and the license mandates that they can only be used with Unreal Engine.
Releasing the professional-grade assets for Paragon likely spells doom for any chances of seeing the game revived by Epic Games or picked up by another developer, although there's the possibility that a fan group may make use of these pieces of content to attempt to remake the game in some fashion. This is merely the opening volley of content being made available for developers - additional assets from the game are set to be released throughout 2018.
Update: Upon inquiry to Epic Games, we've learned that there are definitively no plans for them or any other publisher to continue with development for Paragon. As for the question of a fan-made revival of Paragon, they had the following to say:
" Yes, Unreal Engine 4 developers are free to make a MOBA and borrow as much as you want from Epic’s Paragon design. Anything other than the trademarked name 'Paragon' is fair game."What do you think of Epic Games fully releasing the assets of Paragon for use in Unreal Engine games? Do you think they ought to have sold the game off to another company or attempted to keep development going? Let us know in the comments below!
