Unreal Engine is generally seen as a powerhouse that fuels big-budget blockbusters, but Epic has made moves to open it to a wider range of users with the recent announcement of a subscription model. Engine general manager Ray Davis said this is part of an effort to make the engine more accessible, and that it's been inspired by more simple building game tools like Minecraft.

"I'm always super impressed with what folks do in Minecraft these days," Davis told Rock Paper Shotgun. "We’re definitely inspired by how creative people can be in there, and we feel like somebody who has a great time in Minecraft, can we get our tools and editor to a point where they can have an equally fun experience with a full engine--and kinda take it to the next level, potentially?"

He also said to that end, the studio had toyed with a tutorial for Unreal Engine that acted more like a game. "That’s one of the things we experimented with right before the holidays, and it was really fun," he said. "Unfortunately we decided to pull it out of this release, but it’s something we hope to revisit. We called it a gamified tutorial, actually."