Introduction

Epic Games just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, a four-day game jam where you build a playable game in Unreal Engine or UEFN with as many AI agents as you want. The

posted it on October 22, and the official itch.io jam page has the rules, prizes and tool links. Building runs November 12 to 15, 2026, and entry is free for developers 18+ with an Epic Games account.

The headline line is "up to five humans, as many AI agents as you want." That makes this the first big engine-vendor jam built around coding agents, MCP and AI asset tools from day one.

What was announced

  • Event: 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, hosted by Epic Games on itch.io
  • Dates: building runs November 12–15, 2026. The kickoff livestream and theme reveal is November 11 at 11 AM PST. Submissions close November 15 at 5:59 PM PST, and winners are announced by January 29, 2027
  • Engines: Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). Each team picks one, not both
  • Teams: solo or up to five people (early posts said four, but the jam page now says five), with no limit on AI agents
  • Where: online from anywhere, at Digital Jungle in San Francisco on November 14–15 (in-person registration opens November 1 on Eventbrite), or at local Unreal and UEFN community chapters
  • Prizes: $65,000 in cash plus Development Continuation Grants of up to $50,000 per team, and sponsor prizes

Do you have to use AI?

No. Epic first wrote in its FAQ that AI was required, then

: "You can use as little or as much AI as you want." The jam page now answers "Do I have to use AI?" with a plain "No."

What is allowed is broad: coding agents, asset generation, audio, writing, "anything." You can also use licensed assets you didn't make, such as from Fab, as long as you list them.

The categories game-AI builders should watch

The main categories are Best Overall for Unreal Engine, Best Overall for UEFN, and Best Student Project, each paying $7,500, $5,000 and $2,500.

Two modifier prizes matter most for this beat:

  • Walkie-Talkie ($2,500): best narrative-driven UEFN game with LLM-powered NPCs and characters built with UEFN's AI conversations feature
  • Glass Box ($2,500): best dev log showing how you built the game. This one needs a dev log link with your submission

The other modifiers are Best Team ($5,000), Solo Driver ($2,500), Render Royalty for best visuals in Unreal Engine ($2,500), and Pocket Powerhouse for best mobile game ($2,500 each for one Unreal Engine and one UEFN winner).

The continuation grants are the bigger money: $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 for the top three in each of Unreal Engine and UEFN, to keep building the jam game afterward.

How to get ready before November 12

Epic says you can set up tools, agents and MCP ahead of time, but you can't start building the game itself until November 12. Anything you made earlier, including prompts, scripts or assets, has to be declared.

  1. Click Join jam on the itch.io page.
  2. Install Unreal Engine or UEFN.
  3. Get your coding agents talking to the editor through MCP. The jam page links setup docs and livestreams for MCP in both Unreal Engine and UEFN.
  4. If you're aiming for Walkie-Talkie, read up on UEFN's AI-powered conversations for NPCs.
  5. Watch the November 11 kickoff stream for the theme.

Epic says details on claiming AI tool credits are "coming soon." The in-person day in San Francisco lists teams from Anthropic, Google, Meshy, OpenAI and SpaceXSI building alongside entrants.

What you submit

  • Unreal Engine teams: a packaged development build for Windows, macOS, Android or iOS, zipped as TeamName_GameName and under 1 GB (use butler for bigger builds), uploaded on itch.io
  • UEFN teams: a private version code, which is a fixed snapshot of your island. Live island codes and playtest codes aren't accepted
  • Both: team and member names with the email tied to each Epic account, a 30–60 second gameplay video, and an optional dev log link

Judges score each entry from 1 to 5 on ambition and innovation, theme, fun, gameplay, visuals, level design and progression, and audio. You keep ownership of your game.

Original Source

https://itch.io/jam/2026-epic-ai-megajam

https://www.unrealengine.com/news/2026-epic-ai-megajam

Conclusion

The AI MegaJam is Epic putting real money behind agent-assisted game building in its own engines, with a prize aimed squarely at LLM-driven NPCs. If you've been testing MCP with Unreal or UEFN, the next three weeks are the time to get your setup working so day one goes to the game, not the plumbing.

—Titus