Make Something Unreal finalists announced

Epic have announced the finalists of their Make Something Unreal Live 2013 competition, culling the 12 shortlisted teams down to four potential winners. Make Something Unreal challenges student teams from across Europe to develop a game around a particular theme. This year the theme is "Mendelian Inheritance," which is the theory of how hereditary characteristics are carried between generations (thanks Wikipedia!)

Here are the finalists, selected by the crack judging team of Jo Twist, CEO of UKIE, Stephen Gaffney, CEO of Fireteam, Tim Edwards, editor of PCGamesN (and former boss man of PC Gamer), as well as a selection of folks from Epic Games and the Wellcome Trust.

Loch Ness by Dead Shark Triplepunch, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
Polymorph by Team Polymorph, Staffordshire University
Mendel's Farm by Static Games, Bournemouth University
Beings by Team Summit, University of Abertay, Dundee

The teams now have four months to turn their prototypes into fully fledged games for the final, hosted at the Gadget Show Live. The winners, who will be announced at the event, get their hands on a shiny new Unreal 4 commercial licence. That may not sound as exciting as a round the world cruise, but for a team of student indie devs, it's a potentially amazing opportunity.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.