In an extensively worded press release, Epic Games announced plans to follow up to the original “$1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest” with an all-new competition that will be backed by Intel. This time around, the winnings exceed $1 million in value, consisting of one coveted Unreal Engine 3 license as a grand prize and other cash awards and prizes, including Intel Software Development Products and Velocity Micro PCs based on the Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop platform with two Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processors. Damn, that sentence had too much Intel in it.

The contest has already begun and will be judged in four preliminary phases, with judging starting June 2008 and concluding in Fall 2009. As expected, to participate, players will have to create mods for the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3 in a wide range of categories including environments, characters, weaons, gameplay, tools, vehicles and more. The more creative one gets, the closer he comes to the prize.

“To all you aspiring game developers out there – this is your chance to get in the big leagues. We have categories for all kinds of creatively talented people including programmers, artists, 3D modelers, designers and even aspiring film directors,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “You get to use the same world-class Unreal Engine 3 toolset we used to create Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War. Unreal Engine 3 is used by many of the industry’s leading game companies, so this is truly a chance to prove your worth and get your foot in the door of the game business while having your work potentially exposed to millions. To get mod-makers started, the collector’s edition of Unreal Tournament 3 includes over 20 hours of 3D Buzz’s professional-level video training materials for the Unreal Engine 3 toolset.”