AWS for Games sponsors Epic Games’ Women Creators Program

In October 2023, Amazon Web Services (AWS) teamed up with Epic Games to support its ‘Women Creators Program’ (WCP), an initiative to train women to create in Unreal Editor For Fortnite (UEFN) and provide mentorship as they pursue careers in games. UEFN combines the power of Unreal Engine – an advanced real-time 3D creation tool for photorealistic visuals and immersive experiences – with the scale of Fortnite, a game platform with over 650 million players. Within UEFN, you can design, develop, and publish content directly into Fortnite using Unreal Engine’s proven tools and workflows.

In collaboration with AWS, Epic Games expanded the WCP to recruit women aspiring for technical roles and support diverse career development within the games industry. This training program invited 100 women from India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa who were mentored to build technical skills and create games they showcased on UEFN.

“Empowering diverse talent is key to fueling the workforce of tomorrow. By sponsoring the Women Creators Program, we’re acting on our principle of “Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility” – we have a duty to amplify underrepresented voices in the creator community. This initiative is about more than just skills training – it’s about opening doors, elevating perspectives, and driving meaningful change.” – Olga Krasovski, Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS

AWS provided instances at no cost to the program so that participants could take advantage of the agility and flexibility of the cloud for game development. AWS democratizes game development to make it open and accessible to all. Typically, creators must acquire expensive hardware with GPUs upfront, which takes time, is expensive, and does not scale up or down easily. Developing on AWS allows for more scalability and flexibility while reducing costs. Creators can spin up instances with powerful hardware configurations and scale them up or down as needed. Amazon EC2 helps remove physical infrastructure barriers for participants and allows a seamless training experience.

Each participant was assigned a mentor and given guidance from Green Rain (Unreal Training experts) while learning what it takes to publish in Fortnite. Sandra Kawar, Unreal Engine Chapter Lead who was a mentor for the WCP program, was drawn to the program because of its focus on fostering diversity and inclusion. Kawar said that she has always been “passionate about supporting and uplifting underrepresented voices in the games community”.

”One of the key benefits of using AWS was its accessibility, (which) helped streamline the onboarding process for my team members – providing them with easy access to the tools and resources they needed to contribute effectively. This accessibility was particularly beneficial for some of my team members who may have faced barriers in traditional setups. By simplifying access to essential resources and eliminating logistical hurdles, AWS enabled all team members to focus on their creative work without being hindered by technical constraints.”

Mariam Dholkawala, a WCP participant, was on the team that created an immersive experience with the player in a unique art gallery that incorporates puzzle-solving and escape room mechanics. The player is tasked with locating and restoring art before the gallery’s opening, else the player faces the uncertainty of being trapped inside forever. Dholkawala reflected that, “AWS played a crucial role during the development and testing phases of our game. It enabled collaboration among the women creators, who were spread across various geographies and time zones, allowing us to work on the same project independently, without hindering each other’s progress.”

Final projects, from both 2022 and 2021, are showcased on Unreal Engine’s blog and social channels, viewed by millions of people each year. If you’re interested in seeing experiences created by 2023 participants like Mariam, check out the following video!

AWS and Epic Games are committed to ensuring that the Women Creators Program is accessible to women of all backgrounds, and are doing their part to help close the gender gap in both the tech and games industry. Those interested in applying to the next Women Creators Program can find an overview and requirements on the program website. To learn more about how to develop with Unreal Engine and UEFN on AWS, check out this blog.