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Jam Rules & Constraints

Director’s Cut is a solo Unreal Engine 5.9 entry for the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam. The theme is Director’s Cut.

This page condenses the Official Rules (16 pp., last updated Nov 5, 2026). The Official Rules control. Each § marks the section that says so. Items marked jam page come from the itch.io page, not the Rules.

1. The clock

• The theme is announced at the start of the jam, on Unreal Engine’s livestream and X account (§1).
• Epic’s servers are the official clock (§12). Late entries are disqualified (§3).
• Winners have 72 hours to answer Epic’s notification, or they can lose the prize (§14).

2. Made inside the window

• Allowed before the window opens: AI tools, agent configurations, MCP settings, prompt libraries and scripts (§7h).
• Everything else is made inside the window: gameplay, levels and art. Noted sourced assets are the only exception (§7h).
• Epic may ask for those prepared materials or their version-control history to verify this (§7h, §7j).

3. The build

• Made with Unreal Engine or UEFN, never both. This entry uses UE 5.9 (§1).
• Packaged for Windows and playable on Windows 10/11 (§1b). No extra software needed to run it (§7f).
• Custom gameplay beyond Epic’s starter templates (§7e).
• Not an obvious extension of an official Unreal tutorial, meaning no reused tutorial project, levels or assets that are only renamed, moved or reskinned (§7d).
• Shows the theme, Director’s Cut (§7g).
• English for all text, audio, the video and all entry information (§7i).
• Jam page: zipped and named TeamName_GameName. Desktop zips should stay under 1 GB, or go up through butler.

4. Content limits (§8, §15)

• Suitable for Teen (13+), equivalent to an ESRB Teen rating.
• No trademarks or logos. The Unreal Engine logo is the one exception, used under Epic’s branding guidelines (§15d).
• No third-party IP: no copyright, trademark, privacy or publicity violations. Suspected copyright infringement is disqualified (§15g).
• Nothing hateful, discriminatory, obscene, defamatory or illegal. No nudity and no animal cruelty.
• Nothing that disparages Epic or attacks any person or product, competitors included.
• Nothing at odds with Epic’s image and values.

5. AI and assets

• Using AI is optional, for code, assets or systems inside the game (§7a).
• The amount of AI use counts for context only. On its own it neither raises nor lowers a score (§9).
• AI-generated content isn’t a sourced asset. It’s yours (§15c).
• Sourced assets must be listed at submission and cleared at your own cost. They aren’t reviewed or scored (§1d, §15c).

6. Submission

• One submission per team, submitted once (§2).
• A person submits it. Submitting through an AI agent or any automated means is not allowed (§17).
• The full name and email of every entrant, with one named as Team Owner (§1c).
• Gameplay video: 30–60 seconds, at 1920×1080 or higher (§1e, §7c).
• Dev log, submitted with the entry during the jam, to qualify for Glass Box (§10).
• Epic must be able to access the entry directly (§7b).

7. Judging (§9–§10)

Seven criteria, 1–5 each, for a maximum of 35:

• Ambition & Innovation
• Use of Theme
• Fun Factor
• Gameplay
• Visuals
• Level Design
• Audio

Ties are re-scored with Fun Factor counted double.

Prizes this entry can win (§13). Each submission can win at most one main prize and one modifier prize.

UE entries may also be invited to apply for Development Continuation Grants of up to $50,000 / $25,000 / $10,000. These aren’t contest prizes (§11).

8. Rights (§2, §15)

• We keep ownership of the game.
• Epic gets a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use the submission only to publicize the contest. It may add its logo or choose a thumbnail.
• There’s no payment beyond prizes, and no claim against anyone over similar ideas (§15e).

9. Grounds for disqualification

• breaking any rule or content limit
• missing the deadline
• submitting more than once, or under several identities
• submitting through an AI agent or automated means
• cheating, hacking, deception or tampering
• infringing third-party IP
• not answering a winner notification within 72 hours
• not returning the Prize Release or tax forms

(§2, §3, §6, §14, §15, §17)

How this project works within the rules

1. Nothing is built before Wed Nov 11, 9:00 p.m. PT. Until then this project holds only tooling, agent configuration, prompts, scripts and these documents. History stays clean for §7h.
2. A person submits, by hand (§17). Agents prepare the build, video and form answers, then stop.
3. Every asset has provenance. Tool, prompt or source, and license are recorded in the Provenance & AI-Use Log. That log is where the sourced-asset list and the AI-use notes come from.
4. Teen-safe, logo-free, English-only. We use no outside IP; the Unreal Engine logo is the only mark allowed.
5. Built in public, planned in private. This site is the dev log. The task prompts, planning base and source repository are private.