Here’s an interesting lesson about relying on online information to help you navigate the incessant obstacles that are in your path as you attempt to develop your first game. Epic has suddenly deleted the Unreal Wiki, one of the largest and most historical resources for helping developers navigate the C++ aspect of the famed engine. It’s hasn’t been set to read-only mode, there was no warning, they simply decided it was time to kill the resource.
This was met with a resounding cry from developers that have been using the resource since its inception well over a decade ago, and now many developers are simply stuck with no available resources to continue their game development.
This action taken by Epic will have resounding consequences for quite some time for the gaming industry, and farther in the future likely for Epic themselves. Developers aren’t prone to working with indecisive platforms that can simply remove their data on an apparent whim, meaning that one of Epic’s few remaining cash cows can find itself finally milked dry if Epic doesn’t figure out an alternative quickly.
Epic stated in the blog post, that now all Unreal Engine Wiki posts default to, that the information will now be disseminated in blog posts, forum discussions, and various documentation. Currently, the available data for developers is simply gone; the ‘documentation’ that Epic is referring to is, at best, vague and oversimplified catch-alls for what are rather complex situations that developers find themselves in.
Syntax necessary for server targets in the engine, for example, is now completely missing. Using the engine to automatically compress save files, or the registration of particle collision within the engine, and thousands of more pages which the community took time and effort to build over the years has simply ceased to exist. Developers are being encouraged to read through Epic’s blog posts instead. It’s a slap in the face at an absolute best, as anyone who has dabbled in the engine likely has a plethora of bookmarked pages that now simply don’t exist.
Epic stated that the wiki was causing a ‘security concern’, and that they aren’t bringing it back up. They have stated that the most visited pages will be uploaded in another form; better hope your dev team doesn’t stumble across an obscure issue, because you guys will be back to square one, or paying other developers to surpass the obstacle in your way.
I’m trying to put a positive lining on this, but this was beyond a monumentally stupid decision from Epic; one of many foolish gaffes that the corporation has been making publically as of recently. Here’s hoping not too many developers are negatively affected by this decision.
