Common Foundry, a startup providing cloud infrastructure to Unreal Engine 5 sport builders, has introduced a brand new Common Foundry Compute Grant for small sport devs.
Concentrating on solo and and small sport groups, the intention is to award choose groups with free of charge infrastructure speed up their challenge’s improvement, stated Albert Reed, CEO of Common Foundry, in an interview with GamesBeat.
The grant will award choose groups with free Common Foundry Horde steady integration (CI) cloud
infrastructure to assist their sport’s launch with functions now open by way of Could 30, 2025 on the Common Foundry web site.
“Having beforehand based a sport studio, I perceive first-hand how vital working with nice instruments is for a sport’s well timed launch and for workforce retention,” stated Reed. “Epic has offered builders with wonderful cloud-based instruments together with Horde but it surely’s as much as groups to deploy and function these instruments themselves. We constructed Common Foundry to assist groups work extra effectively – permitting them to deal with making nice video games and on releasing them quicker, as a substitute of managing servers.”
Reed added, “Whereas turnkey expertise prices could be prohibitive for the smallest groups, we’re thrilled to supply our Compute Grant to help choose indie studios on their journey in 2025, as they work to launch some wonderful new video games.”
Reed stated that small Unreal Engine 5 groups launching cellular, console, or PC video games in 2025 or 2026 are eligible, in the event that they meet the technical necessities. For chosen groups Common Foundry will present free service by way of their sport’s launch window or the top of 2026, whichever comes first. Grant recipients can be notified of acceptance earlier than June 30, 2025.
Common Foundry accelerates Unreal Engine 5 sport improvement groups of all sizes with first-of-its-kind turnkey cloud infrastructure that’s each safe and scalable. Common Foundry’s Horde steady integration (CI) infrastructure reduces the necessity for workforce upkeep of on-prem servers and implementation of bespoke cloud deployments finally rising sport workforce effectivity.
Simply a few of the groups leveraging Common Foundry’s companies for his or her video games have included Glass Backside Video games, OK Dinosaur and others with but to be introduced triple-A titles.
Reed cofounded the corporate in 2024 with Lucian Cesca. Reed had intensive background in sport improvement, with Cesca grounded in high-security infrastructure engineering background. Reed led Boston-based Demiurge Studios for almost 15 years, overseeing the workforce’s progress and contributions to main online game franchises, together with the discharge of a number of unique video games.
Reed and Cesca met whereas engaged on a monetary companies enterprise. They began a couple of yr in the past based mostly on the core thought of offering cloud infrastructure in order that sport builders may have a superb expertise working with cloud-based sport engines.
“There are simply only a few firms who’re actually laser centered on bettering ping time for builders, and that’s what we needed to do,” Reed stated. “What our product does is make it in order that when an engineer checks in a change, a CPP file or no matter, it will get over to the artists and the instruments workforce within the QA as shortly as doable. No one has to take a seat looking at a progress bar going for a very very long time.”
Epic Video games supplies some instruments to make that doable, however they’re sophisticated, and sport builders wish to make the online game and never function a bunch of servers within the cloud.
“And there’s actually no motive for five,000 builders to all construct their very own cloud infrastructure this present day. In order that’s form of how we slot in,” Reed stated. “I feel video games have this distinctive drawback as a result of we now have extra property and textures and fashions and all this different stuff that should occur quick. We’ve fallen behind on making the developer expertise actually environment friendly and actually fantastic. The answer is to begin dashing it up so that you don’t must do all of it in your native workstation.”
The corporate signed its first firm within the third quarter of final yr. The Common Subscription begins at about $1,000 a month. The grants are a approach to assist indie builders with these prices.
