Unreal Tournament 2014 Alpha gameplay might look like this

There's a game out there right now being developed at the same time as Unreal Tournament 2014. It goes by the name Open Tournament, and it's a completely community-made new-age version of the original Unreal Tournament, built in Unreal Engine 4. This game looks very, very basic, but has a LOT of potential – but its creators might just skip the rest given today's news.

Today it was announced by Epic Games that they'll be beginning production on Unreal Tournament 2014 today. Literally today they've both announced the next Unreal Tournament and will beginning production on the game from the ground up.

Unreal Tournament 4 will be a completely free game. This means no in-game purchases, no pay-to-win, nothing that generally comes with the "F2P" genre. This is a whole new Unreal Tournament 2014 environment, built with Unreal Engine 4.

You have to be a part of the Unreal Engine 4 community to have access to both Open Tournament and Unreal Tournament 2014. One is unofficial, the other is being developed mainly by Epic Games.

What does the release of Unreal Tournament 2014 mean for community development of Open Tournament?

It means a lot of these fan-developers will be turning over to help Epic Games on a "real" Unreal Tournament. It means that Unreal Tournament has a built-in audience as well as a built-in community developer base the likes of which have never been accessed before.

For now, Open Tournament will serve as a visual reminder of the following: Unreal Tournament 2014 has just begun development TODAY. This means AT LEAST a few months before the game will be playable, and there's very little chance the game will leave Alpha before the end of 2014.

Get ready for some big flat shapes and fireballs made of pixels – and the joys that come with the whole lot.

MORE: Open Tournament