Unlike most game projects, Jonas did everything himself, leaving a long-time job as a character animator to pursue his budding passion. But what made him take the leap?It all started with a bit of ongoing education. Working in the film and TV world, it’s hard not to bump into Unreal Engine, or hear about its benefits. So Manke decided to explore it, and start testing how animation works within the engine. While prototyping a character, he soon felt like a larger story could be told around his burgeoning protagonist and began creating a landscape for his character to inhabit. He was surprised at how easy it was to learn Unreal Engine and continued to build up his skill set through online tutorials and YouTube playlists. Day by day, he watched his iteration speed grow, so he kept pressing on.
It took about half a year before Manke felt like he had something that looked “kind of cool.” He eventually showed it to a friend, who encouraged him to show it to others. He decided to share it online and soon received hundreds of messages of support. Since its release, Omno has been praised for its beautiful visuals and wide variety of biomes. Manke credits Unreal Engine for making his game look good out of the box.
Source: Unreal Engine Blog