Unreal Engine Veteran Sjoerd de Jong Leaves Epic Games as UE6 Moves Toward AI Driven Development

Epic Games has lost one of the most recognizable figures in the history of Unreal Engine, with veteran developer, educator, and level designer Sjoerd “Hourences” de Jong confirming his departure after 12 years at the company. His exit arrives as Epic begins moving Unreal Engine toward one of its largest structural changes, combining Unreal Engine 5 with Unreal Editor for Fortnite while introducing Verse, Scene Graph, greater interoperability, and deeper integration with artificial intelligence models.

De Jong announced the move through his LinkedIn account, explaining that the previous week had been his last at Epic. His relationship with Unreal technology stretches back 27 years, beginning when he discovered the original Unreal Engine as a teenager and started creating community maps, modifications, tutorials, and development resources.

"This era has come to a close, and it is time to move forward."
— Sjoerd de Jong.

His career became closely connected to the growth of Unreal Engine and its developer community. De Jong contributed to Unreal Tournament 2004 as a contract level designer, creating several multiplayer environments including DM Rankin and ONS Torlan. DM Rankin became one of the most recognizable competitive maps in the game and remains an important example of carefully controlled movement, sightlines, verticality, and arena flow.

De Jong also wrote The Hows and Whys of Level Design, created extensive Unreal development tutorials, ran community platforms, taught game development, and worked across projects including The Ball, The Solus Project, Unmechanical, Killzone, and Syndicate. His professional portfolio describes a career covering world building, technical art, education, studio support, community leadership, and product development.

Epic hired him full time in 2014 as an Unreal Engine evangelist. He later became Lead Evangelist, Director of Developer Community, Senior Director of Developer Experience, and eventually Senior Director of Product. His work included supporting Unreal Engine documentation, tutorials, sample projects, technical presentations, community systems, developer websites, and an unannounced project spanning multiple parts of Epic Games.

During his departure announcement, de Jong described an industry undergoing unusually rapid change. He did not identify one specific technology, project, or internal decision as the reason for leaving, but said game development had reached a pivotal stage shaped by several powerful forces arriving at the same time.

"It feels like we are reaching a pivotal point now."
— Sjoerd de Jong.

The timing naturally places his departure beside Epic’s announcement of Unreal Engine 6, but there is currently no evidence that the new engine or its AI direction directly caused his decision. De Jong did not criticize Epic’s technology roadmap, reject artificial intelligence, or claim that traditional level design was being abandoned. In fact, he suggested that developers must understand where the industry is heading and learn how to adapt to both the challenges and opportunities ahead.

That distinction matters because Unreal Engine 6 is already generating concern among developers. Epic plans to combine the full production capabilities of Unreal Engine 5 with the accessibility, live development systems, and large scale publishing structure created for Unreal Editor for Fortnite. The company wants creators to build content once and deploy it across traditional games, Fortnite experiences, and potentially connected ecosystems.

Epic’s official Unreal Engine 6 roadmap places Verse at the center of the future programming model. Scene Graph will provide a new gameplay framework designed for persistent worlds, reusable components, large teams, and systems that can move more easily between projects.

Actors and Blueprints will remain available during the early versions of Unreal Engine 6. Epic says they will eventually be deprecated after the new framework becomes mature enough, with conversion tools planned to help developers move existing projects. This is still a major transition because Blueprints have become one of the most widely used visual scripting systems in professional and independent game development.

Unreal Engine 6 will also expand AI integration through Model Context Protocol support. Epic plans to connect models such as Claude, Gemini, and other compatible systems directly to the editor, allowing them to understand project structures and interact with specific development workflows. Epic describes these systems as productivity and creativity multipliers that can reduce repetitive manual work while leaving creative direction with developers.

The first stage of that strategy is already present in Unreal Engine 5.8, which introduces an experimental MCP plugin capable of connecting language models directly to Unreal projects. These models can assist with asset creation, testing, optimization, project interaction, and selected editor operations. Epic has also demonstrated workflows that combine scene information with image and diffusion models.

Unreal Engine 5.8 is the last planned major release in the Unreal Engine 5 generation, although Epic has reserved the possibility of a version 5.9 if necessary. Unreal Engine 6 Early Access is scheduled for the end of 2027, with the full release expected approximately 12 to 18 months later.

Previously explored the wider transition in our Unreal Engine 6 analysis, including the move toward Verse, Scene Graph, connected economies, portable content, and model assisted production tools. These changes could reshape how games are programmed, distributed, updated, and monetized. Concerns remain understandable. Modern level design depends on intentional pacing, environmental storytelling, player psychology, visual composition, combat flow, exploration, and an understanding of how people respond to spaces. These are not tasks that can be reduced to generating assets or automatically filling a landscape with buildings.

De Jong’s departure represents the end of an important Unreal Engine era, but it should not be rewritten as proof that traditional level designers are being replaced by AI. His legacy is built around handcrafted worlds, developer education, community support, and making advanced technology more accessible to creators.

The real test for Unreal Engine 6 will be whether Epic uses AI to support skilled developers or allows automation to weaken creative decision making. Tools can place objects, generate code, test systems, and accelerate iteration, but memorable levels still require purpose. Sjoerd de Jong’s career is a reminder that technology becomes meaningful only when experienced developers understand how to shape it into places players remember.

Do you think Unreal Engine 6 will empower level designers with better tools, or could its growing use of AI reduce the value of handcrafted development?