LOOKING UNREAL: Yuga Labs Upgraded Otherside's Unreal Engine, Bringing Better Graphics, Gameplay, And Soon New AI Tools And Tech!
- Kyle
- Sep 3
- 2 min read
The Otherside looks better than ever tonight after Yuga Labs upgraded the swamp to Unreal Engine 5.5, delivering sharper graphics, smoother gameplay, and soon unlocking the AI tools and tech the team has been building for the metaverse!
Wednesday was anything but boring as Yuga Labs briefly took the Otherside offline to complete the upgrade from Unreal Engine 5.3 to 5.5.
“Swamp got taken down for a beat for some updates,” Garga said on Discord. “The Swamp is now on Unreal Engine 5.5. Not much visibly different with The Swamp moving to 5.5, but a LOT of improvements on procedural generation, tooling, etc that helps us develop and modify stuff much better.”
After the upgrade, Yuga Labs Head Engineer James Hall took to the timeline with a seven-part thread breaking down the release. He highlighted improved graphics, bug fixes, and smoother systems. Hall also noted that the Clubhouse’s Ape only policy will be better enforced and that the Swamp Train will now be running like never before!
As the Bored Ape Gazette previously reported, Garga first called the jump to Unreal 5.5 a “must” back in May.
While we don’t yet know everything Yuga Labs has planned for Otherside now that the metaverse is running on Unreal 5.5, we do know that Garga has teased that this upgrade will make it possible for them to launch minigames and activations on the Koda homeworld of the Nexus when it opens this fall.
“on having more mini activations - I know it's no fun but there's a technical reason why we can't just throw live a lot of stuff we actually already have built (or built before) right now and are saving it for Nexus debut,” he said last week. “I think the version of the swamp you guys are in rn is not Unreal 5.5 for example, and all that other stuff is being or has already been ported over to 5.5 .”
Tonight everyone is invited to check out the upgraded Otherside here: https://launch.otherside.xyz
What I like is how stickman hook 2 feels fair. Unlike some games that rely heavily on luck, this one depends on my skill. If I fail, I know it’s because I mistimed a swing, not because the game cheated me. That fairness motivates me to keep trying until I get it right.