Many fans were furious with Epic Games when they allowed Paragon to die. Following Fortnite: Battle Royales insane success, Epic admitted that they were reallocating Paragon resources to their smash hit, which was a primary reason why the games updates and development dwindled and ultimately stopped. Following what many fans felt was a betrayal, Epic Games is now trying to give back in a nearly unprecedented move from a major publisher and developer. Totaling a value of approximately $12 million, Epic Games is making nearly all assets from Paragon completely free to developers using the Unreal Engine.

Paragon was a third-person MOBA developed in the vein of League of Legends and Smite. While many games attempted to fill what they saw as a gap in the market – and an opportunity – all of these games inevitably failed to hit the mark. While it was possible that Paragon could have become something more – it reported over 7 million registered users with peeks of 100,000 active users – Epic shut the game down following diminishing numbers. Now, nearly everything that made up popular MOBA will be made free to developers.

Among the assets being given away are the entirety of Paragon character models, animations, skins, visual effects, and all dialogue for the entire cast of 20 characters. A blueprint for character animations is also available among the character assets. Epic is also including over 1,500 environmental components from various maps and s sample map. Particularly shocking among the released assets was the full access given to voice acting files.

Recently, the Capital Wasteland Project was canceled due to voice acting issues. The project was a top-to-bottom remake of Fallout 3 using Fallout 4’s engine. However, the project was stopped dead when Bethesda indicated that access to the voice files would be illegal. Details were not fully disclosed as to why – whether it was because of the legalities of the voice actors contracts or Bethesda’s own wishes – but it shows how even something like audio files can be difficult to gain access to. The fact that Epic Games is giving out even the audio files indicates a faith in fans and a willingness to let them explore whatever creative avenues they want.

It’s entirely possible that fans could create piles of new Paragon properties or minigames, but if nothing else, it is a huge boon to developers wishing to learn how to make a AAA title. The fans may have been disappointed at Paragon’s demise, but Epic has done a huge favor to the community by making these assets free, and it will certainly help their standing within the community.

All Paragon assets are currently free to download via the Unreal Engine Marketplace with Epic Games promising the release of more Paragon content in the summer.