In an interview with Polygon, lead game designer Chris Smith revealed Eve: Valkyrie rebuilt their game from ground up using Unreal Engine 4 from the Unity Engine. Additionally, they are bringing in Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica to voice a new character.
"It gives us familiarity. It gives us a great engine, I’ve worked in Unreal before. It gives us ready made accessibility into the market," Smith told the website. "I’m not a business person, so for me it’s just a great engine that renders a great game. It allows me to express what I need to express on a tool I’m familiar with. On the code side, everyone seems to be adapting very quick. What you’re seeing today is from nothing in January to now."
Unreal Engine 4 will be helpful in enhancing the game for virtual reality since it will support Oculus Rift on the PC and Project Morpheus on the PlayStation 4.
Additionally, the company brought in the actress who played Starbuck in the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica to voice the first Valkyrie pilot and the leader of all the other pilots named Ran. She is described to be the voice inside a player's head that tells them what's going on and what to do next. The player is among these pilots that were stolen at the moment of death and implanted in new bodies to fight in the sky under the leadership of Ran.
The game is expected to be ready by the end of 2014.