Epic Games working on new IP, new "Samaritan" character art shown [UPDATE]

Epic Games confirmed it is working on a new IP during a GDC panel session, using what at first appeared to be character art from its Unreal Engine 4 tech demo "Samaritan" to illustrate the announcement.

Excuse the fuzziness of the image. Note the familiar jacket, firearm and outfit.

Anyway; Polygon reports that during a panel called "Animation Bootcamp: Animation Prototyping for Games," Epic's lead animator Jay Hosfelt confirmed that the new IP would be developed and released without a publisher and showed character art that resembled the hero in the studio's Unreal Engine 4 "Samaritan" tech demo.

Paul Meegan, who handles games, tech and publishing at Epic Games confirmed on Twitter that the game had nothing to do with the Samaritan demo.

"We love that people are excited about our unannounced game, but it's entirely new and has nothing to do with the Samaritan demo."

Here's the Samaritan demo from last year:

Epic's "Infiltrator" tech demo was also shown.

Hosfelt then touched on how Epic prototypes its games by creating assets quickly to iteratively improve them and optimise the process, and confirmed that this new IP went through the same system.

Epic Games is also working on Fortnite, and is expected to make some form of announcement - possibly not related to that game - at some point this week.

We'll have more as it comes.