Amazon releases new free game engine Lumberyard (based on CryEngine)

[Legend]

Amazon releases new free game engine Lumberyard (based on CryEngine) - NeoGAF

It seems that speculation in the previous thread about the $50-$75 million CryEngine license by Amazon was correct.  They wanted to distribute the engine for free (albeit their own modified version), and thus needed an infinite license. Lumberyard: http://aws.amazon.com/lumberyard/ Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdU1...ature=youtu.be Gamasutra Article: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2...Lumberyard.php

Today Amazon has both announced and released a new, free game engine, Lumberyard, which offers deep integration with its Amazon Web Services server infrastructure to empower online play, and also with Twitch, its video game-focused streaming service.That's right -- the engine, including its full source code, is completely free to download and use to make PC and console games. Amazon will not charge any kind of royalty or subscription fee. Lumberyard is powerful and full-featured enough to develop triple-A, current-gen console games (and the company has signed official tools deals with Microsoft and Sony, so you can immediately build games for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 with it.) Mobile support is coming down the road.

 

Lumberyard's core engine technology is based on Crytek's CryEngine. Amazon licensed the German studio's engine and got "full, unencumbered access to the technology" to build upon, says Mike Frazzini, vice president of Amazon Games. However, Lumberyard represents a branch of that tech, and the company is replacing or upgrading many of CryEngine's systems. Future versions of CryEngine and Lumberyard will continue to diverge. Developers at Amazon's Seattle and Irvine, California game studios are making improvements directly to the engine, and a central Amazon tech team that has drawn staff with backgrounds in both AWS and game engine development oversees the engine's progress. At public beta launch, Lumberyard already has components that are not based on CryEngine. Aside from adding the AWS SDK to the engine -- allowing for native C++ access to its services -- Amazon has also brought in new low-latency networking code based on what Double Helix, the Southern California studio it acquired in 2014, developed for Xbox One fighting game Killer Instinct.

 

 

[kitler53]

that's cool i guess.  so they are expecting to make their investment back by selling cloud services to compete with azure?

maybe i should try building a game.  if i got started this summer i could probably beat vizioneck to market!!

[Aura7541]

I remember that Corrine Yu left Naughty Dog and joined Amazon some time ago. I wonder if that was what she has been working on.

[kitler53]

I remember that Corrine Yu left Naughty Dog and joined Amazon some time ago. I wonder if that was what she has been working on.

probably.  isn't engine work what she specializes in?

[the-pi-guy]

I remember that Corrine Yu left Naughty Dog and joined Amazon some time ago. I wonder if that was what she has been working on.

She's a Principal Development Manager at Amazon Prime Air, her linkedin says "Aviation & Aerospace", so I think she's probably working on drones.  

Amazon releases new free game engine Lumberyard (based on CryEngine) - NeoGAF
 

Really cool stuff, they basically giving free reign with the engine.  -Source code, modifiable, no license fees, etc.  All they ask is if you use a  service, that you use theirs and not to compete with them.  

[the-pi-guy]

10.5 GB download.
38.5 GB extracted.

[the-pi-guy]

Has anyone else downloaded it?  

[Mmm_fish_tacos]

Has anyone else downloaded it?  

No but I want to. Just don't have the time to mess with it right now.

[Legend]

Has anyone else downloaded it?  

No. How do you like it?

[the-pi-guy]

No. How do you like it?

I haven't really dug into yet, been too busy.  I really like the looks of it though.  

[darkknightkryta]

As my TA in University said, "Write your own engine".

[the-pi-guy]

As my TA in University said, "Write your own engine".

Writing your own engine is good for some things, but awful for others.  

These engines usually have millions upon millions of lines of code.  Even if I don't end up using most of the features, they usually have a far greater feature set than one person can put together in a reasonable amount of time.  

[Legend]

As my TA in University said, "Write your own engine".

When was that?

Nowadays all advice is making an engine is a waste of time.

[darkknightkryta]

When was that?

Nowadays all advice is making an engine is a waste of time.

It was back in 2004, but it was more a thing of pride.  I was just teasing.

[Legend]

It was back in 2004, but it was more a thing of pride.  I was just teasing.

Yeah I assumed, but Unity didn't even exist back then!