Amazon Lumberyard

[InventiveMeasures]

We except your AAA game to be done by supper.

On topic: Cool, big win for gamers to have another big game engine on the block. It forces the other engines' developers to innovate that much more too. (As an example just look at Unreal Engine, it's how many years old? and it's still pulls some tricks out of it's sleeves).

Uhh...my computer exploded soooo lol jp Yea, I'm also interested in seeing what else Unreal and Unity has planned.

It doesn't appear to have any advantages over Unreal (also, Unreal stomps Unity right now) - Unreal has all the above mentioned things, already implemented, and more - plus it has a marketplace full of existing and ever-growing resources and code.

What they have announced, is that they want to create the Unreal Engine circa 2 years ago, and they are at least a year or two behind that point of development: so really it's Unreal but 4+ years late.

Edit: With that said, Amazon is a big and successful tech company - and they don't fuck about - so I suspect the business case in their position is stronger than they are letting on at this point - or they just plan to throw so much money at it that they can catch and surpass the market leader through sheer force of capital.

Agreed, I'm not sure yet what other things they offer that other engines don't have. Having global illumination and physically based shaders in an engine seem standard now. Though, one thing it does have over Unreal is there's no royalties nor need to pay for a full version after reaching a certain profit amount like Unity.

[Yvaelle]

Uhh...my computer exploded soooo lol jp Yea, I'm also interested in seeing what else Unreal and Unity has planned.



Agreed, I'm not sure yet what other things they offer that other engines don't have. Having global illumination and physically based shaders in an engine seem standard now. Though, one thing it does have over Unreal is there's no royalties nor need to pay for a full version after reaching a certain profit amount like Unity.

Unreal is completely free. If you make a game, and your game succeeds, and you make more than $12,000 per year using the Unreal engine, then they want 5%. That means that for most people it's completely free: freer than Amazon's AWS fees. If your game succeeds and starts making you money, only then does Unreal make money - they make money when their users make money: not otherwise.

Amazon's plan is to charge for AWS, which will no doubt be part of their compiling process - and if you factor in thousands of compiles for even a mobile game before it's ready for launch - even a small AWS charge will stack up in hidden ways. That's what Amazon does - they make money - they see an opportunity and they are taking it.

By contrast, Epic's founder Tim Sweeney is just a gamer who wants what's best for the industry and always has - when they realized they could fund Epic solely off royalties from their marketplace sales (which I guarentee you Amazon will do as well) - they dropped all fees and subscriptions and cloud computing costs off the new Unreal Engine: because they didn't need the money. Their plan was to drop it once they'd paid off the new engine development anyways - it just happened in months rather than years.

I've been an Epic fan since Jill of the Jungle though - so I'm undoubtedly biased - but I trust them to want gaming to be the best it can be. Whereas I like Jeff Bezos and Amazon for what it creates - but I have no illusion that they want anything side from absolute power / infinite money. Both are entirely capable of making great products - but I trust Epic to do it for gaming, whereas I trust Amazon to do it for money: I'm highly skeptical of any 'free' claim by Amazon, they'll find a way to make it profitable - they wouldn't be leaping into game engine design otherwise.

[InventiveMeasures]

Unreal is completely free. If you make a game, and your game succeeds, and you make more than $12,000 per year using the Unreal engine, then they want 5%. That means that for most people it's completely free: freer than Amazon's AWS fees. If your game succeeds and starts making you money, only then does Unreal make money - they make money when their users make money: not otherwise.

Amazon's plan is to charge for AWS, which will no doubt be part of their compiling process - and if you factor in thousands of compiles for even a mobile game before it's ready for launch - even a small AWS charge will stack up in hidden ways. That's what Amazon does - they make money - they see an opportunity and they are taking it.

By contrast, Epic's founder Tim Sweeney is just a gamer who wants what's best for the industry and always has - when they realized they could fund Epic solely off royalties from their marketplace sales (which I guarentee you Amazon will do as well) - they dropped all fees and subscriptions and cloud computing costs off the new Unreal Engine: because they didn't need the money. Their plan was to drop it once they'd paid off the new engine development anyways - it just happened in months rather than years.

I've been an Epic fan since Jill of the Jungle though - so I'm undoubtedly biased - but I trust them to want gaming to be the best it can be. Whereas I like Jeff Bezos and Amazon for what it creates - but I have no illusion that they want anything side from absolute power / infinite money. Both are entirely capable of making great products - but I trust Epic to do it for gaming, whereas I trust Amazon to do it for money: I'm highly skeptical of any 'free' claim by Amazon, they'll find a way to make it profitable - they wouldn't be leaping into game engine design otherwise.

Sorry, would have responded sooner but dinner was calling my name, haha. I don't know, I wouldn't say Unreal did it because they don't need the money. We really don't know anyone's motives for doing things, but it's not $12k anymore though, it's a 5% royalty after the $3k gross revenue. That's just the gross, not counting profit. You're also paying that quarterly not yearly, and for the lifetime of that game. After Apple or Android's cut along with any other fees/ expenses, as an indie developer you're not really walking away with much at all. I still like the engine though, Unreal is awesome and definitely one of the best out there.

[Kelathos]

AWS a... fee? If your using that your utilizing resources that you'd likely, otherwise, be paying a lot more to maintain in your own data center.

[Annoying]

https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/

57.10 Acceptable Use; Safety-Critical Systems. Your use of the Lumberyard Materials must comply with the AWS Acceptable Use Policy. The Lumberyard Materials are not intended for use with life-critical or safety-critical systems, such as use in operation of medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, aircraft or air traffic control, nuclear facilities, manned spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat. However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.

Nice.

[InventiveMeasures]

AWS a... fee? If your using that your utilizing resources that you'd likely, otherwise, be paying a lot more to maintain in your own data center.

Yea, that's right. Pretty good pricing considering the reliability of the service.

https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/

Nice.

Haha, I thought you were joking at first.

[Warpaladin]

I was totally thing of something else when i read the title lol

[InventiveMeasures]

I was totally thing of something else when i read the title lol

Lol, I won't ask then.

[Azgraal]

Looks nice. I'll be sure to try it by doing some tiny scale levels as soon as I have some free time to really test it out.

[Grapemask]

I took a quick glance at it and my initial impression is that it's not as intuitive as Unreal, although it clearly takes a lot of cues from Unreal, especially Flow vs. Blueprints. I think they're banking entirely on the licensing scheme to be competitive, as well as the emphasis on multiplayer support.

Other than that, though, this seems like a sort of unnecessary addition to the engine market. It'll probably still be fun to play with all the same.

[Dsonsion]

I too thought this had to do with more massive tree felling operations in the rainforests.

[Deleted]

Wake me up when someone makes an engine where everything can not only be destroyed, but materials can be handled realistically. So, for example, you can take a handful of sand from the ground and make a hole that size, or you can dig a huge hole.

Red Faction begun it a decade and a half ago, by having destroyable maps. Minecraft spawned a whole genre of games where stuff can be taken apart. 7 Days to Die is merging a "realistic world" with a Minecraft -style ability to destroy everything, as well as rebuild.

We need an engine where that is taken way beyond what is possible right now.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I'm just wondering where Game development is gonna go in the future. Feels very interesting. (Total nerd moment)