Amazon is offering developers new tools that will allow them to make games for free. The Lumberyard engine is now available for download, and works on all currently supported version of Windows, including Windows 10, along with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles.
Lumberyard has been designed to work with Amazon Web Services, the company's popular cloud-based computing service. Amazon says:
"A blend of new and proven technologies from CryEngine, Double Helix, and AWS, Lumberyard simplifies and streamlines game development. As a game engine, it supports development of cloud-connected and standalone 3D games, with support for asset management, character creation, AI, physics, audio, and more. On the development side, the Lumberyard IDE allows you to design indoor and outdoor environments, starting from a blank canvas."
Lumberyard can be used to create standalone games for free, but the developer does have to pay for any AWS-based charges. The company is also launching Amazon GameLift, which works with Lumberyard to provide game developers with scalable multiplayer servers. Amazon says:
"You simply upload your game server image to AWS and deploy the image into a fleet of EC2 instances that scales up as players connect and play. You don't need to invest in building, scaling, running, or monitoring your own fleet of servers. Instead, you pay a small fee per daily active user (DAU) and the usual EC2 On-Demand rates for the compute capacity, EBS storage, and bandwidth that your users consume."
Finally, all games made with Lumberyard will be able to use two features from the Twitch game streaming service:
"Twitch ChatPlay allows you to build games that respond to keywords in a Twitch chat stream. For example, the audience can vote to have the player take the most desired course of action. Twitch JoinIn allows a broadcaster to invite a member of the audience into to the game from within the chat channel."
Source: Amazon
