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[Richard Kain]

I haven't seen much buzz on these boards about it, but the Lumberyard game engine was announced and released by Amazon earlier in the year.

And I can understand why there might not be that much buzz. Lumberyard is a licensed fork of the CryEngine. In its initial state it was essentially little more than a CryEngine clone. Anyone not already on board for developing with CryEngine wouldn't be interested in Lumberyard.

With its first upgrade, Amazon is showing that they are listening to the community. Lumberyard now supports iOS. It has also gotten a proper FBX importer, allowing for a much broader spectrum of 3D tools. These are small steps, but they are steps in the right direction. I will continue to watch how Amazon handles its "new" game engine.

[Richard Kain]

Not really much in the way of responses to this thread. But that makes sense. At the moment, there really isn't much to talk about or discuss where Lumberyard is concerned. And I certainly wouldn't expect any current indie developers to jump off of the technology stacks they're currently working with and shift over to Lumberyard. I'm still working in Unity, and fully intend to continue with that engine.

Lumberyard is mainly interesting for how it started out, and who's behind it. I'll continue watching it with interest, but I don't expect to be dappling in it any time soon. In the current highly competitive middleware market, Lumberyard has an uphill climb in front of it.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

yeah that's pretty much it. I wasn't too impressed with crytek the few times I've used it. They have some cool stuff but nothing that would entice me to move away from what I currently use.

An engine with that level of learning curve would really have to solve some unique problems to justify the 200+ hours I would need to work with it to get proficient.

[Richard Kain]

An engine with that level of learning curve would really have to solve some unique problems to justify the 200+ hours I would need to work with it to get proficient.

Well, that's why I made this post. Lumberyard had its first update, and it addressed several of the initial issues that a lot of users have with the original Cryengine. So Amazon's gaming division is actually listening to users and addressing some of their concerns with Lumberyard to make it more its own thing. This is a good step in the right direction. It just isn't enough of a step in the right direction to persuade me to leave the technology I'm presently using. (and am comfortable with)

In time, Lumberyard might become considerably easier to use than Cryengine was. For now I still maintain a wait-and-see.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

I hear ya. Good to know they are listening. That said this theoretical unique problem I mentioned earlier. I don't even have an idea of what it is.

I wonder how Amazon feels about crytek changing their license structure in the last week.

[Richard Kain]

Another beta update for Lumberyard. And again we're seeing significant and desirable updates that improve the engine's usability. Improved options for the FBX importer they integrated in the last update. New networking tools that allow for network functionality without coding. GPU-supported particle rendering. Good stuff.

It's encouraging to see them continuing to support their engine on a regular basis, and I'm still liking the focus of the improvements they're making. A visual flow editor for networking support will make it easier for people to start supporting multiplayer features on their games. (an obvious draw for Amazon, but improving the usability and reducing the learning curve are still benefits for the end-user)

I would like to see someone create a more modestly-scaled title with this engine, and provide a post-mortem. Unity is still the prototyping king.

[cynicalsandel]

Sorry for the bump, just wondering if nearly a year later anyone has any further experience with/opinion on Lumberyard.

UE4 and Unity have a pretty large stranglehold on the 3d engine market (at least for indies). I'm not personally capable of using Lumberyard, but as you accrue no fees if you make a singleplayer game, I wonder about its viability compared to the other two.

[Richard Kain]

I wonder about its viability compared to the other two.

Well, I've heard several stories recently about fairly major studios switching over to Lumberyard. I would agree that Unity and Unreal Engine 4 have a pretty firm grip on the indie scene. I haven't heard much about indies switching to Lumberyard. It is based off of CryEngine, which is feature rich but perhaps not nearly as user-friendly.

I would say that Lumberyard seems to be gaining traction with mid-tier developers. And Amazon themselves are clearly not intending to bail on their new game initiative. They just announced the formation of a new Amazon game studio in the San Diego area that will be using Lumberyard for their projects.

As to the specifics of Lumberyard, I can't really say. I'm still using Unity.